Ezekiel 39:14

Eze 39:14 And they shall sever out men of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months shall they search.

Ver. 14. And they shall sever out men of continual employment.] Viros quotidianos; men that shall stick to it, making it their business: Pollinctores: vespillones. So do our public professors and others, to confute Popish tenets, and to decry their customs. In doing whereof, they are assidui et accubui. constant and near.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Partly that the holy land should not be polluted, and partly for the compassion that the children of God have, even on their enemies.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

with the passengers--The men employed continually in the burying were to be helped by those happening to pass by; all were to combine.

after the end of seven months shall they search--to see if the work was complete [MUNSTER].

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

(14) Men of continual employment.—The word for “continual” is the same as that translated always in Eze_38:8, where see Note. It implies that this occupation is to be one of long continuance, and the fact that they are to search the land through for the remains shows that the army of Gog is not conceived of as perishing when collected in one place, but when distributed all over the land. This search is only to begin after the close of the burying for seven months already described.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

14. When the remains that are visible shall all have been buried, men shall be appointed whose continual task it shall be to go through the land to search for any bones that may have been overlooked. When they find a bone they shall set up a sign beside it that the buriers may come and inter it (Eze_39:15).

of continual employment] lit. continual men (same phrase as “continual” burnt-offering),—men constantly occupied.

with the passengers] The words should probably be omitted with LXX. Read: to bury those that remain, &c. After seven months have been consumed in burying the masses of the dead everywhere visible, occasional bodies or bones may still be left, having escaped notice. These shall be diligently searched for by the “continual men.” Those who would retain the words “them that pass through” (passengers of A.V.) here read, to bury them that pass through (i.e. the invaders), even those that remain (cf. R.V.). The construction is unnatural, and any play of words between two classes of “passers through,” viz. invaders and searchers, has no probability. In Eze_39:15 “those that pass through,” i.e. the searchers, are distinguished from the buriers, and a reader finding “buriers” in the present verse assumed that they were different from the searchers, and added “with those that pass through” (the searchers) on the margin.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

And they shall sever out men of continual employment,.... That is, the principal of the house of Israel, their magistrates and governors, shall select certain persons, to be daily employed in the following work, till ended:

passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it; these men will be appointed to go through the land of Israel, to gather up such carcasses and bones of dead men as remain anywhere after the seven months' burial before observed; and all passengers or travellers shall be assisting to them in it, both in directing where any such carcasses and bones may lie, and in bringing them to the common place of burial; that so the land may he thoroughly cleansed from such disagreeable objects:

after the end of seven months shall they search or begin to search, as the Targum; when seven months are ended, in which the people in general will be employed in burying the dead; these men before mentioned will be sent out into each part of the land, to search in caves, and dens and ditches; among thickets, thorns, and briers, where the slain may fall; or where soldiers, being wounded, might betake themselves and die; or their carcasses or bones be dragged and left by beasts and fowls; to find them out, and bring them to the place of interment.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Men of continual employment - literally, as margin, i. e., men regularly appointed to this business. As the land of Israel represents figuratively the Church of Christ, the purification of that land is a proper part of the figure to indicate such a sanctification and cleansing of His Church, as Paul describes Eph 5:26-27.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

They, the rulers in Israel,

shall sever out, choose out men who shall make it their work.

Passing through; to go up and down over the whole land, for many of Gog’s wounded, flying soldiers died in thickets, and by corners into which they crept, when they could go no further.

With the passengers; whose assistance they would desire of courtesy, or command by order, and that with reason, all this care and labour for burying the dead tending to their good, that they might unoffended travel whither they were going.

That remain unburied by the public labour of the house of Israel during the seven months.

To cleanse it: a legal cleansing, if-referred to Antiochus Epiphanes’s times, but not so with those that refer it to a season not yet come, for all legal ceremonies are ended: when Gog’s army shall be destroyed and buried, the land shall be cleansed from the stench and noisomeness of these carcasses. These officers begin their work after the first seven months are expired, for during the seven months there would be work for all of them to bury the dead and slain of Gog’s army.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

When the work of burying Gog should have gone on for seven months, at the end of that time the Israelites should sever out (comp. Deu_10:8) men of continual employment; literally, men of contnuance; i.e. persons hired for a continuous work or devoted to a constant occupation, whose business it should be passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain or, as the Revised Version reads, to bury them that pass through, that remain upon the face of the land. Here, again, the old play upon the word "passengers" recurs, and with it two or three difficulties.

