Ezekiel 38:11

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, I WILL GO TO THEM THAT ARE AT REST, THAT DWELL SAFELY - i:e., securely, without fear of danger (cf. ). Antiochus, the type of Antichrist, took Jerusalem without a blow....

1-13 These events will be in the latter days. It is supposed these enemies will come together to invade the land of Judea, and God will defeat them. God not only sees who are now the enemies of his church, but he foresees who will be so, and lets them know by his word that he is against them; though they join together, the wicked shall not be unpunished....

UNWALLED VILLAGES - Compare Zechariah 2:4....

EXPOSITION The present and the following chapters, comprising the next oracle, or "word of God," delivered by the prophet, relate to the expedition (Ezekiel 38:1), overthrow (Ezekiel 38:14), and destruction of Gog (Ezekiel 39:1), with the results of the same to the heathen world and to Israel (Eze 38:21 -29). Attempts to identify Gog and his armies with particular nations, as _e_._g_._ _with the Chaldeans (Ewald), the Scythians (Kuobel, Hitzig), the Greeks under Antiochus Epiphanes (Grotius), and even the Turks (Luther), have not been and are not likely to be successful. Either the highly idealized picture the prophet sketches was designed, as Hengstenberg thinks, to sum up and

AND THOU SHALL SAY,.... What came into his mind, and what he thought of; this he shall say to his privy counsellors and ministers of state; or to the generals and officers of his army; or to his confederates and allies, and even to them all, to have their opinion and approbation of it; and to encourage them to join him, and go with him: I WILL GO UP TO THE LAND OF UNWALLED VILLAGES; a land which has nothing but villages in it, and those no walls about them to protect them: this he said by way of contempt; and the Septuagint and Arabic versions render it "the abject land"; and to observe how easily he could conquer it, there being nothing in his way to hinder him, or give him trouble: I WILL GO TO THEM THAT ARE AT REST, AND DWELL SAFELY: as the Jews will do in the latter day, when they shall own and acknowledge the Messiah, Jeremiah 23:5,

Ezekiel 38:1; Ezekiel 39:1. There will be at that time of restoration a great and final invasion of the land of Israel. Gog and Magog will invade the land “that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people.” The invaders come “against the mountains of Israel which have always been waste; but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely, all of them.” In Ezekiel 38:11, the evil purpose of the invader is made known. From all this we learn that the invasion takes place at the time when the Lord has brought back His people and resumed His relationship with the remnant of Israel. The invasion will happen some time after the beastly empire with its beast head, the revived Roman e

EZEKIEL 38. GOG'S INVASION (EZEKIEL 38:1), DESIGN (EZEKIEL 38:10), AND DESTRUCTION (EZEKIEL 38:17). Gog, of the land of Magog, seems from the names of the peoples that follow (cf. Ezekiel 27:13) to represent the mysterious hordes of the north, and were probably suggested to Ezekiel by the Scythian invasion (cf. Ezekiel 39:3) of Western Asia about 630 B.C. He, with a confederacy of peoples from the extreme south (Ezekiel 27:10;...

UNWALLED VILLAGES. mere hamlets....

Cf. Deu 3:5; 1 Samuel 6:18; Judges 18:27. "Safely," i.e. in confidence, Ezekiel 38:8....

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN FINAL DELIVERANCE FOR GOD'S PEOPLE 38:1-39:29 Chapter s 38-39 deal with the efforts of some arch-enemy of God's people to invade and devastate the land of Israel. The tranquil scene with which the previous chapter closed would not go unchallenged. The new Israel of God would undergo testing as did the nation Israel of Old Testament times. These Chapter s are apocalyptic in nature. The language is highly symbolical and at times deliberately shadowy and even cryptic.[462] The time frame is the final age the age of the Messiah as is indicated by the recurring phrase the _end of days._ The author of the Book of Revelation seems to allude to this same event, the last battle between the powers of evil and the church of God. He placed this battle immediately before the final judgment and the emergence of the new heavens and the new earth (Revelation 20:8).