The Book of the Prophet Ezekiel
Ezekiel 38
Chapter XXXVIII · Vol. III, pp. 1367–1369
1 The army, 8 and malice of Gog. 14 God's judgment against him.
1 And the word1 of the LORD came unto me, saying,2
1 The prophecy in this and the following chapter is one, and evidently relates to a period yet to come, when the 'twelve tribes scattered abroad' shall be gathered into one kingdom in their own land. See ver.16 and ch.39.25,26.—C.
2 See note * below.
* 'The dogmatic idea of the prophecy is very simple. The community of God, renewed by his grace, will victoriously resist all the assaults of the world. This idea the prophet has here clothed with flesh and blood; he brings it before us in a grand finished picture, in which he unites what is realized in the course of time in a long series of successive events. The applications to a single historical event are all at the same time true and false: true, so far as the idea governing the prophecy is certainly realized in these several events; false in their exclusiveness—in mistaking the fact, that all that here appears to lead to a single event belongs to the form' (Hengstenberg).—P.
2 Son of man, aset thy face against Gog, the land of bMagog, the chief prince3 of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD, Behold, cI am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
4 And dI will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring4 thee forth, and all thine army, ehorses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company, with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords.
d Is.37.29. ch.39.2; 29.4. 2 Ki.19.28. Zec.14.3,5,12. Re.16.12,16. Zec.3.8.
4 Or, after I have brought.
e ver.15. Da.11.40. Re.9.16,17. Zec.14.15. ch.23.12.
6 Gomer,h and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands; and many people with thee.
h Ge.10.2. 1 Ch.1.5,6. ch.27.14. Je.51.27.
7 Bei thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee,6 and be thou a guard unto them.
i Am.4.12. Je.46.2,3,14; 51.12. Ps.2.1-4. Is.8.9,10; 37.22. Joel 3.9-11. Re.16.14,16.
6 All thy company that are assembled unto thee—intimates the confluence of many nations to one leader; the personal antichrist concentrating the power of the 'many antichrists' that have continued to work since the days of the apostles, 1 Jn.2.18.—C.
8 Afterj many days thou shalt be kvisited: in the latter years thou lshalt come into nthe land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste:7 but it is obrought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely pall of them.
j Hab.2.3. De.4.30. Je.30.24. Ho.3.5. ver.16. He.10.37.
k Ex.20.5. Is.29.6. ver.18-23; ch.39.1-21.
l Zec.14.2. Re.16.14. ver.4,16.
n See ch.36.1,4,8,24-38; 37.12,21-27; 34.22-29; ver.11,12. Je.30.3,18; 31.12.
A.M. cir. 3417. B.C. cir. 587.
7 Always waste—which, even in the best days of Israel, had never been cultivated; but that now, in their restoration, have been rendered beautiful and productive, ver.12.—C.
o 1 Pe.2.9.
p ch.28.26.
9 Thouq shalt ascend and come like a storm; thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou and all thy rbands, and many people with thee.
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD, It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall sthings come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought.8
11 And thou shalt say, tI will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that uare at rest, that dwell safely,9 all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a 1prey; vto turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst2 of the land.
13 Sheba,x and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions3 thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD, In that day when my people of Israel ydwelleth safely, zshalt thou not know it?
15 Anda thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts,4 thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
a ver.4,6. Re.9.16. Da.11.40,45. Zec.14.1,2; 12.2-4. Joel 3.2. Zep.3.8.
4 North parts.—That is, according to the Hebrew geography, from any points north from the east and west of Jerusalem.—C.
16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, bas a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring 5thee against my land, cthat the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
b ver.8,9. Zec.14.2. Da.11.40,45, with Re.16.14,16; 20.8. ch.13.11; 30.3. Is.25.4.
5 I will bring thee. That is, by judicially delivering thee over to thy covetous, angry, vengeful, and idolatrous spirit. I will bring thee as an upright judge brings a criminal to punishment, but not as a seductive tempter brings a man to sin, Ja.1.13.—C
c ch.39.21; 36.23. Ex.14.4. Le.10.3. Is.5.16; 26.9,11. Ps.9.16; 58.10,11; 64.9; 83.17,18.
17 Thus saith the Lord GOD, Art thou he of whom dI have spoken in old time by my servants6 the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
d Ps.110.5,6. Is.11.15; 14.24,25; 10.5; 26.20,21; 63.1; 27.1; 34.1,6; 66.16. Je.30.7,10. ch.28.24; 29.21. Joel 3.9,14. Da.12.1. Mi.5.5,6. Zec.12.2-8; 14.1-3,12-15.
