You know, I'm just asking ...
If he uses a nuclear weapon to melt down Israel into nuclear ash ...
How long will it be before anyone, Israeli or Iranian, can inhabit it again?
Is this a classic example of "destroying something in order to save it"?
And will Israel than be any more worthwhile than any other random part of the middle east?
I have the distinct impression that the Arabs want Israel for the paved roads and high-rise buildings.
If you destroy the country, what do you have to show for it?
D
I'm guessing months at most, perhaps even weeks.
I'm confident Israel has the where-with-all to take care of this guy.
Not to worry. I've read the back of the book, and Israel survives just fine. God has this all in control.
Zechariah 14
12 This is the plague with which the LORD will strike all the nations that fought against Jerusalem: Their flesh will rot while they are still standing on their feet, their eyes will rot in their sockets, and their tongues will rot in their mouths.
13 On that day men will be stricken by the LORD with great panic. Each man will seize the hand of another, and they will attack each other.
14 Judah too will fight at Jerusalem. The wealth of all the surrounding nations will be collected—great quantities of gold and silver and clothing.
15 A similar plague will strike the horses and mules, the camels and donkeys, and all the animals in those camps.
Ezekiel 39
1 "Son of man, prophesy against Gog and say: 'This is what the Sovereign LORD says: I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of [a] Meshech and Tubal.
2 I will turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you from the far north and send you against the mountains of Israel.
3 Then I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand.
4 On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food to all kinds of carrion birds and to the wild animals.
5 You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign LORD.
6 I will send fire on Magog and on those who live in safety in the coastlands, and they will know that I am the LORD.
7 " 'I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the LORD am the Holy One in Israel.
8 It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign LORD. This is the day I have spoken of.
9 " 'Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and use the weapons for fuel and burn them up—the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the war clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel.
10 They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunder those who plundered them and loot those who looted them, declares the Sovereign LORD.
11 " 'On that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in the valley of those who travel east toward [b] the Sea. [c] It will block the way of travelers, because Gog and all his hordes will be buried there. So it will be called the Valley of Hamon Gog. [d]
12 " 'For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.
13 All the people of the land will bury them, and the day I am glorified will be a memorable day for them, declares the Sovereign LORD.
14 " 'Men will be regularly employed to cleanse the land. Some will go throughout the land and, in addition to them, others will bury those that remain on the ground. At the end of the seven months they will begin their search.
15 As they go through the land and one of them sees a human bone, he will set up a marker beside it until the gravediggers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog.
16 (Also a town called Hamonah [e] will be there.) And so they will cleanse the land.'
17 "Son of man, this is what the Sovereign LORD says: Call out to every kind of bird and all the wild animals: 'Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrifice I am preparing for you, the great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood.
18 You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as if they were rams and lambs, goats and bulls—all of them fattened animals from Bashan.
19 At the sacrifice I am preparing for you, you will eat fat till you are glutted and drink blood till you are drunk.
20 At my table you will eat your fill of horses and riders, mighty men and soldiers of every kind,' declares the Sovereign LORD.