This Material Has Not Been Edited For s4

THIS MATERIAL HAS NOT BEEN EDITED FOR

SCRIPTURAL ACCURACY, SPELLING, OR GRAMMAR

E Z E K I E L

CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

38:1-39:29 JUDGMENTS ON ENEMIES. (GOG.)

V 38:1-3. Gog.

W 38:4-7. Repulsed.

X x 38:8-16-. Invasion.

Y 38:-16. Purpose.

x 38:17-22 Invasion.

Y 38:23 Purpose.

V 39:1 Gog.

W 39:2, 3 Repulse.

X z 39:4-6. Fall.

a 39:7. Purpose.

z 39:8-21. Spoliation.

a 39:22-29. Purpose.

Note: In Ezekiel chapter 32 verse 27 page 17 it says “Did not go to hell with swords like other fallen heroes because of being a terror. Paul the Learner

Ezekiel 38:1-9

1 AND THE word of the Lord came to me, saying, 2 Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, of Meshech, and of Tubal, and prophesy against him, 3 And say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince (ruler) of Rosh, of Meshech, and of Tubal. 4 And I will turn you back and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you forth and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords — 5 Persia, Cush, and Put or Libya with them, all of them with shield and helmet, 6 Gomer and all his hordes, the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north and all his hordes — many people are with you. 7 You [Gog] be prepared; yes, prepare yourself, you and all your companies that are assembled about you, and you be a guard and a commander for them. 8 After many days you shall be visited and mustered [for service]; in the latter years you shall go against the land that is restored from the ravages of the sword, where people are gathered out of many nations upon the mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste; but its [people] are brought forth out of the nations and they shall dwell securely, all of them. [Isaiah 24:22.] 9 You shall ascend and come like a storm; you shall be like a cloud to cover the land, you and all your hosts and many people with you. AMP

Ezekiel 38:2; Ezekiel 38:4

Gog and Magog

38:2. Gog. The identification of Gog has perplexed commentators for centuries. The most likely explanation is that the name is a derivative of Gyges, who was a Lydian king mentioned in Assyrian and Greek sources. In the former he is called Gugu and he rules over

mat Gugu, which is Akkadian for the "land of Gugu." His reign, however, is fifty or more years prior to the time of Ezekiel, so some have argued that the name became a dynastic title used by his royal descendants. The king of Lydia at the time of Ezekiel is Alyattes. There is no evidence that Lydia ever threatened Judah, but the Lydians were involved in a serious war against Cyaxares and the Medes in 585. Gog looks similar to the names Agag and Og, two famous enemies of Israel.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

38:2. Magog. Magog is likely a Hebrew form of Akkadian Mat Gugu, "the land of Gog," which Josephus identified as Lydia in western Anatolia.

38:2. Meschech and Tubal. At the end of the eighth century, these two Anatolian kingdoms were ravaged by internal warfare, conquered by Sargon II of Assyria and invaded by the Cimmerians from southern Russia. Unfortunately, little of their history survives from the seventh and early sixth centuries. It is thought that they were incorporated under Lydian control after the conclusion of the Cimmerian wars. In the spring of 585 the Lydians were at war with the Medes. They are mentioned again in the Persian period as separate ethnic identities. They are known to the Assyrians as Mushku (central Anatolia) and Tabal (eastern Anatolia), and to Herodotus as the Moschi and Tibarenoi (subject states of the Persian empire). At the end of the eighth century the king of Mushku was Mita, known to the Greeks as Midas, the king with the golden touch. His tomb has been identified at Gordion and excavated.

38:4. hooks in your jaws. The Assyrians typically put hooks in the jaws of defeated enemies, either for the purposes of humiliation or to deport them to other lands. This practice is often described in their annals and graphically depicted in their wall relief’s. Esarhaddon is depicted on a stele from Zinjirli in Syria as leading Baal of Tyre and Tirhakah of Egypt by a rope tied to a ring through their lips. Ashurbanipal claims to have pierced the cheeks of Uate' (king of Ishmael) with a sharp-edged tool and put a ring in his jaw.

38:1-39:29 The Gog and Magog oracles.

