Ezekiel - Lesson 41

Lesson 41, Yahweh's guarantee of Israel's future, a satire on Gog of Magog and his allies, part one of 38 to 39. We obviously cannot do justice to the Gog of Magog oracle in one session. My task first in this session and the next will be to make sense of chapters 38 to 39, that is, try to make sense of chapters 38 to 39 by walking with you through this text. We will return to this passage in the next session as well and reflect on its theological and practical significance. But let's talk first about the nature and design of the Gog oracle. What are we hearing when we hear this text or reading when we read it? The word event formula in 38.1 serves as a general heading for chapters 38 and 39. The following message of Yahweh came to me, human, set your face toward Gog of the land of Magog, the prince, chief of Meshech and Tubal, prophesy against him and say, and then the oracle follows. The signatory formula in 39.29 signals the end, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh. An abbreviated version of the preamble in 39.1 divides this oracle into two panels. As for you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say. The close correspondence between the introduction of the two parts, 38.1 to 4a and 39.1 to 2a and their parity in length. Panel A, 38.2 to 23, consists of 365 words. Panel B, 39.1 to 29, 357 words. This highlights the symmetry of these panels. For its sheer vividness, imagery, hyperbole, this oracle has few, if any, equals. These features alone caution against over-literalism in interpretation. We appreciate the intention of this text best if we approach it as a satirical literary cartoon strip consisting of eight frames. As the unit progresses, the images become increasingly caricatured, climaxing in a bizarre picture of predatory birds and wild animals seated around a table, gorging themselves on human flesh. This can't be literal. This is 39.17 to 20. We may outline the sequence of events reflected in these frames like this. Panel A, chapter 38.2 to 23, frame 1, the conscription of Gog, 38.2 to 9. Frame 2, the motives of Gog, 38.10 to 13. Frame 3, the advance of God, 38.14 to 16. And frame 4, the judgment of Gog, 38.17 to 22. And then there's an interpretive conclusion, verse 23. In panel B, we have the disposal of God, 39.1 to 29. Frame 5, the slaughter of Gog, verses 1 to 8. Frame 6, the spoiling of Gog, verses 9 to 10. Frame 7, the burial of Gog, 39.11 to 15. Frame 8, the devouring of Gog, 39.17 to 20. And then you have a longer interpretive conclusion to bring them to almost equal size, 39.21 to 29. Some frames subdivide further on stylistic and substantive grounds into separate subsections. While each subunit has an identity and character of its own, they are thoroughly integrated to create a sequence of event whose total impact is much greater than the sum of its parts. Given our limits of time and space, a detailed frame-by-frame exposition of the oracle is not possible in this presentation. Therefore, a summary interpretation of the key elements of each frame will have to suffice. I begin each frame with a translation of the text and follow this up with a summary interpretation of what is happening. So, let's begin. Frame 1, the conscription of Gog, 38.2 to 19. Thus has the Lord Yahweh declared, Look, I am against you, O Gog, prince, chief of Meshech and Tubal. I will turn you around and put hooks in your jaws. I will take you out with all your army, horsemen and charioteers, all magnificently dressed, a vast assembly armed with body shields and hand shields, all of them brandishing swords. Paras and Kursh and Put accompany them, all armed with shields and helmets. Gomer and all his hordes, Beth Togarmah from the remotest parts of the north and all its hordes, vast armies accompany you. Be prepared, get ready, you and your entire assembly that have been mobilized about you, you will serve as their guard. After a long time, you will be summoned. In the distant future, you will march against a land that has been reclaimed from the sword and whose population has been regathered from many peoples living on the mountains of Israel, which had lain desolate for such a long time. Now they, that is, its inhabitants, have been liberated from the peoples. They are living securely, all of them. You will advance like a thunderstorm. You will come like a storm cloud covering the land, you and all your allies and many peoples with you. This is the first frame. It introduces the primary antagonist, Gog, Gog actually, prince, chief of Meshech and Tubal. There’s no consensus on the interpretation of the name Gog. The most likely explanation derives Gog from Gyges, the name of the king of Lydia, mentioned in six inscriptions of Ashurbanipal 668-631 BC and known elsewhere for his invention of coinage, Herodotus, Histories 1, 8-13. Yahweh identified Gog's homeland simply as the land of Magog. Although both names may turn out to be artificial creations, it seems best to interpret Magog as a contraction of an original Mat-Gugi, mat meaning land in Akkadian, Babylonian language, Mat-Gugi, the land of Gog, that is, the territory of Lydia in western Anatolia. The