English · KJV

Ezekiel 38

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Prophecy Against Gog of Magog 1–7

1
And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
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Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, ​
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And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
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And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: ​
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Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: ​
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Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.
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Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.

The Invasion's Timing and Motive 8–13

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After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the 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: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. ​
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Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.
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Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
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And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, ​
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To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to 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 midst of the land. ​
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Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions 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? ​

God's Purpose in the Latter Days 14–17

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Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
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And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
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And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes. ​
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Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them? ​

The Lord's Fury and Great Judgment 18–23

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And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face. ​
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For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel; ​
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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 places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
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And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother.
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And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone. ​
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Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Ezekiel 38

Verse 2

Gog, the land of Magog — Magog, Tubal and Meshech are sons of Japheth (Gen 10:2), and Meshech and Tubal traded with Tyre (27:13). Ezekiel is told to ‘set thy face’ against Gog as he was against the mountains (6:2) and mount Seir (35:2). Rev 20:8 names ‘Gog and Magog’ gathered ‘to battle’ at the end.

Verse 4

hooks into thy jaws — Gog is led like a beast, and the LORD does the leading: ‘I will turn thee back… I will bring thee forth’. The same figure was used of Pharaoh (29:4) and of Sennacherib, ‘I will put my hook in thy nose… and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest’ (2 Kgs 19:28).

Verse 5

Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya — In Hebrew Paras, Cush and Put. Cush and Phut are sons of Ham (Gen 10:6), and Persia and Phut stand with Lud among Tyre’s men of war, who ‘hanged the shield and helmet’ (27:10). The allies are peoples Ezekiel names elsewhere in his book, armed here as there.

Verse 8

After many days thou shalt be visited — Paqad, to muster or appoint: Gog is called up as for duty. ‘Latter years’ and ‘latter days’ (v.16) render the same word, acharit. The land has been ‘brought back from the sword’, as in chs.36–37, and the people ‘dwell safely’ (betach), the security promised in 34:25–28.

Verse 11

the land of unwalled villages — Perazot, open towns with no wall; it occurs only here, in Esth 9:19 and in Zech 2:4, ‘Jerusalem shall be inhabited as towns without walls’. There the LORD is ‘a wall of fire round about’ (Zech 2:5). Gog reads the open gates as weakness, and ‘at rest’ (shaqat) as a chance.

Verse 12

to take a spoil, and to take a prey — Shalal and baz, the pair used in Isa 10:6 of Assyria sent ‘to take the spoil, and to take the prey’. The people have ‘gotten cattle and goods’, the increase of ‘man and beast’ promised in 36:11, and live ‘in the midst of the land’ (tabbur, literally the navel, used only here and in Judg 9:37).

Verse 13

Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish — Peoples who dealt with Tyre as traders (27:12, 15, 22). They put to Gog the words of v.12, ‘Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey?’ They only ask the question, and the verse gives them no share in the attack.

Verse 16

sanctified in thee, O Gog — Gog comes ‘as a cloud to cover the land’ (also v.9), and the LORD says, ‘I will bring thee’. The aim is the one stated for Israel in 36:23, ‘when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes’, now ‘in thee’. It echoes Ex 14:4, ‘I will be honoured upon Pharaoh… that the Egyptians may know that I am the LORD’.

Verse 17

Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time — Earlier prophecies of an enemy from the north include Jer 6:22, ‘a people cometh from the north country’, and Joel 2:20, ‘the northern army’. Neither names Gog. The verse says only that the LORD’s servants the prophets prophesied ‘many years’ that he would bring such an enemy.

Verse 18

my fury shall come up in my face — ‘Face’ is aph, the nostril and the Hebrew word for anger, as in Ps 18:8, ‘a smoke out of his nostrils’. ‘Shall come up’ (alah) is the verb used of Gog’s own coming up in vv.9, 11 and 16: when he goes up against the land, the LORD’s anger goes up against him.

Verse 19

a great shaking — Ra’ash, a quaking. ‘In my jealousy’ and ‘the fire of my wrath’ answer ‘the fire of my jealousy’ and ‘in my jealousy and in my fury’ of 36:5–6, once spoken against the nations that seized the land, now against Gog. V.20 names the shaking: fishes, fowls, beasts and men ‘shall shake at my presence’. Haggai 2:6 and Heb 12:26 speak of the LORD shaking heaven and earth.

Verse 22

I will plead against him — Shaphat, to judge; ‘plead’ is the KJV’s word for the judge’s act. Pestilence and ‘great hailstones, fire, and brimstone’ recall hail and fire in Egypt (Ex 9:23–24), ‘brimstone and fire’ on Sodom (Gen 19:24) and ‘great stones from heaven’ on those who fled Israel (Josh 10:11).

Verse 23

magnify myself, and sanctify myself — Two verbs in the reflexive form, gadal and qadash: the LORD acts to make himself known as great and holy. The aim of vv.16 and 36:23 is stated again, and its result is knowledge ‘in the eyes of many nations’: ‘they shall know that I am the LORD’. Ezek 39:21 adds ‘all the heathen shall see my judgment’.