What Does Ezekiel 39:11 Mean in the King James?
And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give unto Gog a place there of graves in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea: and it shall stop the noses of the passengers: and there shall they bury Gog and all his multitude: and they shall call it The valley of Hamon-gog.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The valley named for those who cross it becomes a grave so foul that it stops their passage.
THE MEANING
You encounter Gog’s defeat through its physical aftermath: the multitude is buried in a valley so foul that travelers stop their noses. The landscape holds the dead and carries their name, making violence’s aftermath bodily and public.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the idea that victory makes violence disappear: the bodies remain in the land, and the place bears the multitude’s name.
THE ROOT
הָעֹבְרִים
haʿoverim
GROWS FROM
עבר
ʿābar
to cross over, pass through
“passengers” in this verse is haʿoverim. The valley is named for those who cross through it, but the burial stops their passage. The Hebrew keeps the crossing in the travelers’ name, so the grave’s foulness interrupts the movement that defines the place.
ALSO GROWS
ʿavar: to cross over or pass through
עָבַר
This verb is the seed in הָעֹבְרִים, naming the people as those crossing through the valley.
maʿavar: a crossing or passage
מַעֲבָר
The root can name the route as well as the act; here, the route itself becomes a place of burial and obstruction.
ʿever: the far side, or the region across
עֵבֶר
The same root can mark what lies beyond a boundary, sharpening the verse’s focus on crossing and blockage.
THE PATTERN
A place-name carries a violent event forward so it remains visible in the landscape.
And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day. So the LORD turned from the fierceness of his anger. Wherefore the name of that place was called, The valley of Achor, unto this day.Wherefore that field was called, The field of blood, unto this day.THE THREAD
Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.Both verses share עָבַר (ʿavar, “to pass through”). In Ezekiel, the valley’s foulness stops those crossing it; in Lamentations, a cloud keeps prayer from passing through, making obstruction feel like a blocked passage.
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