Ezekiel 38:4

And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: I WILL TURN THEE BACK - as a refractory wild beast, which thinks to take its own way, but is bent by a superior power to turn on a course which must end in its destruction. Satan shall be, by overruling Providence, permitted to deceive them to their ruin (Revelation 20:7). AND PUT HOOKS INTO THY JAWS - (; , "Because thy (Sennacherib's, a type of Antichrist) rage against me and thy tumult is come...

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....

Verse Ezekiel 38:4. _I WILL TURN THEE BACK_] Thy enterprise shall fail....

WITH ALL SORTS - Or, “gorgeously;” see the marginal reference. Omit “of armor.”...

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 I WILL TURN THEE BACK, AND PUT HOOKS INTO THY JAWS,.... Or, I will put hooks in thy jaws, and with them turn thee back; or rather, "turn thee about" f; and lead thee where and as I please; for this is not to be understood of God's putting hooks into his jaws, and leading him back from his enterprise of invading the land of Judea; as he put a hook in the nose and a bridle in the lips of the king of Assyria, and brought him back from Jerusalem, Isaiah 37:29, but of his using him thus in his providence to draw him to the land of Israel, out of his own land, as fishes are drawn with the hook out of the water. The sense is, that he would so work upon and influence the heart of Gog, that he should be inclined to come out of his own land and invade Judea; just as the Lord is said to draw Sisera and his army, Judges 4:7

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;...

TURN THEE BACK: or, lead thee away enticingly. Compare Isaiah 47:10 (perverted). Jeremiah 50:6. See the Oxford _Gesenius._ PUT HOOKS, &c. Compare Isaiah 37:29. Hebrew "curbs". ARMY, Hebrew "power"; put by Figure of speech _Metonymy_ (of Adjunct), App-6, for army, as translated. COMPANY. gathered host. Compare Ezekiel 16:40....

_I will turn thee back_ Either: I will _turn thee about_, or, I will _lead thee_. The sense entice or "decoy" (Ew.) has scarcely evidence (Isaiah 47:10). The clause "and I will turn … jaws" is wanting in LXX. Putting hooks into the jaws suggests unwillingness and compulsion (ch. Ezekiel 29:4; 2 Kings 19:28), whereas Gog comes up of his own accord. This, however, is not quite conclusive, as Jehovah is leading him on to his destruction. _with all sorts_of armour] Rather: CLOTHED GORGEOUSLY (cf. Ezekiel 23:12), or, in full armour (R.V.). The host of Gog is probably not exclusively cavalry, though these are specia