A.M. cir. 3417. B.C. cir. 587.
6 Heb. by the hands of my servants.
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time, when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that emy fury shall come up in my face.
19 For in my gjealousy and in the fire of my wrath, have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great hshaking in the land of Israel;
g Joel 2.18.
h Joel 3.16. Zec.14.4. Re.16.16,20; 11.13; 6.12. Hag.2.6,7,21,22. Je.4.23-26; 51.25. Ho.4.3. Na.1.4,5.? He.12.26.
20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places7 shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
7 Or, towers or stairs.
21 Andi I will call for a sword against him throughout all jmy mountains, saith the Lord GOD: kevery man's sword shall be against his brother.8
i Ps.75.7,8. ch.14.17, with Ps.105.16.
j ver.8. Ho.9.3. Le.25.23. Je.3.19.
k Ju.7.22. 1 Sa.14.20. 2 Ch.20.23.
8 The unnatural combinations of professing Christianity and practical idolatry which will take place under antichrist, will not long hold together; but, like all other unnatural combinations, will fall asunder, and terminate in division, either upon occasion of some reverse, or, in the immediate prospect of success, when jealousy and distrust will lead the way to conflict and ruin.—C.
Notes
Ver. 2. 'Gog, the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal.' Sept.—Magog was the son of Japheth, Ge. 10.2. But who is Gog? Cambyses'? of Persia, according to Calmet.—The original Americans. Mede.—The Scythians, including the Russians. Houbigant.—Antiochus Epiphanes. Martin and Clarke.—The Roman Antichrist. Cocceius.—The Turk, the Eastern Antichrist. Gill.—The Turks and northern nations. Vitringa.—The Turks and Tartars. Sutcliffe.—Now, of these some will be totally set aside by the internal evidence of the prophecy. Gog cannot be any one that has been, for his time is not yet. See ver. 10, 16, and ch. 39. 25, 26. Then borrowing for one prophecy the light derived from another, it appears from Re. 20. 8 that 'Gog and Magog' represent the devil-deceived 'nations which are in the four quarters of the earth,' and who, according to ver. 16, and ch. 39. 7, 21, 23, 28, are 'the heathen,' 'the enemies,' ch. 39. 27, of the Jews restored to their high estate, and enjoying all the blessings of religious institutions, with agricultural and commercial prosperity and peace, ch. 38. 11-13. 'Gog and Magog' both signify 'covered, concealed,' which, read in the light of 2 Th. 2. 3, 6, 8, where 'that man of sin,' 'that wicked,' is described as yet to be 'revealed'—to be uncovered, as it were, and deprived for ever of that mask of hypocrisy, that assumption of Christianity, behind which he concealed his idolatry—his heathenism—warrants the conclusion, that Gog will be some great personal leader yet to arise, that will head the antichristian system that has been working under cover of Christianity since the days of the apostles, 2 Th. 2. 7; 1 Jn. 2. 18, 22, 26, and who will contrive politically to unite under him the professed heathenism of the nations, against the great centre of missionary (apostolical) Christianity which the Jews will then constitute, Is. 66. 19. Nor is it at all improbable that, as our Lord's denunciations of the hypocrisy and covetousness of the scribes and Pharisees were the immediate incentives to his crucifixion, a similar zeal, in the converted Jews, against the hypocrisy and covetousness of professing Christians, will be equally the cause of the wrath of the antichristian Gog—that their zeal against open idolatry will prepare the heathen to combine with spurious Christianity as against a common enemy; while their riches, and apparently defenceless situation, ver. 11, will present an irresistible bait to the ravenous cupidity of both. C.
Reflections.—The most distant events, and the most secret designs of all who live are all naked and open before God; yet, while there are so many covetous hearts, so many evil thoughts in the world, there will never be wanting multitudes to assemble against Christ's church. Yea, however heartily Turks, Persians, Arabs, and Africans have long hated one another, they will be ready enough to combine against the newly-restored Israel of God. The blessed accomplishment of God's promise sets the devil and his votaries in a rage. But he who touches God's people touches the apple of his eye. His power and promises are sufficient security for their protection and deliverance. He who has, in a harmonious form, foretold the distress, will glorify the whole system of his perfections in the deliverance. They who have been a terror to others shall be made a terror to themselves; and his enemies shall at last become their own executioners.