Ezekiel 38:9

Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee. THOU SHALT BE LIKE A CLOUD TO COVER THE LAND - with the multitude of thy forces....

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 38:9. _THOU SHALT ASCEND AND COME LIKE A STORM_] It is observable that Antiochus is thus spoken of by Daniel, Daniel 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_....

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

THOU SHALL ASCEND AND COME LIKE A STORM,.... That comes suddenly, looks black and terrible, and causes darkness and horror; makes a great noise, and is very threatening of danger; signifying, that the Turks will come into the land of Judea suddenly to surprise it, and with great wrath and fury, and threaten them with utter destruction; so the king of the north is said to come like a whirlwind, which many interpret of the Turk also, Daniel 11:40: THOU SHALT BE LIKE A CLOUD TO COVER THE LAND; with darkness and distress; suggesting the vast number of his army, which should overspread the land of Judea, as it follows: THOU AND ALL THY BANDS, AND MANY PEOPLE WITH THEE; his own army should be very numerous, and this increased by his confederates, or such who will voluntarily join him in this expedition....

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;...

_like a storm_ Cf. on the figure Isaiah 21:1; Isaiah 28:2; Jeremiah 4:13. The rapidity of the movements of Gog (Hosea 8:1), and their destructiveness, as well as the infinite masses of his host (Numbers 22:5; Judges 6:5) are expressed by the comparison with the storm and cloud....

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).

§ 1. THE RESTORATION (EZEKIEL 33-39) After an introductory passage (Ezekiel 33:1), and two short prophecies against the wicked survivors of Jerusalem and the careless exiles (Ezekiel 33:21), this section describes the restoration in connexion with the Ruler, the Land and the People successively. As to the Ruler, God is pictured as the Shepherd of Israel (Ezekiel 34). As to the Land, a prophecy against Edom (Ezekiel 35) introduces a new address to the mountain land of Israel (Ezekiel 36). As to the People, the revival of the dead nation, and the reunion of the tw