Ezekiel 38:7-17

7 "1Be prepared, and prepare yourself, you and all your companies that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them.
8 "2After many days you will be summoned; in the latter years you will come into the land that is restored from the sword, whose inhabitants have been 3gathered from many nations to the 4mountains of Israel which had been a continual waste; but its people were brought out from the nations, and they are 5living securely, all of them.
9 "You will go up, you will come 6like a storm; you will be like a 7cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you."
10 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "It will come about on that day, that thoughts will come into your mind and you will 8devise an evil plan,
11 and you will say, 'I will go up against the land of 9unwalled villages. I will go against those who are 10at rest, that live securely, all of them living without walls and having no bars or gates,
12 to 11capture spoil and to seize plunder, to turn your hand against the waste places which are now inhabited, and against the people who are gathered from the nations, who have acquired cattle and goods, who live at the center of the world.'
13 "12Sheba and 13Dedan and the merchants of 14Tarshish with all its villages will say to you, 'Have you come to capture spoil? Have you assembled your company to seize plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to capture great 15spoil?' "'
14 "Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog, 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "On that day when My people Israel are 16living securely, will you not know it?
15 "17You will come from your place out of the remote parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great assembly and a mighty army;
16 and you will come up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. It shall come about in the last days that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may 18know Me when I am 19sanctified through you before their eyes, O Gog."
17 'Thus says the Lord GOD, "Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days through My servants the prophets of Israel, who 20prophesied in those days for many years that I would bring you against them?

Ezekiel 38:7-17 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO EZEKIEL 38

This chapter gives an account of an enemy of the Jews, under the name of Gog, that shall invade their land, and disturb their peace, after they are settled in it; who is described by the countries over which he rules; and against whom the prophet is bid to set his face, and prophesy of him, the Lord being against him; and who would cause him to return from Judea unsuccessful, Eze 38:1-4, the number of his confederates, their warlike accoutrements and preparations for the invasion of the land of Israel, are foretold, Eze 38:4-9, his wicked designs and intentions to spoil and plunder the inhabitants of it, Eze 38:10-12, the notice taken of his projects by the merchants of Tarshish and others, Eze 38:13,14, his coming up to invade the land is again observed for the certainty of it; and the place from whence, and the time when he should come, are mentioned, as well as God's design in it, and which had been before predicted by his prophets, Eze 38:14-17, and the chapter is concluded with a denunciation of divine wrath, which shall be terrible to all the inhabitants of the earth, and to all creatures in heaven, earth, and sea; when he and his forces shall be destroyed by the sword, by pestilence, and by dreadful storms and tempests, Eze 38:18-23, of which destruction a fuller account is given in the next chapter.

the preceding prophecy did, as the copulative and shows; which predicts the restoration and conversion of the Jews; the union of their tribes under the King Messiah; and their settlement in their own land: and this respects some disturbance they should meet with upon it, for a short time, by a powerful enemy hereafter described:

\\saying\\; as follows:

29385-Eze38.2

Cross References 20

  • 1. Isaiah 8:9
  • 2. Isaiah 24:22
  • 3. Isaiah 11:11; Ezekiel 36:24; Ezekiel 37:21; Ezekiel 38:12; Ezekiel 39:27, 28
  • 4. Ezekiel 34:13; Ezekiel 36:1-8
  • 5. Ezekiel 38:11, 14; Ezekiel 39:26
  • 6. Isaiah 5:28; Isaiah 21:1; Isaiah 25:4; Isaiah 28:2; Jeremiah 4:13
  • 7. Ezekiel 30:18; Ezekiel 38:16; Joel 2:2
  • 8. Psalms 36:4; Micah 2:1
  • 9. Zechariah 2:4
  • 10. Jeremiah 49:31
  • 11. Isaiah 10:6; Ezekiel 29:19
  • 12. Ezekiel 27:22, 23
  • 13. Ezekiel 25:13; Ezekiel 27:15, 20
  • 14. Ezekiel 27:12
  • 15. Isaiah 10:6; Isaiah 33:23; Jeremiah 15:13
  • 16. Jeremiah 23:6; Ezekiel 38:8, 11; Zechariah 2:5, 8
  • 17. Ezekiel 39:2
  • 18. Psalms 83:18; Ezekiel 36:23; Ezekiel 38:23
  • 19. Isaiah 5:16; Isaiah 8:13; Isaiah 29:23; Ezekiel 28:22
  • 20. Isaiah 5:26-29; Isaiah 34:1-6; Isaiah 63:1-6; Isaiah 66:15, 16; Joel 3:9-14

Footnotes 7

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