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Commentaries and Other Bible Study Helps - Prayer Tents - Prayer Tents
38:1-39:29 Gog of Magog. These initially obscure chapters, which form a single unit, deliver a powerful assertion of God's sovereignty. The prophet addresses the mysterious Gog, ruler of the equally mysterious Magog (see note on 38:2). Gog commands his own army and a legion of allies (38:4-6). Ezekiel's oracle pronounces judgment on him for attacking renewed Israel (38:1-3, 7-13). However, there is a power greater than Gog: the sovereign God of Israel reigns over Gog's plans, which will be used to vindicate God's holiness (38:14-16). Gog and his hordes attack, bringing peril to God's people and convulsions to the natural world. But they meet the wrath of God, who vindicates himself before the nations (38:17-23). God's judgment against this latter-day enemy results in Gog's complete destruction. His army falls (39:1-6), an event that galvanizes God's people as they see the greatness of their God (39:7-8). So great is the number of the dead, and so complete the victory, that Israel will use the weapons taken from Gog as fuel for (39:9-10) and take to cleanse the land of the dead (39:11-16). This "sacrifice" will yield a feast for predators (39:17-20). No question will remain about the reason for Israel's earlier exile: the all-powerful God withdrew from them because of their treachery, but this final victory displays God's supremacy (39:21-24) and marks the final restoration of his people (39:25-29). Sketched thus, the contours of Ezekiel's prophecy against Gog are clear, but obscurity remains at the level of detail. The structural signals that usually mark Ezekiel's oracles are of less help here, as the introductions and conclusions often do not coincide. Another problem for interpretation is the shifting viewpoint taken at different points in the oracle (somewhat like the parable of ch. 17). As the vantage point shifts from prophet to observer to an overtly theological outlook, so too the reader's perception of the narrative alters. The setting of this oracle in the context of restored Israel remains clear, and theological lessons emerge. The security Israel enjoys is not the result of a lack of threats but of an indissoluble bond between God and people. Nor is the presence of threat a sign of God's absence: the human, animal, and natural worlds are all under God's control.
38:2 Gog, of the land of Magog. These two names have been the focus of extensive investigation and speculation in both Jewish and Christian literature, but there is no consensus on their meaning. Some interpreters think "Gog" is a veiled reference to a historical figure, such as Gyges, a king of Lydia in Asia Minor, in which case the prophecy would be about a future attacker similar to Gyges. Others have thought it was a prediction of Alexander the Great (). But elsewhere Ezekiel was willing to make firm identifications or use more obvious symbols, and a connection with Alexander would be anything but obvious. Therefore many interpreters understand this passage to be a prophecy concerning an attack against Israel in a more distant future. In rabbinic literature and the Targums, Gog and Magog are often seen as leaders of a great attack on Israel in a future messianic age. In particular, Magog is seen as representing the Scythian people (see Josephus, Jewish Antiquities 1.123), who ruled vast regions of Asia north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea (modern Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan) and who also conquered peoples east and south of the Black Sea (modern Georgia, Armenia, and Turkey). In the NT, Gog and Magog are the names of the nations led by Satan to attack Jerusalem at the end of the "" (Rev. 20:8). Although the other geographical names in this passage can be identified (see notes on Ezek. 38:5; 38:6), "Gog" and "Magog" remain enigmatic, perhaps because the intention of the prophecy is simply to point to a yet-unknown future leader of a great attack against God's people, one whose identity will not be known until the prophecy is fulfilled. No time is specified in the prophecy either, except the vague "In the latter years" in v. 8 and "In the latter days" in v. 16. (As the ESV footnote indicates, an alternative translation of v. 2 is "Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal," but no place named "Rosh" can be clearly identified either.) Meshech and Tubal, first named in Gen. 10:2, are in Asia Minor (see note on Ezek. 27:13).
38:4 I will bring you out. From the beginning, God's initiative in rousing Gog's hordes is apparent.
38:5 For Persia (modern Iran), cf. 27:10; Cush is in the region of Ethiopia (cf. 29:10); Put is identified with Libya (27:10; 30:4-5). Gog's allies are described in terms analogous to those of Tyre in 27:10. Together with 38:2, 6, this passage depicts enemies coming against Israel from all sides: Meshech, Tubal, Gomer, and Beth-togarmah from the north (vv. 2, 6), and here Persia, Cush, and Put from the south.