first frame has Gog at the head of a powerful international alliance that includes four northern kingdoms, Meshech and Tubal. These are Muski and Tabal in Akkadian sources, Assyrian sources. Verses two to three, Gomer, which is Cimmeria or the Cimmerians, and Bethtogarma, Tilgarimu in the Akkadian sources, verse six. And three southern accomplices, Paras, usually interpreted as Persia, but this makes no sense alongside Kush, that's Ethiopia, and Put, that is Libya. This suggests that this was, as in the case of Ezekiel 27.10, these three names apparently represent traditional allies of Egypt. Paras must be somewhere near Libya and Ethiopia. But what is the significance of this alliance? Any answer to the question must keep in mind three significant observations. First, in contrast to the addressees in Ezekiel's oracles against the foreign nations, the names listed all represent distant peoples from the fringes of Israelite geographic and historical awareness. They were not close, near neighbors. Second, the number of allies totals seven, a prominent number in the Gog oracle as a whole. The number symbolizes totality, completeness, raising the conspiracy against Israel from a minor opportunistic incursion by one character, Gog, to a universal conspiracy. Third, the names in Ezekiel's list form a merismic pattern. Meshach, Tubal, Gomer, and Beth Togarmah represent the northern extreme of the world known to Israel. Paras, Kush, and Put represent the southern extreme, so north, that's like from Dan to Beersheba in the Israelite map. It reinforces the impression that the entire world is ganging up on Israel. At the head of this alliance, Gog represents a formidable foe, able to attack whenever and wherever he pleases. But how different was the appearance from the reality? Verses 4 to 6 emphatically affirm Yahweh's total control over the movements of Gog. Yahweh announced this truth in three short declarations. He will turn Gog around, he will put hooks in his jaws, and he will lead him out. Here the prophet portrays the mysterious region beyond the Taurus mountains in Asia Minor as the lair, the home, from which Yahweh will lead Gog out like an animal on a leash. Yahweh casts verse 7 as his formal summons to Gog and the forces assembled to him, with Gog clearly in charge. But Ezekiel's audience should have taken comfort in verse 8, which explains that the mobilization of Gog and his forces was not to be expected in the near future, but after many days, in latter years. The Septuagint renders this expression with eschatos, but it is not clear that the end of time is in mind. The reference may be simply to a later time when the historical phase of the exile is over and a new period of settlement in the land has arrived, in the distant future. The rest of verse 8 clarifies the timing of the summons of Gog. It will happen when the land itself will have recovered from the destruction and slaughter of an invading army and the population will have been regathered from many peoples of the diaspora and resettled securely on the mountains of Israel. Since verse 8 functions as a shorthand version of Ezekiel's salvation oracles in chapters 34 to 37, Gog's invasion presupposes the fulfillment of all of those oracles. Verse 9 spells out Yahweh's marching orders to Gog, instructing him to take all his assembled forces and attack the peaceful mountains of Israel like a furious storm cloud. This opening frame portrays Yahweh as a general mobilizing the forces of Gog and his allies for his own military agenda. Gog’s invasion of the land represents a part of Yahweh's calculated plan for his people. But this raises several questions. How can Gog, portrayed in verses 3 to 6 as the enemy of Yahweh, simultaneously play the role of Yahweh's agent? How can Yahweh employ foreign nations against his own people, especially after he has re-established the eternal covenant relationship and restored the people to the land? In raising these questions, this first frame sets the rhetorical agenda for the following frames of the prophecy against Gog. Frame 2, the motives of Gog, 38, 10 to 13. Thus has the Lord Yahweh declared, on that day ideas will rise in your mind and you will conceive a wicked scheme. You will think, I will invade an undefended country. I will attack the tranquil people that live securely, all of them living in unwalled towns without bars or gates, to seize spoil and to carry off booty, to turn your hand against the repopulated ruins and against the people regathered from the nations who have acquired livestock and possessions and are living on top of the world. Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its magnets will ask you, is it to seize spoil that you have come? Is it to carry off booty that you have assembled your allies, to make off with silver and gold, to take away livestock and property, to seize vast amounts of booty? Well, in this second frame, the focus shifts from Yahweh's initiative to the private motivations of Gog. Ideas rise in your mind, lave, heart, and he devises evil schemes to bring calamity upon the unsuspecting land. Verse 11 emphasizes that the land is undefended and its population undisturbed and secure. The text does not explain why the inhabitants of the mountains of Israel have taken no defensive precautions, but we may assume that they have finally put their confidence in Yahweh's promises of eternal peace and prosperity as spelled out in the previous restoration oracles. Verse 12 offers additional information on the state of the nation. Its ruins have been repopulated in fulfillment of 3610 and 33. The people are regathered from their dispersion among the nations. The population is prospering with abundant livestock and other movable goods in fulfillment of 3426 to 27. And her people live on top of the world, al tabur ha'aretz, apparently oblivious to the involvement of Yahweh's hand. By his own confession, Gog is motivated by a single passion, greed, the lust for loot and booty. But he is not alone. According to this verse, according to verse 13, Sheba and Edan and the merchants of Tarshish have been watching Gog's activity with great interest. The reason for their interest may be guessed from their names. Sheba and Edan represent merchant peoples who conduct their trade via the overland routes across the Arabian Desert to the east of Israel. And Tarshish, a location in the distant Iberian Peninsula, Spain, represents the maritime traders who control the Mediterranean route to the west. These traders' reaction to Gog's design is expressed in the form of a series of rhetorical questions. But their motive is not entirely clear. Are they decent nations challenging Gog's greed? Or are they wishing to capitalize on the opportunity and self-interest? Since their questions echo many of the expressions found in the previous verse, their own covetousness suggests they have been infected with a germ of Gog's greed. They too have eyes on spoiled booty, silver, gold, livestock, and other movable property. These merchants are vultures hoping to take advantage of the spoils of this war. Like the list of Gog's allies who come from the northern and southern extremes that we saw in verses 3 to 6, the north up there and south in Africa, the names in verse 13 constitute another merismus representing the nations who control the trading lanes of the world from the far east, Dedan and Sheba, to the far west, Tarshish. Taken together, these two groups represent all four points of the compass, north, south, east, west. The entire world conspires against the unsuspecting and tranquil nation of Israel. That’s frame 2. Frame 3, the advance of Gog, 14 to 15. Therefore prophesy, human, and declare to Gog, thus has the Lord Yahweh declared, surely on that day when my people Israel, I love that expression here, my people, when my people Israel are dwelling securely, you will take note. You will come from your homeland in the remotest parts of the north and you and many peoples with you, all of them are mounted on horses, a vast horde, a mighty army. You will advance upon my people Israel like a storm cloud covering the land. In the distant future, when it happens, I will bring you against my land in order that the nations may know me when I display my holiness among you before their eyes. Oh, Gog. While the formulaic opening in verse 14 signals the commencement of the third frame, the introductory particle, therefore, intentionally draws a logical connection between this frame and the preceding. Yahweh links the arrogant advance of Gog to his own intentions. The most striking feature of this brief scene is the way Ezekiel identifies Gog's target. Twice, Yahweh refers to the people living securely as my people Israel, ami Yisrael, verse 14 and 16, and once to the land as my land, Eretzi. Since the scenes are cast in the distant future when normal deity-nation land relationships are now operative, for Gog to attack this people and invade this land is to challenge their, or shall we say, it, the land's divine patron. Verses 14b to 16a highlight the opportunism of the invader. Perhaps when Yahweh's people are enjoying their security in this land, Gog will emerge from his homeland in the far reaches of the north country, Asia Minor. He and his vast host will sweep down on Yahweh's people with their horses and cover the land like a cloud. Employing an expanded version of the recognition formula, the prophet highlights his control over these events. First, Gog's invasion is planned according to Yahweh's timetable at the end of the years. Second, Gog's invasion occurs at the overt instigation of Yahweh. He comes not merely with Yahweh's permissive will, but as his commissioned agent. Third, Yahweh's purpose in bringing in the hordes of Gog is to convince the nations of his presence and his person. In an ironical twist, he seizes Gog's opportunism vis-à-vis Israel as an occasion to achieve his own divine goals. Meanwhile, this frame has also provided the answer to the first question raised by the first frame, verses 3 to 9. Why would Yahweh bring Gog against his own people after the covenant relationships have been fully restored? Now we know. Because an element in the divine agenda, the universal recognition of his person remains unfulfilled. The Israelites may have grasped it, that he is Yahweh, but not the