(1) It is not clear whether the commissioners consisted of two classes of officers, "passers through," or "searchers," who scoured the land in search of unburied skeletons or bones, which, however, they did not bury; and "buriers" proper, who, accompanying these searchers, conducted the interment of suck skeletons or bones as were found (Hengstenberg, Keil); or whether the commissioners were only one body, who both searched and buried (Ewald and Smend).

(2) It is doubtful whether the ta, in should be taken as the sign of the accusative, and the clause translated as in the Revised Version, in which case the "passengers" that should be buried could only be the "invaders" as above (see ver. 11); or as a preposition, in which case the rendering of the Authorized Version must stand, and the "passengers" be regarded as the "searchers.

(3) It is open to debate whether ver. 14 should not close with the initial words of ver. 15, as Ewald proposes, "And the passengers shall search and pass through in the land;" or at least whether the first clause in ver. 15 should not form an independent sentence, thus: "And they that pass through in the land shall pass through," as in the Revised Version, in which case the sighting of unburied bones (ver. 15) would not necessarily be the work of "searchers," but of any one, the verb harw being impersonal. It is impossible to decide dogmatically in a question of so much difficulty; but the Revised Version appears to present the most exact rendering of the Hebrew, and upon the whole the most intelligible account of what was intended to take place, viz. the appointment of a special body of commissioners, who should be designated both "passengers," in ironical allusion to Gog who had meant to pass through the land, and "buffers," from the nature of the task delegated to them, viz. the interment of the "passengers," i.e. the Gogites, and who should begin their work after the main body of the slain had been removed, i.e. at the end of the seven months of burying.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

They - The rulers of Israel. Sever - Chuse out men who shall make it their work. Passing - To go up and down over the whole land; for many of Gog's wounded, flying soldiers, died in thickets, and corners into which they crept. The passengers - Whose assistance they would desire of courtesy. Remain - Unburied by the public labour of the house of Israel during the seven months.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Connecting Statement:

Yahweh continues to tell Ezekiel what will happen to Gog.

through the land

"through the land of Israel"

those who were traveling through, but who died and their bodies remained on the surface of the land

This refers to the dead bodies of Gog's soldiers whom Yahweh killed as they entered the land.

so that they may bury them

"so that the designated men may bury the dead bodies"

to cleanse the land ... purify the land

In Jewish law, a dead body defiled anything it touched and made it "unclean." Burying these bodies is spoken of as cleansing or purifying the land. (See: Assumed Knowledge and Implicit Information and Metaphor)

seventh month

This "seventh" is the ordinal number for seven. (See: Ordinal Numbers)

any human bone

Bones would be all that remained of the corpses after a period of time.

they will put a marker by it, until gravediggers come and bury it

There are apparently two groups of men. The first will mark the location of corpses, and the second group will bury them.

Hamonah

This name means "Great Army." (See: How to Translate Names)

translationWords

bury

month

pure

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

Men of continuous employment Men designed to continuously devote themselves to this. Israel will separate out in order to [be able to] pass through the land and gather the scattered [corpses].

burying with those who pass through Burying with (Heb. אֶת) those who pass through; the corpses (אֶת הַנוֹתָרִים) that will block off and hinder the crossing. Those who crossed the ocean will bury them for their own benefit. with those who pass through Heb. אֶת הַעֹבְרִים, with those who pass through. So I heard, and so did Jonathan render.

those who are left on the surface of the land far from the crossing. Those who cross the sea will not occupy themselves with burying them. Those designated to devote themselves to this purpose will bury them.

at the end of seven months the majority of the corpses visible to the eye will have been buried; from then on they will probe through the land in the hidden places, in the briars and among the thorns, and bury whomever find.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.