Reformational Commentary on Ezekiel 39:18
"Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan." (Ezekiel 39:18)
The bountiful feast prepared for the offal-stripping creatures hereby summoned in Ezekiel 39 is "enriched" further, in this verse 18, by the fact
that it shall
be composed of the remains of powerful figures (i.e. Gog, his high ranking generals and those of his assembled allies), styled "the flesh of the mighty",
and "the blood of the princes of the earth", etc.
Note that "princes of the earth" is a hyperbolic expression and is not to be taken as a literal description; that is, the fallen referred to are not
literal royal princes and are not representative of the whole world, as the careless superficialists of the
futurist interpretive camp might presume, but are
simply either generals and / or a selection of high officials of the major eastern nations involved in the assault (i.e. Russia, China, Iran,
Turkey, etc. -
see the commentary on Ezekiel 38:2,
Ezekiel 38:5 and Ezekiel 38:6 for how the
Contemporaneousness Principle is used to identify these nations).
The reference to the prime meat-yielding animals that form part of the prey is also not literal, but symbolic and denotes either the abundance of
perishable foodstuffs
brought with the invaders, which one must expect to be as scattered and exposed to the elements as the bodies of the deceased attacking forces shall
be, or else (and more probably) it refers to the footsoldiers themselves as distinct from the high officials and senior commanders listed first in
this verse, such
regular troops being unintentional, but de facto, sacrificial offerings.
Gill comments thus:
"of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks";
...which the Targum, Jarchi (aka Rashi) and Kimchi interpret of kings, princes, dukes, rulers, and governors; and so does John, in the Revelation, of kings, captains, and mighty men, (Revelation 19:18):
"...all of them fatlings of Baasha" (Bashan);
which was a country in Israel [it was actually a region of modern day south western Syria, east of the Sea of Galilee and therefore perhaps even more apt to be associated with the terrifying destruction of Gog, who shall fall in or close to that area (see the commentary on Ezekiel 39:11) with his army and their allies’ armies], very fruitful, and full of pastures [to this day, that area is greener than the rest of Syria], where much fat cattle were bred; and to which these great personages in Gog's army are compared, for their bulk, strength, and wealth. (John Gill on Ezekiel 39:18).
