Bible Strands
Ezekiel 39:15
As they pass through the land, anyone who sees a human bone will set up a pillar next to it, until the gravediggers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Ezekiel delivers this oracle to the exiled community of Israel, describing a future post-battle phase where appointed workers systematically clear the land. The passage occurs during the seven-month cleansing operation following God's defeat of the invading nations.
The words — The Hebrew עֶצֶם (etzem) means "bone," and the verb בָּנָה (banah) translates literally as "build" or "set up." The text states that passersby will erect a marker beside each discovered bone until gravediggers remove it.
The thread — Ezekiel 39:14 and 39:16 place this practice within a coordinated campaign to bury the dead in the Valley of Hamon-gog. The motif of visible remains appears in Luke 11:44, where unmarked graves symbolize hidden defilement.
Why it lands — The text requires readers to acknowledge the physical reality of mass death and the deliberate procedures needed to restore a contaminated territory. It demands recognition that divine judgment leaves tangible evidence that must be methodically addressed before renewal.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And the passengers that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the valley of Hamon–gog.
Cross-references
- Luke 11:44 Woe to you! For you are like unmarked graves, which men walk over without even noticing.”