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39 ‎[1] The prophet continues to describe the war of Gog: **You, Son of man, prophesy concerning Gog, and say: So said the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Gog the prince, head **of** **the kingdoms **of** **Meshekh and Tuval. **
‎[2] **I will lead you astray, **place you under the control of your evil inclination,** and I will bewilder you [*****veshishetikha*****]. **This is the only instance of this term in the Bible and probably indicates confusion, tumult, or temptation, as in I will divert you. **And I** **will take you up **at the head of a large group of nations** from the ends of the North **for widespread conquests,** and **eventually **I will bring you to the mountains of Israel, **which you will intend to capture as well.
‎[3] There **I will strike your bow, **which will fall** from your left hand, and I will cause your arrows to fall from your **stronger, more skilled** right hand, **which powerfully pulls the bowstring and aims the arrows.
‎[4] More concretely: **Upon the mountains of Israel, you will fall, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I have given you to the birds of prey, to every winged creature, and to the beasts of the field** **to devour **your flesh.
‎[5] **Upon the open field, you will fall, for I have spoken – the utterance of the Lord God. **
‎[6] Not only Gog and his armies will fall in the Land of Israel, but** I will **also** send fire against Magog, **Gog’s land,** and against the inhabitants of the islands in security,** the nations that fought together with Gog,** and they will know that I am the Lord. **
‎[7] With the halt of Gog’s advance in the Land of Israel, where he will be routed,** I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not profane My holy name any longer. **To a certain degree, the fall of Israel is a desecration of God’s name, as the people of Israel are associated with God (36:20). **And **after the downfall of Gog, that situation will be reversed, as** the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. **
‎[8] **Behold, it is coming, **the prophecy of the downfall of Gog, **and it will be – the utterance of the Lord God; it is the day, **the era of the End of Days,** of which I have spoken. **
‎[9] **The inhabitants of the cities of Israel will emerge and kindle and burn with the weapons **of Gog and his troops,** with the buckler and the shield, **typically made of wood and covered with leather or another material,** with the bow and with the arrows, with the club and with the spear, **a wooden rod with a metal blade at the edge. **And they will kindle fires with them seven years. **Gog’s enormous stockpile of weaponry will serve as kindling. In many cases in the Bible, the number seven is not employed in a literal sense; rather, it is employed in the sense of many.
‎[10] At** **that** **time,** they will not carry wood from the field, and they will not chop from the forests **for kindling,** for with the weapons **of Gog **they will kindle fire,** **and they, **Israel,** will plunder their **would-be** plunderers and loot their looters – the utterance of the Lord God. **
‎[11] **It will be on that day, **after the enemy corpses have been left for the beasts of the field, **I will provide **the bones of **Gog a place of burial there, in Israel, **in** the valley of the passersby east of the sea, **presumably the Mediterranean Sea, although some maintain the reference is to the Sea of Galilee or the Dead Sea,** and it will obstruct the passersby, **as the massive valley will be rendered impassable by all the corpses,** and they will bury Gog and all his horde there, and they will call it, **that place,** the Valley of the Horde of Gog. **
‎[12] **The house of Israel will bury them in order to purify the land **from the impurity of the corpses **for seven months.** Due to the enormous number of corpses, it will take seven months to gather and bury them.
‎[13] **All the people, **residents, **of the land will bury, and it will be for them for renown **among the nations that the children of Israel brought their enemies to burial,** on the day that I will be glorified – the utterance of the Lord God. **
‎[14] **They will designate permanent officials **who will** **be **passing through the land **searching for the bones of the soldiers of Gog. These additional people will be** burying with **the help of **the passersby those who remain on the surface of the land, **the corpses that will remain after the public burial,** to purify it. At the conclusion of seven months, they will search **the land.
‎[15] The appointed men will perform their tasks in this manner: **The** **passersby will pass through the land, and one **of them **will see the bone of a person and will build a marker by it. **The task of those passersby is to find human bones and mark their spot **until the buriers** find those markers, transfer the bone, and **bury it in the Valley of the Horde of Gog **where all the soldiers of Gog are buried.
‎[16] The prophet notes parenthetically: **The Horde, **named after the Horde of Gog,** will also be the name of a city **located** **near the valley.** **After all the bones have been buried, **they will purify the land. **
‎[17] **You, Son of man, so said the Lord God** before the burial:** Say to the bird, every winged creature, and to every beast of the field: Gather and come, assemble yourselves from all around to My feast that I am slaughtering for you,**** a great feast upon the mountains of Israel, and you will eat flesh and drink blood. **
‎[18] **The flesh of the mighty you will eat, and the blood of the princes of the earth you will drink: rams, lambs,** or fat sheep,** and goats, bulls, fattened bulls, **or buffaloes,** of Bashan, all of them. **This is imagery of quality meat and a fine meal from which the beasts and birds are invited to participate.
‎[19] **You will eat fat, **the highest-quality cut of meat,** to satiation and you will drink blood to intoxication from My feast that I will have slaughtered for you. **
‎[20] **You will be satiated at My table, horse and chariot, the mighty and all men of war – the utterance of the Lord God. **
‎[21] **I will set My glory among the nations, and all the nations will see My judgment that I have executed and My hand that I have placed upon them, **the nations that joined forces with Gog and were defeated together with him.
‎[22] In contrast, **the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God, **and that they are under My aegis, **from that day onward. **
‎[23] **The nations will know that in their iniquity the house of Israel was exiled, **not because those nations were too strong, or because they were superior to Israel, but rather, it is **because they, **Israel,** committed trespass against Me, and I concealed My face from them, and I delivered them into the hand of their foes, and they fell by sword, all of them. **Many Israelites were killed in wars or in exile.
‎[24] **In accordance with their impurity and in accordance with their transgressions I acted with them, and I concealed My face from them. **
‎[25] **Therefore, so said the Lord God: Now, **after they have been exiled,** I will restore the returnees of Jacob **to their original state,** and I will have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and **then, when I have saved Israel,** I will be zealous for My holy name **and protect them from any harm.
‎[26] **They, **Israel, **will bear their humiliation and all their trespass that they committed against Me **in the past.** **This will occur **when they live in their land in security and there is none to threaten **them.** **Once they have been rescued by God and their lives improve, they will have the opportunity to consider their pasts with feelings of shame,
‎[27] **when I return them from the peoples and gather them from the lands of their enemies. I will be sanctified through them before the eyes of the many nations. **When I restore Israel to its land and to its independence and its might, many nations will acknowledge the sanctity of My name.
‎[28] **They, **the house of Israel,** will know that I am the Lord their God, as I exiled them among the nations and **it is **I** who **will gather them to their own land. **Both their descent into exile and their return were not chance occurrences but were wrought by the hand of God. **And I will not leave any of them there, **in exile.
‎[29] **I will no longer conceal My face from them, as I have poured My spirit upon the house of Israel – the utterance of the Lord God.**
Version: The Steinsaltz Tanakh - English
Source: https://korenpub.com/collections/the-steinsaltz-tanakh/products/steinsaltz-tanakh
License: Copyright: Steinsaltz Center