Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TRAVELERS, VALLEY OF THE

The end-times burial place of the defeated armies of Gog, and one subsequently to be renamed the valley of “Hamon-gog” (“hordes of Gog”; Ezek. 39:11; Heb. gê hāʿōḇĕrîm). Although the MT points hʿbrym as a participle (“the Travelers,” “the Ones Passing Through”), most scholars follow the Coptic version and read hāʿăḇārîm (Abarim), a mountainous region in Moab, E of the Dead Sea (Num. 27:12; 33:47-48; Deut. 32:49; Jer. 22:20). However, Abarim does not fit the requirement that the valley be “in Israel,” and the specification “east of the Sea” better describes the Mediterranean than the Dead Sea.

Identification of the valley is uncertain. Some scholars suggest the Jezreel Valley, a major east-west thoroughfare with a long military history and a region suiting the text’s symbolic requirement for a burial place of vast size. Others propose the Hinnom Valley in Jerusalem. Recently, scholars have suggested that hāʿōḇĕrîm alludes to passage into the underworld. The name of the valley then emphasizes the fact that it will be a place where the armies of Gog will pass over to the underworld.

Bibliography. B. P. Irwin, “Molek Imagery and the Slaughter of Gog in Ezekiel 38 and 39,” JSOT 65 (1995): 93-112; M. S. Odell, “The City of Hamonah in Ezekiel 39:11-16: The Tumultuous City of Jerusalem,” CBQ 56 (1994): 479-89.

Brian P. Irwin

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TRAVELERS, VALLEY OF THE

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)