nations. Frame 4, the judgment of Gog, verses 17 to 22. Thus says the Lord Yahweh declared, Are you the one of whom I spoke in the past through my servants, the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days that after many years I would bring you against them? Now on that day, the day Gog invades the land of Israel, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh, my fury will be aroused. In my anger and in my passion, in my blazing wrath I have spoken. Assuredly on that day a great earthquake will occur on the land of Israel, the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the animals of the field, every creature that crawls along the ground, and the entire human race on the face of the earth will quake before me. The mountains will be hurled down, the cliffs will collapse, and every wall will crumble to the ground. Then I will summon the sword against him throughout all my mountains, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh. Every man's sword will be turned against his brother, and I will punish him with pestilence and bloodshed, and I will pour out torrential rain, hailstones, fire, and burning sulfur on him and his hordes and the many peoples accompanying him.4. This fourth literary frame consists of two unequal parts, clearly distinguished in style and purpose. Verse 17 on the one hand, and 18-22 on the other. Reminiscent to the reader of John the Baptist's query of Jesus, are you the coming one, or are we to wait for someone else? Matthew 11.3, Luke 7.19 and 20. Yahweh opens by asking Gog whether he considers himself the fulfillment of earlier prophecies. Assuming this rhetorical question demanded a positive answer, in the past scholars have devoted enormous energies to identifying the prophecies, the question had in mind. But in this regard, in my mind, they have been as misguided as Gog himself. There can be little doubt that Ezekiel's contemporaries would have identified Jeremiah's foe from the north as Babylon under Nebuchadnezzar, especially since Jeremiah had explicitly made this identification himself. Nebuchadnezzar is the foe from the north, Jeremiah 25.9. If Yahweh had directed this question to Gog himself, and if Gog had been aware of the earlier pronouncements about the foe from the north by Israelite prophets, he would probably have answered in the affirmative, yes, I certainly am, I am that person. It would certainly have bolstered his ego if, apart from his personal greed, he could have claimed the role of Yahweh's agent sent in to punish the Israelites, like Nebuchadnezzar had before him. The question then feeds right into Gog's egomaniacal ambitions. However, as the earlier frames have already demonstrated, Gog's self-understanding and Yahweh's perception of him are quite different. According to the first frame, verses 2 to 9, Yahweh alone brings Gog and his hordes on. Like a conqueror himself, Yahweh will lead Gog on, dragging in his captives with hooks in their jaws. The people who want to conquer, they are the ones with hooks in their jaws, God's captives. But according to the second frame, 10 to 13, Gog is totally oblivious to the fact that he is but a puppet on Yahweh's strings. He thinks he is campaigning against Israel of his own free will and with his own goals. So even Gog, if Gog would have answered this question positively, the correct answer is actually negative. Gog is, in fact, not the north of whom Jeremiah had spoken. His role is entirely different. He is not commissioned by Yahweh to serve as his agent of judgment of Israel. He and his troops are brought down from the mountains for a single purpose, that the holiness of Yahweh might be displayed in the sight of the nations. Verses 16, 23, 39, 6 to 7. Also, verses 22 and 28 in chapter 39. Whatever havoc they hope to wreak on Yahweh's people, they do on their own and not at the prophecy. That is, the foe from the north is coming and that's got to be fulfilled. No, it's about earlier prophecies illegitimately appropriated. Nebuchadnezzar has come and gone. It's been fulfilled. Otherwise, verses 18 to 23 become nonsensical. How could Yahweh announce in one breath that Gog is his agent and the next vent his wrath upon him with such fury? In verses 18 to 23, the literary style and tone change dramatically. This is verse 18.And the second person of direct address used throughout the preceding frames gives way to the third person. For the first time, the intensity of the opposition between Yahweh and Gog, the protagonist and antagonist, which was announced in the opening challenge formula, I am against you, becomes apparent as, without restraint, Yahweh vents his fury toward Gog. He declares the cause of the provocation to be Gog's invasion of the land of Israel, an action now portrayed as his very own. But with the covenant relationship between Yahweh and his people fully restored, Yahweh cannot stand idly by. The divine patron must act. Yahweh's emotional reaction to Gog's invasion is obvious as he explodes, heaping up expressions for anger unparalleled in the book, if not the entire first testament. Fortunately for Israel, the wrath previously poured out on them will now fall on