Ezekiel 38 - Introduction
_THE ARMY AND MALICE OF GOG: GOD'S JUDGMENT AGAINST HIM._ _Before Christ 587._... [ Continue Reading ]
_THE ARMY AND MALICE OF GOG: GOD'S JUDGMENT AGAINST HIM._ _Before Christ 587._... [ Continue Reading ]
SET THY FACE, &C.— "This (says Calmet) is one of the most difficult prophesies of the Old Testament. There are very few which have more divided both ancient and modern interpreters. Not to embarrass my commentary too much, (continues he,) I have treated of it in a particular dissertation. _Gog_ appe... [ Continue Reading ]
AND I WILL TURN— _And I will turn thee about, and put hooks into thy jaws, after I have brought thee forth,_ &c.... [ Continue Reading ]
PERSIA— The _Persians_ are here mentioned among the auxiliary forces of Gog, which seems to subvert the opinion of Calmet; for it appears by no means probable, that the Persians should be mentioned as auxiliaries in the army of a king of Persia. See Houbigant, and the next verse.... [ Continue Reading ]
GOMER, &C.— Or, according to some, _Phrygia, and all her bands; the Cappadocians of the north quarters, and all their bands._ See Genesis 10:2.... [ Continue Reading ]
BE THOU PREPARED— _Come, make thy preparations, thou and all,_ &c. meaning the warlike preparations. But Cambyses made no warlike preparations against Judaea, nor entered that country before he had lost his army in Egypt. These preparations, therefore, cannot properly refer to him. See Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
THE LAND THAT IS BROUGHT BACK, &C.— That is, from the sword of the Chaldeans. Houbigant renders the next clause, _And gathered out of many nations to the mountains of Israel, which have been long waste, when all of the people who go forth shall dwell safely._... [ Continue Reading ]
UPON THE DESOLATE PLACES— Judaea is here described as a land which lay _desolate_ before the Jews returned to it. The Jews after the captivity were _a people gathered out of the nations,_ for they were very much mixed with other people.... [ Continue Reading ]
TARSHISH— Houbigant reads, _Tartessus, with all the villages. Ezekiel 38:14. Shalt thou not know it?_] _Thou shalt be raised up._ Houbigant, after the LXX, and very agreeably to the context.... [ Continue Reading ]
OF WHOM I HAVE SPOKEN IN OLD TIME?— It is doubtful by what prophets God foretold the irruption of Magog; but though nothing of this kind is found in the prophets that remain, it is clear, that Ezekiel was not the first who foretold these things. Many of the sacred pages are lost, which might probabl... [ Continue Reading ]
THAT MY FURY SHALL COME, &C.— _My anger and my fury shall increase._ Houbigant.... [ Continue Reading ]
SO THAT THE FISHES, &C.— There is nothing hyperbolical in this; for the prophet describes a terrible earthquake, whereby the mountains are shaken, and great fragments of rocks precipitated from their tops, to the great terror and astonishment of every part of the creation. See Houbigant. Instead of... [ Continue Reading ]
I WILL CALL FOR A SWORD— Calmet himself confesses upon this verse, that we do not read in the history of Cambyses of any war which he maintained on the mountains of Israel. The Hebrews indeed, says he, were in no condition to resist him; and he farther allows ingenuously, that there is nothing in th... [ Continue Reading ]
FIRE, &C.— ואשׁ _vacish._ 3 MSS. Syr. According to this reading we may translate, "And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood: and an overflowing shower, and great hailstones, and fire, and brimstone, will I rain upon him." Compare Revelation 20:8 where see Lowman, that the event ma... [ Continue Reading ]