And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire seven years:
God speaks of this victory as already done, though the fulfillment lies ahead, because it is as certain as if accomplished. The routed army leaves behind such mountains of weapons that Israel will burn them for fuel seven years instead of cutting wood from the forests, turning the instruments of war into the ordinary means of warming their homes.
AI summary
Commenting on Ezekiel 39:8-22
The Israelites dwelling in their cities will march out after victory and gather Gog's vast arsenal, shields, bows, arrows, spears, to burn as fuel. The seven years is no figure of speech; consider the prodigious multitude of weapons such an enormous army must carry, and in those hot lands where wood is scarce, burning them literally makes sense.
AI summary
Burning the enemy's weapons means leaving nothing of theirs to defile the land. The sacred number seven marks the completeness of this cleansing and the people's zeal for purity, how unlike the ancient Israelites, who let the heathen themselves remain among them and were corrupted by it.
AI summary