their enemy. The firmness of Yahweh's resolve is reflected not only in the signatory formula, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh, which interrupts the outburst, but the expressed motive for his utterance, I have spoken in my passion, in verse 19a. This leaves no doubt that the following threats arise from the fire of his anger. Verses 19b to 20 describe the effects of Yahweh's fury. A massive earthquake will rock the land on which Gog has set his sights and reverberate throughout the earth, causing all living things to quake and leveling the landscape. With its epicenter in the land of Israel, the quake will bring down mountains and cliffs, symbols of divinely grounded stability, and crumble walls, symbols of strength fabricated by human hands. The force behind this cosmic upheaval is obliquely hinted at in the divine passive, and they will be hurled down. By whom? And the addition of before me at the beginning of the verse. The latter enhances the theophanic flavor of this frame, reminiscent of the quaking of the earth beneath the feet of the Israelites when Yahweh stepped down on Mount Sinai. Many associate Ezekiel's imagery in verses 19 to 20 with later Hebrew apocalyptic, and treat this as a sign of the relative lateness of this composition. But the correlation between the divine anger and cosmic collapse was widely recognized in Mesopotamia long before the exile of Judah. After listing a series of evils committed by the Babylonians, the annals of Esarhaddon describe the result. The god Enlil saw, and his heart became angry, and his mood became furious. The Enlil of the gods, the lord of the lands, plotted evilly to scatter the land and the people, to level the land and to destroy its people. His heart was angry. A bitter curse was placed in his mouth. Many bad omens concerning the destruction of mankind occurred in heaven and on earth. The path of the Enlil stars, the path of the Anu stars, and the path of Ea stars changed their position for the worse, and they constantly revealed signs portending destruction. In the same way, its signs became increasingly bad. The river Arachtu, normally a river of abundance, turned into an angry wave, a raging tide, a huge flood like the deluge. It swept its waters destructively across the city. Its dwellings and its shrines, and turned them into a swamp. The gods and goddesses dwelling in it flew up to the heavens like birds. The Sedus and the Lamassus were wandering around outside. These are spirit representations. The people living in it were hidden in another place and took refuge in an unknown land. Whereas Ezekiel 38, 19 to 20 allude to Yahweh's involvement in the earthquake only obliquely, and the effects of his fury appear to fall indiscriminately on all inhabitants of the globe, the impression changes in verse 21, as Yahweh announced specifically the summoning of the sword against Gog. In sharp contrast to the pre-586 B.C. situation, in the future, when Israel, Yahweh's people, is established in his land, alien invasion will excite Yahweh's passions and move him to act in defense of both the land of Israel and its people. Reminiscent of Gideon's war against the Midianites, Judges 7, 22, when Yahweh calls for the sword, the troops and the armies of Gog and his allies will turn their weapons against each other. But the sword is not the only agent of death that Yahweh sends against Gog. Verse 22 catalogs three pairs of calamities, plague and bloodshed, torrents of rain and hailstones, fire and burning sulfur. According to verse 22, these calamities represent the execution of a divine sentence upon Gog and his hordes. However, verse 23, which represents an interpretive conclusion to the first panel, also announces a threefold revelatory purpose—to display Yahweh's greatness, his holiness, and his person in the sight of the many nations. While this declaration relates most directly to the fourth frame, it summarizes Yahweh's intentions for all the events of that day. Compare verse 18, beginning with Yahweh's conscription of Gog and ending with his annihilation. By rocking the earth and bringing down this far-flung military alliance in the full view of the nations, they will all acknowledge the truth that Israel had gained from her own judgment and subsequent restoration. Only Yahweh is God. So you have the conclusion, verse 23. So I will display my greatness and my holiness. I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am Yahweh. Here, Yahweh provides a clue to the significance of this Gog prophecy. We will return to this statement in the next presentation. In 39.1, we have the preamble to the second panel. As for you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, God is not finished with him yet. The introductory formulas in 39.1 echo 38.2 and signal the shift to the second panel of this complex oracle against Gog. Frame five, the slaughter of Gog, 39.1-8. Thus has the Lord Yahweh declared, look, I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. I will turn you around, drive you on, lead you up from the remotest parts of the north, bring you to the mountains of Israel, only to strike your bow from your left hand and