Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 39:9

"And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth, and shall make fires of the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves, and the spears, and they shall make fires of them seven years;" — Ezekiel 39:9 (ASV)

Shall burn them with fire seven years.—The representation of this and the following verse—that the weapons of the army of Gog shall furnish the whole nation of Israel with fuel for seven years—cannot, of course, be understood literally. It seems to have been inserted by the prophet to show that we are to look for the meaning of his prophecy beyond any literal event of earthly warfare.

Ezekiel 39:11–16 again presents the magnitude of the attack upon the Church by describing the burial of the host after it is slain. The language, if it were intended to be understood literally, would be even more extravagant than that of Ezekiel 39:9-10. The whole nation of Israel is represented as engaged for seven months in burying the bodies (Ezekiel 39:12–13). After this, an indefinite time is to be occupied by one corps of men appointed to search the land for still remaining bones, and by another who are to bury them.