Eze 38:1

Eze 38, 39 will be fulfilled after Christ has returned and begun his reign as King of the Holy Land: (1) Eze 37, 38, and 39 are to be read as one prophecy. Eze 37 begins with the dry bones of Israel scattered in Gentile lands (Eze 37: 21), and Eze 39:11 speaks of Gentile bones scattered in Israel’s Land. If this is accepted, then what of the fine picture presented in Eze 37 of God’s tabernacle planted in the midst of a sanctified Israel, and “my servant David being their prince for ever” (Eze 37: 25,27)? The northern invasion follows on after this. (2) Repeatedly Israel is described as “dwelling safely” or “securely” (Eze 38:8,11; 39:26). This is a phrase which, in the prophets, is always associated with the Kingdom; eg, Eze 34:25,27,28; Hos 2:18; Zec 14: 11. Israel is plainly NOT “dwelling safely” today. (3) “Dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates” (Eze 38:11) does not describe the Israel of today, which spends a higher percentage of its national income on armaments than any other nation. But, if these words are applied to Israel dwelling in peace under its Messiah, there is no difficulty. On the other hand Zec 2:4,5 uses very similar language about Jerusalem in its Kingdom Glory. (4) The invader is intent on carrying away “silver and gold, cattle and goods — a great spoil” (Eze 38:13). This scarcely applies to the Israel of today. (5) Eze 38 is // Psa 2: “The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together, against the Lord, and against His Anointed… Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill of Zion” (Psa 2:2,6). The experience of David AFTER his capture of Jerusalem, and enthronement there (2Sa 8) makes an impressive prototype; so this is a prophecy of a time AFTER the Kingdom is established.

Eze 38:2

Ezekiel’s “confederacy of 10”: Omitting “rosh”, Meshech, Tubal, Persia, Cush, Put, Gomer, Togarmah, Sheba(!), Dedan(!), and Tarshish(!) (WRev 226). The forces of Eze 38 are related to Japheth (see Gen 10), whereas the forces of Psa 83 are related to Shem.

See Lesson, Russia in the Bible?.

GOG: A Scythian king mentioned in an Assyrian inscription. Scythia = area near Black Sea.

“The identification of Gog with Russia appears to be fairly secure. That this is an allusion to Gugu, a Scythian king mentioned in a Babylonian inscription, seems reasonable; and the Scythians most likely inhabited all the area round the Black Sea. But a safer means of identification is the expression in Eze 38:15: ‘thou shalt come forth from thy place out of the uttermost parts of the NORTH’ (RV). From the standpoint of one in Palestine this expression most obviously refers to Turkey or Russia, yet even this conclusion loses some of its inevitability when one encounters the same expression in Isa 14:13 (RV) regarding the king of Babylon!” (TofE ch 18).

OF THE LAND OF MAGOG: “The suggestion, once very popular, that Magog is Germany, is a pure guess, completely devoid of all Biblical support. The obvious meaning in Ezekiel would seem to be that Magog is the land the great leader, Gog, comes from” (TofE ch 18).

CHIEF: Heb “rosh”. The term’s normal meaning — hundreds and hundreds of times — is “head” or “chief”. (Grammatically, the words “chief” and “prince” may easily both relate to “Meshech” — ie the “chief prince of Meshech”: EBC.) Some understand the word as a proper noun, the name of a geographical area, eg “Rosh” (so translated by Roth, YLT, and WEB). Such a country is unknown elsewhere in Biblical or extra-biblical literature. Meshech and Tubal, normally mentioned together in the Bible (cp Eze 27:13; 32:26) and the two geographical place names immediately associated with the term “rosh”, do not occur in connection with a country by the name of Rosh either inside or outside Scripture. There is no evidence from the ancient Near East that a country named Rosh ever existed.

Some understand “rosh” as modern Russia; proponents of this view usually appeal to etymology based on similar sounds (to the hearing) between the two words. Such etymological procedures are not linguistically sound, nor is etymology alone a sound expositional basis on which to interpret a word. The word “Russia” is a late eleventh-century-AD term — and thus not known until 1600 years after Ezekiel.

MESHECH AND TUBAL: Meshech and Tubal — which so often are paired (Gen 10:2; 1Ch 1:5; Eze 32:26) — are Turkey and possibly Armenia. In Eze 27:13 they are listed among the many nations trading with Tyre, a merchant power in the eastern Mediterranean which traded only with its near neighbors and with those who could be reached by sea.