knock your arrows out of your right hand. On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you and all your hordes and the peoples accompanying you, and I will hand you over as food to every kind of scavenging bird and wild animal. On the open field you will fall, for I have spoken the declaration of the Lord Yahweh, and I will send fire against Magog and on those who live securely on the coastal lands. Then they will know that I am Yahweh, and I will make my holy name known among my people Israel. Never again will I let my holy name be desecrated. Even the nations will know that I am Yahweh, the Holy One in Israel. Look, it is coming, it will happen, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh, that is, the day that I have decreed. The first frame of the second panel, the fifth overall, recapitulates some of the actions of 38, 19 to 23. However, the tone changes as the emphasis shifts from Yahweh's disposition to his actions against Gog, except for two references to Gog's forces, falling, verses 4 to 5, and two recognition formulae, verses 6 and 7. Yahweh is the subject of every verb in this frame. As in Ezekiel 38.2, the challenge formula in 39.1 draws the lines in the conflict. Yahweh has set himself in opposition to Gog. By a series of eight sharp, hard-hitting declarations, Yahweh outlines his strategy against the foe. He will turn Gog around, drive him on, lead him up from the remotest part of the north, bring him to the mountains of Israel, knock his bow out of his left hand, force him to drop his arrows from his right hand, deliver his corpse as food for all the beasts of the birds of prey, and torch the lands from which Gog and his allies have come. While Yahweh's actions effectively neutralize Gog's offensive power, God will perform the ultimate indignity on the corpses of Gog and his forces by leaving them on the mountains and in the open fields for scavenging birds and mammals to devour. Not satisfied with the destruction of the armies of Gog, Yahweh will send fire against the lands from which Gog and his allies have come. The description of the inhabitants as secure levetach highlights the irony of the situation. Those who sought to take advantage of Israel's innocent and unsuspecting state now find that the long arm of Yahweh extends far beyond the borders of his own land to the ends of the earth. The last line of verse 6 and verses 7 to 8 reiterate Yahweh's revelatory aims, the international recognition of his person and his character as the Holy One in Israel. The root, kadosh, kadash, occurs three times. This revelation was necessary because it was precisely in Israel that his reputation had been defiled, which led to the nation's exile and created misimpressions in the foreigners' minds concerning his character. Remember 36, 16 to 32. But those days are long past. The Gog debacle will demonstrate once and for all the holiness of Yahweh, not as a theological abstraction, but in action, as he stands to defend his people against the universal conspiracy of evil. The frame concludes with an emotional declaration of the inevitability of the coming event and the irrevocability of the divine determination decree. In frame 6, we have the spoiling of Gog, verses 9 to 10. The residents of Israel's cities will go out and burn up the weapons completely, hand shields and body shields, bows and arrows, clubs and spears. For seven years they will fuel their fires with them. They will have no need to carry wood in from the field nor cut down any tree in the forest, because they will use the weapons as fuel for their fires. They will seize the spoil of the weapons as fuel for their fires. They will seize the spoil of their weapons as fuel for their fires. They will seize the spoil of those who despoil them and plunder those who plundered them, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh. In verses 9 to 10, the attention shifts from Ezekiel's radically theocentric portrayal of Gog's demise to a graphic and earthy picture of human survivors mopping up after an enormous battle. Gog and God have had their day. For the first time, the Israelites enter the picture. This frame may be the shortest of the series of eight, but the imagery is vivid. The scene opens with the sight of the inhabitants of the cities of Israel, untouched by Gog's invading forces emerging from their homes to dispose of the weapons of the annihilated foe. Ezekiel highlights the magnitude and intensity of the mopping up operations with four special rhetorical elements. One, the hendiadys construction. They will burn and set on fire. Isn't that what set on fire means? Second, cataloging the kinds of weapons to be burned. Third, citing the practical benefit of the pile of weapons offered the Israelites. They provide firewood in a fuel-poor region. Fourth, recognizing the irony of the situation, the plunderers. Compare chapter 38, 12 to 13. The plunderers have become the plundered, and vice versa. Those who had not raised a finger in their own defense may now divide the booty that has been delivered to their doorstep. The combination of these four elements creates a picture of utter and total destruction of the