Ezekiel’s oracles against Gog, ruler from the land of Magog, express an apocalyptic scenario of God’s victory over the nations that threaten Israel. The original identity of Gog is uncertain, although some have identified him with Gyges, a (7th century ruler of Lydia in Asia Minor). The land of Magog appears together with Meshech, Tubal, Gomer (Cimmerians in central Asia Minor), and Togarmah (cf. Beth-Togarmah, in Armenia), apparently in reference to lands in Asia Minor and Greece.

Gomer, Magog, Meshech and Tubal were sons of Japheth (Genesis 10:2), who is associated with Europe and Asia beyond the Middle East. Ezekiel’s oracles draw upon Isaiah’s prophecies concerning the downfall of a Mesopotamian ruler (Isaiah chapter 14) and Jeremiah’s prophecies concerning a “foe from the north” (Jeremiah chapters 2-3). The original identity of Gog matters little as later interpreters have understood him to be transnational symbol of evil, much like Edom and Egypt (e.g. Isaiah chapter 34; 63:1-6; Malachi 1:2-5; Exodus chapter 15).

Or chaos monsters such as Leviathan or behemoth (Psalms 74; 104; Job chapters 38-41). (Ezekiel 38:18-39:16) is the haftarah for the Intermediate Days of Sukkoth when (Exodus 33:12-34:26) relates God’s revelation to Moses and the restoration of the two tablets of the covenant after the golden calf incident, which corresponds to the focus on Israel’s restoration in (Ezekiel 38:1-39:16).

38:1-9 God’s initial instructions to Ezekiel present Gog as the leader of a host of nations that threaten Israel, a well-known motif in the tradition about Zion as an invincible fortress (cf. Psalms 2:46-48). Jewish Study Bible

EZEKIEL CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

38:5 Persia, Nubia (or Ethiopia), and Put (Libya) are distant lands from throughout the ancient Near Eastern world. Jewish Study Bible

38:2 Gog. A symbolical name for the nations north and east of Palestine, or the nations as a whole. That the prophecies of chapters 38 and 39 are still future is clear from Ezekiel 38:8, 14, 16; 39:9, 25, 26; as Israel will have then already been “gathered,” and complete restoration enjoyed immediately following the destruction of Gog: “Now will I bring again the captivity of Israel.”

It must therefore precede the Millennium; and on that account must be distinguished from Revelation 20:8, 10; and may therefore perhaps be identified with Revelation 16:14; 17:14; 19:17-21. Compare Matthew 24:14-30; Zech. 12:1-4.

It marks the climax of Satan’s effort to destroy Israel from being a People, and clearly belongs to the close of a yet future kingdom age. The name is connected with “Og” (Deuteronomy 3:1-13), and “Agag” (Numbers 24:7), where the Samaritan Pentateuch reads “Agog,” and the Septuagint reads “Gog.” Here the Arabic reads “Agag.” The historical interpretation of this prophecy is confessedly impossible.

The land of Magog = of the land of the Magog. If “Gog” denotes and symbolizes all that is powerful, gigantic, and proud, then “Magog” is symbolical of the same lands and peoples. Magog was a son of Japheth.

The chief prince = the head, or leader of Rosh. The Hebrew word is Ro’sh, which may point to Russia.

Meshech and Tubal. The Septuagint renders these Mesoch and Thobel: i.e. the Moschi and Tibareni, occupying regions about the Caucasus. All these are nations distant from Palestine: not near nations or nations connected by consanguinity. They were also descended from Japheth (Genesis 10:2).

Note: we are now entering into prophecies that are associated with the end time and the reign of Jesus Christ and so I will be using different thoughts than from the commentaries that we have been using up to this point. For reference material I will be using ‘Things To Come’ by Dwight Pentecost put out by Zondervan Publishing House Grand Rapids, Michigan and ‘The Companion Bible’ see in our third section under the books that are used. Things to Come.

Ezekiel 38:5; Ezekiel 38:6;

38:5. Persia, Cush and Put. See comment on Ezek 27:10.

