12 " 'For seven months the Israelites will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.
12 And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them, that they may cleanse the land.
12 For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land.
12 "Israel will bury the corpses in order to clean up the land. It will take them seven months.
12 For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land.
12 It will take seven months for the people of Israel to bury the bodies and cleanse the land.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Ezekiel 39:12
Commentary on Ezekiel 39:11-22
(Read Ezekiel 39:11-22)
How numerous the enemies which God destroyed for the defence of his people Israel! Times of great deliverances should be times of reformation. Every one should help the utmost he can, toward cleansing the land from reproach. Sin is an enemy every man should strive against. Those engaged in public work, especially of cleansing and reforming a land, ought to be men who will go through with what they undertake, who will be always employed. When good work is to be done, every one should further it. Having received special favours from God, let us cleanse ourselves from all evil. It is a work which will require persevering diligence, that search may be made into the secret recesses of sin. The judgments of the Lord, brought upon sin and sinners, are a sacrifice to the justice of God, and a feast to the faith and hope of God's people. See how evil pursues sinners, even after death. After all that ambitious and covetous men do and look for, "a place of graves" is all the Lord gives them on earth, while their guilty souls are doomed to misery in another world.