Gog and Magog
38
And the word of the LORD came to me, saying,38:1 Ezek 38; 39 deal with one subject – an invasion of Israel by powerful northern nations. The invasion takes place “after many days”, after the regathering of Israel to their land (Ezek 38:8). Presumably this is after the regathering described in chapter 37. It is not easy to determine exactly what nations are meant here or the time of the invasion. The author of these notes can only suggest possibilities.⚜
2 📚“Son of man, set your face against Gog 📖 of the land of Magog 📖, the prince of Rosh 📖, Meshech and Tubal 📖, and prophesy against him, 3 📚and say, Thus says the Lord God: See, I am against you 📖, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal, 4 📚and I will turn you around, and put hooks 📖 into your jaws, and I will bring you out with all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in all sorts of armour, a great horde with large shields and small shields, all of them handling swords, 5 📚together with Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya, all of them with shield and helmet,
38:5 Persia is present-day Iran. Ethiopia– an ancient land known as Cush in the area of present-day Iraq, and the land usually identified with Ethiopia (or, more accurately, with parts of Sudan and parts of Ethiopia). Libya one of two ancient Puts – one present-day Libya, the other near the ancient Asian Cush.⚜
6 📚Gomer 📖, and all its troops, the house of Togarmah 📖 from the far north 📖, and all its troops, and many people with you.
7 📚“Be prepared, and get yourself ready, you, and all the horde assembled around you, and be a guard for them.
38:7 Addressed to Gog, the leader of this large alliance of peoples.⚜
8 📚After many days 📖 you will be mustered. In the latter years you will come into the land restored from the sword, gathered out of many peoples, against the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate, but its people will have been brought out of the nations, and will be living in safety, all of them. 9 📚You will go up and come like a storm. You will be like a cloud covering the land, you, and all your troops, and many people with you.
10 📚“Thus says the Lord God: It will happen on that day that thoughts will come into your mind 📖, and you will devise an evil scheme, 11 📚and you will say, ‘I will go up to a land of unwalled villages. I will go to those who are at rest, who are living in safety, all of them living in towns without walls, and having neither bars nor gates.’
38:11 This verse, with verses 8 and 14, indicates more of a time of safety and peace than Israel has enjoyed for most of its existence since the twentieth century.⚜
12 📚You will go to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the desolate places which will then be inhabited, and against the people gathered out of the nations, who will have cattle and goods, who will be living in the center of the land. 13 📚Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish 📖, with all its young lions 📖, will say to you, ‘Have you come to take plunder? Have you gathered your horde to take booty, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take great booty?’
38:12-13 Israel is not a rich country, and there is not much there that would attract the greed of great nations. The richest resources in Israel are in the Dead Sea which contains potential great wealth in minerals and salts. Of course Israel is at present a strategic land in the area of the world that contains so much of the world’s oil reserves. Perhaps the plunder mentioned in these verses uses the language of Ezekiel’s day to symbolize a different kind of benefit to be gained by seizing Israel. “Center of the land” (v 12) – or it could be translated “middle of the earth”.⚜
38:13 Gog will not come into Israel with no one to question him. Sheba and Dedan were both in the Arabian peninsula.⚜
14 📚“Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord God: On that day, when my people Israel are living in safety, will you not know it? 📖 15 📚And you will come from your place out of the far north, you, and many people with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, and a mighty army. 16 📚And you will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land. It will happen in the latter days. And I will bring you against my land so that the nations may know me, when I reveal myself as holy through you, O Gog, before their eyes.
38:16 Observe again that it is God Who brings Gog into Israel.⚜
Victory over Gog and his armies
17 📚“Thus says the Lord God: You are the one whom I spoke about in former days through my servants the prophets of Israel. They prophesied for years during that time that I would bring you against them.
38:17 Gog is not mentioned by name in any of the prophets in the Bible up to Ezekiel’s day. Perhaps he is symbolized by some other person (such as the “Assyrian”, or the “king of the north”), but there is no certainty about it. Or this verse may possibly refer to prophecies not recorded in the Bible but which Ezekiel knew about.⚜
18 📚“And it will come about at that time, when Gog comes against the land of Israel, says the Lord God, that my fury 📖 will come up into my face. 19 📚For I have spoken in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath: Surely on that day there will be a great shaking in the land of Israel, 20 📚so that the fish of the sea and the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep on the earth, and all the men who are on the surface of the earth, will tremble at my presence, and the mountains will be thrown down, and the cliffs will fall, and every wall will fall to the ground. 21 📚And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, says the Lord God. Every man’s sword will be against his brother. 22 📚And I will execute judgment against him with the plague and with blood, and I will pour down a flooding rain on him and on his troops and on the many people who are with him, a flooding rain, and great hailstones, fire, and sulfur. 23 📚Thus I will exalt myself, and show myself holy, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they will know that I am the LORD.
38:19-23 The destruction of the armies of Gog will be partly by God’s supernatural intervention and partly by sword and bloodshed (vs 21,22). Summoning a sword probably indicates bringing opposing armies. Compare Isa 34:5-6; Jer 9:16; 12:12; 25:29.⚜
38:23 Here is one of God’s good purposes in that terrible destruction. See Ezek 39:7.⚜