38:6. Gomer. Gomer has been equated with the Gimirrai of the Assyrian annals and the Cimmerians of Greek sources. In Homer's Odyssey they lived on the north shore of the Black Sea. They attacked the kingdom of Urartu from the north and caused problems for the Assyrians in the eighth century. Sargon died in battle against them in Tubal. They appear to have been driven through the Caucasus mountains into Anatolia according to Herodotus. They came to be involved with the Anatolian kingdom of Lydia in the seventh century B.C. They overran the Phrygians and sacked the capital at Gordion, the royal seat of the famous King Midas, in 676. In 644 they overthrew Sardis, the capital of the Lydian state. This was when Gyges met his death.

EZEKIEL CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

During Ezekiel's time the Cimmerians had been driven out of Lydia by Alyattes. They later came under the control of the Medes.

38:6. Beth Togarmah. Beth Togarmah was most likely the capital city of Kammanu, a central Anatolian kingdom. It was known in Hittite sources as Tegaramara and in Assyrian sources as Til-Garimmu.

Ezekiel 38:2

[Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog] This is allowed to be the most difficult prophecy in the Old Testament. It is difficult to us, because we know not the king nor people intended by it: but I am satisfied they were well known by these names in the time that the prophet wrote. I have already remarked in the introduction to this book that there are but two opinions on this subject that appear to be at all probable:

1. That which makes GOG Cambyses, king of Persia; and,

2. That which makes him ANTIOCHUS EPIPHANES, king of Syria.

And between these two (for one or other is supposed to be the person intended) men are much divided.

1. Calmet, one of the most judicious commentators that ever wrote on the Bible, declares for Cambyses; and supports his opinion, in opposition to all others, by many arguments.

2. Mr. Mede supposes the Americans are meant, who were originally colonies of the Scythians, who were descendants of Magog, son of Japheth.

3. Houbigant declares for the Scythians, whose neighbors were the people of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, that is the Russians, Muscovites, and Tybareni or Cappadocians. Several eminent critics espouse this opinion.

4. Rabbi David Kimchi says the Christians and Turks are meant: and of later opinions there are several, founded in the ocean of conjecture.

Calmet says expressly, that GOG is Cambyses, king of Persia, who on his return from the land of Egypt, died in Judea. The Rev. David Martin, pastor of the Waloon church at Utrecht, concludes, after examining all previous opinions, that Antiochus Epiphanes, the great enemy of the Israelites, is alone intended here; and that Gog, which signifies covered, is an allusion to the well-known character of Antiochus, whom historians describe as an artful, cunning, and dissembling man. See Daniel 8:23, 25; 11:23, 27, 32. Magog he supposes to mean the country of Syria.

Of this opinion the following quotation from Pliny, Hist. Nat., lib. v., c. 23, seems a proof; who, speaking of Caele-Syria, says: "Caele-Syria has Apamia separated from the tetrarchy of the Nazarenes by the river Marsyia; and Bambyce, otherwise called Hierapolis; but by the Syrians, MAGOG." I shall at present examine the text by this latter opinion.

[Chief prince of Meshech and Tubal] These probably mean the auxiliary forces, over whom Antiochus was supreme; they were the Muscovites and Cappadocians.

Note: I think that it is good to look both backward and forward for the fulfillment.

Paul the Learner

EZEKIEL CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT

Ezekiel 38:4

[I will turn thee back] Thy enterprise shall fail.

Ezekiel 38:5

[Persia] That a part of this country was tributary to Antiochus, see 1 Maccabees 3:31.

[Ethiopia, and Libya] That these were auxiliaries of Antiochus is evident from Daniel 11:43: "The Libyans and Ethiopians shall be at his steps."

Ezekiel 38:6

[Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah] The Cimmerians and Turcomanians, and other northern nations.-Calmet.

Ezekiel 38:8

[In the latter years thou shalt come] This was fulfilled about four hundred years after.-Martin. The expedition of Cambyses against Egypt was about twelve years after the return of the Jews from Babylon.-Calmet.

Ezekiel 38:9

[Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm] It is observable that Antiochus is thus spoken of by Daniel, Ezek. 11:40 : The king of the north-Antiochus, shall come against him (the king of the south is the king of Egypt) like a whirlwind.