Ezekiel 38:12

12 to seize spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against ¹the waste places that are now inhabited, and ²the people who were gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, ³who dwell at the center of the earth.

Ezekiel 38:12 Meaning and Commentary

Ezekiel 38:12

To take a spoil, and to take a prey
These are the words of Gog continued; suggesting that he should have no occasion to fight; should have nothing else to do but to seize upon the goods and plunder the substance of these people: to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited:
such as were before desolate, and had lain long so, but now peopled and cultivated; these he would attack and demolish, and make a spoil and prey of: and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations;
a description of the Jews, as before; ( Ezekiel 38:8 ) which have gotten cattle and goods;
so that it should seem that Gog or the Turks will not immediately attack the Jews upon their possession of the land of Judea; but some time after, when they have settled in it, and have acquired much wealth and riches in cattle and goods, and then think to have a fine booty of them: that dwell in the midst of the land;
or, "the navel of the land" ^F16; which may design Jerusalem, situated in the midst of the land of Israel, and so called the navel of it, as that is in the midst of the body; as Enna is said by Cicero to be the navel of Sicily: or, as Kimchi thinks, the land of Israel itself is meant; which is in the midst of the world, and so the navel of it; though the former seems best.

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FOOTNOTES:

F16 (Urah rwbj le) (epi ton omfalon thv ghv) , Sept.; "in [vel] super umbilico terrae", Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Starckius.

Ezekiel 38:12 In-Context

10 "Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day, thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme

11 and say, 'I will go up against the land of unwalled villages. I will fall upon the quiet people who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having no bars or gates,'

12 to seize spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places that are now inhabited, and the people who were gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell at the center of the earth.

13 Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its leaders will say to you, 'Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your hosts to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to seize great spoil?'

14 "Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day when my people Israel are dwelling securely, will you not know it?

Cross References

• 1. [ver. 8]
• 2. [ver. 8]
• 3. [Ezekiel 5:5, 7, 14, 15]