enemy's military hardware. Never again would these foes from distant lands, distant regions of the earth, threaten God's people. Frame seven, the burial of Gog, 39, 11 to 16.On that day, I will assign a burial site for Gog right within Israel, the valley of those who have passed on east of the sea. It will block off those who pass by. There they shall bury Gog and all his hordes, and they shall name the place the Valley of Hamon-Gog. Then the house of Israel shall spend seven months burying them, so the land may be cleansed. All the people of the land shall join in burying them, and their fame will spread on the day that I display my glory, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh. And they shall set apart a standing commission of men who will pass through the land and bury any who have passed on, whose corpses remain on the surface of the ground. In order to cleanse it, they shall conduct their search for a period of seven complete months. As the commissioners tour the land, if anyone spots a human bone, he shall erect a marker beside it until those responsible for the burials have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-Gog. Hamonah is actually a city name. Thus they shall cleanse the land. Notice Ezekiel's parenthetical clarification of Hamon-Gog. It's actually a city name. The opening date notice marks the beginning of a new frame and reminds the people's audience of the chronological distance between the present and the events of the Gog oracle. Verses 11 to 13 focus on the activity of the Israelites who go out en masse to bury the remains of Gog's armies. The corpses of the enemies strewn about the mountains of Israel present the Israelites with a series of problems. First, since these are the bodies of Yahweh's enemies and the foes of his people, shall they be dignified with a proper burial or left out in the open, exposed to scavenging animals and the elements? Second, given the massive numbers of slain, which burial ground has room for all these bodies? Third, since the victims are all foreigners, shall they be buried within the land of Israel or deposited outside its borders to preserve the sanctity of the land? Verses 11 to 13 answer all these questions. Formerly, these verses resemble an edict issued by a superior to his servants containing precise instructions for carrying out a mission. Each verse deals with a different aspect of the enterprise. The answer to the first question is immediately obvious. Yes, the remains of Yahweh's enemies must be buried in a mass burial site appointed by Yahweh in Israel, east of the sea, presumably the Mediterranean Sea at that point. The place is specifically identified as Ge-Ha-Ov-Reem, which is best treated as the valley of those who have passed on, that is, deceased heroes, referred to elsewhere as Refaim, the shadowy figures in Sheol. When the corpses of Gog and his horde are gathered, the site will be renamed the Valley of Hamon-Gog, Ge-Hamon-Gog. The name appears to play on Ge-Hinnom, the Valley of Hinnom, where the bodies of animals and criminals used to be burned. From now on, this place will serve as a permanent memorial to the destruction of the enemies of Yahweh and Israel. Verses 12 to 13 describe the effects of the burial of Gog's enemies. First, the land will be cultically purified. The observation that the process will take a full week of months, rather than the week of days prescribed in Numbers 19, speaks not only of the magnitude of the task, but also of the concern to render the land absolutely holy. Second, the enthusiasm of the people for the task and the scrupulosity with which they bury the enemy will testify to their passion for the purity of the land and to their newfound security in Yahweh. Third, and most importantly, their actions will result in the public glorification of Yahweh. After all, the day of Gog is the day of Yahweh. It’s Yahweh's day. Verses 14 to 16 expand on the theme raised in verse 12, highlighting how Yahweh and his people achieve the absolute purification of the land. The population must appoint a standing commission to supervise the burial of Gog's and his allies' remain. These men shall go up and down the length of the land for seven months, inspecting every corner for remnants of the vanquished warriors. Whenever the inspectors discover so much as a bone of the enemy on the surface of the ground, they are to mark the spot with a signpost. And ultimately, sextons will follow the supervisors and transport the bones to the valley of Hamon-Gog to be buried. The reiteration of the name of the site as Hamonah in verse 16 constitutes the punchline of the frame. The parenthetically inserted clause, actually, Hamonah is a city name, it is emphatic. Whether the clause was added at an oral stage or at the time of transcription, the statement offers an additional clue to the riddle. Where are all these bones to be buried? The answer? In a city called Hamonah. Based on Ezekiel's use of Hamonah elsewhere, the valley of Hamon-Gog speaks of the tumultuous pomp of Gog and his hordes, and recalls the usage of the term in previous oracles against foreign nation, especially the oracles against Egypt, 