38:6 Gomer probably refers to the Cimmerians, who had lived north of the Black Sea (modern Ukraine and the southern part of Russia) but were expelled by the conquering Scythians and migrated to an area south of the Black Sea, in Anatolia (modern Turkey). For Beth-togarmah, see note on 27:14. The uttermost parts of the north seems to refer to enemies that will come from regions to the far north of Israel, without specifically identifying these enemies. This phrase (repeated in 38:15; 39:2) has led some interpreters to understand this as a prediction of a future attack against Israel by Russia (Russia is the country farthest north of Israel, and Moscow is directly north of Jerusalem). But others see it as a general prediction of invaders from the north (see note on 38:2). In other places in the OT, this phrase describes the place where God reigns (Ps. 48:2) or where God will set his throne (Isa. 14:13), which would suggest a more symbolic interpretation of this oracle.
38:8 Locating this episode in the latter years in the land that is restored casts this oracle into the future. See the "latter days" in v. 16 (cf. note on Isa. 2:2); thus, it is not necessarily the absolute end of time.
38:10-13 The clear insistence that Gog remains firmly under God's control and, in fact, acts at God's behest (vv. 4, 16), does not preclude Gog from forming plans to plunder the now-fertile land of restored Israel (the quiet people who dwell securely, v. 11) and being held responsible for those plans.
38:16 like a cloud. The vastness of Gog's hordes that come against Israel is a theme repeated throughout these chapters. Once again, God's sovereignty over Gog's actions is asserted (I will bring you), as Gog is a tool used to vindicate God's holiness. In this, Gog evokes Pharaoh in the exodus narratives (see Ex. 7:3-5; 14:4).
38:17 The Septuagint understands this sentence as an assertion rather than a question (though the Hb. is more naturally a question). Either way, it probably relates to the mysterious "foe from the north" tradition linked especially to Jeremiah (e.g., Jer. 4:6; 6:22).
38:19-20 Upheaval in nature, reflecting the cosmic outpouring of God's wrath, consequently affects God's own people. Such phenomena are also part of Jeremiah's vision of the future (cf. Jer. 4:23-26).
38:22-23 This battle is God's. So too the greatness belongs to him alone.
39:1-6 God's opposition to Gog is reiterated as the invasion of Israel proceeds, only for Gog's army to fall solely by the hand of God. On Meshech and Tubal, see note on 38:2. uttermost parts. See note on 38:6.
39:7-8 This brief passage asserting the devotion to the holy God by his own people is introduced at this point as the obvious peril implied in vv. 2-5 draws attention to the Israelites themselves. It also forges a link with 21:7, where the words of 39:8 were applied to Judah and Jerusalem. The fall of Gog's hordes is as certain as Jerusalem's own was.
39:9 The seven years of fuel provided by the abandoned weapons of the enemy corresponds to the "" of burial in v. 14. The number seven is also deliberately employed in the collection of oracles against foreign nations.
39:17-20 This grisly scene represents the wholesale inversion of what sacrifice intends, but God has inverted it. The slain of Gog's army are carrion for scavengers, a banquet celebrating condemnation. In John's vision of the end in Rev. 19:17-21, he sees an angel using this language and this imagery.
39:21-24 all the nations shall see my judgment. This absolute, unanswerable demonstration of God's power serves as vindication before the nations. It also puts Israel's exile into proper perspective. Their expulsion from their land was not because their God was incapable of preserving them. On the contrary, their treachery compelled God to hide his face (vv. 23, 24; cf. v. 29) from them, leaving them to the fate they deserved for their iniquity of turning against God (cf. Deut. 31:18).
39:25-29 The final element of the oracle attends now to Israel rather than to Gog. These brief verses echo many of the restoration passages in chs. 34-37, including the themes of renewal for the whole house of Israel (39:25), the turning away from previous treachery (v. 26), and the gathering and return of those once scattered (vv. 27-28).
39:29 God's promise (I will not hide my face) ensures that the abandonment reviewed in vv. 23-24 is consigned to the past (cf. Isa. 54:8). As in Ezek. 37:1-14, this final renewal coincides with the outpouring of my Spirit.