3010 and 3015 and 3218. However, the association of the term with Jerusalem in three earlier judgment oracles is especially instructive. In 712-14, Hamonah had functioned as shorthand expression for Jerusalem's past riotous and rebellious behavior. According to 5-7, Jerusalem's Hamon was expressed in a refusal to follow the covenant demands and all kinds of abominations had exceeded the tumult of the surrounding nations. Some of these nations appear in 23, 40-42, bringing their own base and boisterous ways right into the city of Jerusalem at her invitation. Here too, Hamonah stands for Jerusalem. But as in 23, 4 and 48-35, Ezekiel uses a symbolic name, highlighting a particular characteristic of the place. In the present context, Hamonah's primary function is to memorialize the demise of Israel's last and greatest enemy. However, by association, it also memorializes the transformation of the city and with it the nation. The people who had once superseded the pagan nations with their tumultuous arrogance and rebellion now impress the world with their scrupulous adherence to the will of Yahweh. Once the city and the entire land will have been purged of every vestige of defilement, the stage is set for Yahweh to return, as we'll see in 43-7, and replace the respective, retrospective name for a new, forward-looking one. From that day on, Hamonah is gone. Yahweh is there. 48-35.The seventh frame concludes by reiterating that the primary concern in all this human activity is the cleansing of the land. Yahweh is not satisfied with having defeated Gog and his allies. So long as their corpses are visible, the land remains unclean. A totally restored covenant relationship demands a God with a holy name, a holy people, and a holy land. Frame 8. The Devouring of Gog. 39-17-20.As for you, human, thus has the Lord Yahweh declared. Notice how these frames are all signaled with new formulas. Proclaim to every kind of scavenging bird and to every wild animal, assemble and come, gather from all around to my sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a huge sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel. You may eat flesh and drink blood, the flesh of valiant men you may devour, and the blood of princes of the earth you may drink, rams, lambs, and male goats, bulls, and fatlings of Bashan, all of them. You may devour fat until you are satisfied, and drink blood until you are intoxicated at the sacrificial feast that I have prepared for you. You may gorge yourself at my table with horses and charioteers, valiant men, and all the men of war, the declaration of the Lord Yahweh. By placing the scene in the final frame of literary caricatures, after the burial of Gog, Ezekiel has created certain logical and logistical problems. However, the prophet reminded his hearers and us that this is a literary cartoon, and that he has sacrificed realism for rhetorical effect. Indeed, as the oracle has progressed, the scenes have become increasingly bizarre, climaxing here in a spectacle more fantastic than all. Like political caricatures, cartoons, we should not interpret this frame as prophetic literary photography, or as a historical documentary produced before the events happen, but as an impressionistic literary sketch. The entire frame is cast in the satirical form of an official invitation to special guests to attend a grand banquet hosted by Yahweh. The style may be formal, almost poetic, but the imagery is grotesque, as Yahweh invites all kinds of unclean and deviling carnivorous and scavenging creatures to an enormous banquet that he has prepared for them. His picture recalls other prophetic texts in which an overwhelming victory is followed by a zevach, sacrificial meal. Ezekiel's designation of this banquet as a zevach classifies it as a ritual event, but by altering all the roles, Yahweh has caricatured the normal image of a zevach. In place of a human worshiper, by slaughtering animals in the presence of Yahweh, Yahweh slaughters humans for the sake of the animals who gather from all the world for this gigantic celebration. It’s a zevach gadol, a big event on the mountains of Israel. The battlefield has been transformed into a huge sacrificial table. In place of the flesh of rams, male goats, bulls, and fatlings of barshan, the table is spread with the abundance of flesh, fat, and blood of heroic figures using words like rams, male goats, bulls, and fatlings as metaphors for these two-legged heroes, leaders, the princes of the earth. Verses 19 to 20 paint a picture of an unrestrained gluttony at Yahweh's table, concluding with a reminder of the true sacrificial victims, all the participants in the previous battle against Yahweh, including the horses. The literary image sketched here must have been shocking for a person as sensitive to cultic and purity matters as Ezekiel. But how the priestly prophet reacted to these horrifying images we can only imagine. And with this scene and the concluding signatory formula, the satirical cartoon ends, leaving us aghast and bewildered, wondered what in the world Yahweh and his prophet meant by this whole thing. But we leave the rest of the story for the next session.