Those who link Rosh with Meshech and Tubal [ie Moscow and Tobolski] cannot explain why these two countries already warrant a mention twice in Ezekiel (Eze 27:13; 32:26) as nations that traded with Tyre and are later destroyed for their sins.

“Meschech and Tubal quite demonstrably are not Moscow and Tobolsk. In Eze 27:13 they are listed among the many nations and peoples trading with Tyre. But that city of commerce traded only with the peoples of its own hinterland, like Damascus, Sheba, and Dedan, which had caravan routes reaching to the sea, and with those regions overseas which could be reached by their intrepid sailors — Javan, Carthage, Tarshish, and the isles of Elishah. But Moscow and Tobolsk fall into neither category. It is difficult to envisage in what way those remote places could maintain a trade with Tyre in slaves and vessels of brass. This identification rests solely on similarity of sound — a precarious foundation! By such a method it would be as reasonable to equate Gomer with Wales (Cymri)” (TofE ch 18).

Eze 38:5

CUSH: “The Ethiopia [KJV] mentioned in the Gogian confederacy is not necessarily modern Abyssinia. The Hebrew name is ‘Cush’, which is the ordinary word for ‘black’. As a geographical name it has more than one application. It may refer to an eastern Cush, the land of the black mountains (Gen 10:6-8); or to Midian, the land of black tents (Hab 3:7); or to the Sudan, the land of black people. From the context in Eze 38 it is difficult to say with confidence which of the three is intended” (TofE ch 18).

Eze 38:6

FROM THE FAR NORTH: Lit, “sides of the north” When describing Gentile nations in other places in Scripture this always means either Babylon or Assyria, or Persia which were In almost the same geographical area: Isa 14:13; Jer 6:22; 50;41. All the nations which attack Israel and can be identified with any degree of confidence are middle eastern Moslem nations.

Eze 38:8

ALL OF THEM LIVE IN SAFETY: The phrase “to dwell securely” (AV) occurs three times (vv 8,11,14). The Hebrew word betach means “to dwell safely or confidently” and, when used with reference to Israel, invariably refers to Divine protection or peace in the Kingdom. Thus the Gogian invasion must take place after Christ is back on the earth, providing safety to his people Israel. See v 11n.

Eze 38:11

A PEACEFUL AND UNSUSPECTING PEOPLE: “The quiet people who dwell securely” (RSV). “Under the protection of the rainbowed angel” (Eur 2:557). See LD 5,6. Cp same phrase, Eze 34:25,28; Zec 14:11. Also, Eze 28:25,26; Jer 23:5,6. The Heb for “safely” or “securely” is “betach”, and lit means “confidence”. “Betach” occurs about 42 times in the OT; setting aside the 3 occurrences under consideration here (vv 8,11,14), fully 32 of the remaining 39 describe either the Kingdom Age or other Divine protection afforded God’s people. All of these 32 refer to the nation of Israel or to individual faithful Jews. The seven other instances do not describe a true safety but merely a false confidence: they refer to Midian (Jdg 8:11), the Gentiles of Laish (Jdg 18:7), Babylon (Isa 47:8; Jer 49:31), Ethiopia (Eze 30:9), the “isles” of the Gentiles (Eze 39:6), and Nineveh (Zep 2:15). This evidence confirms that the three usages in Eze 38:8,11,14 are describing a Divine safety for Israel, which can logically be explained only by the presence of Christ and the saints in their midst.

A simple repointing of “betach” yields “batach”, a very common word (about 120 times) which almost invariably means “to trust (in God)”. So when God’s people dwell “confidently”, ie, trusting in their God, then their safety is assured. But when the Gentiles such as Midian and Babylon and Nineveh dwell “confidently”, ie, trusting in their own “gods”, then their safety is by no means so sure!

WITHOUT WALLS AND WITHOUT GATES AND BARS: At the time of the invasion, Israel is described as a “land of unwalled villages”, and a land “having neither bars nor gates” (Eze 38:11). Surely “walls” and “bars” and “gates” mean — in modern vernacular — defensive weapons. These words have never shown the least sign of being true from 1948 (when Israel became a nation) to the present day — and least of all now! How can modern Israel ever abandon the thought of defense so long as it is ringed about by murderously hostile and merciless Arab nations? However, with the returned Christ as their defense, the faithful remnant in Israel will dwell securely.

Eze 37 through 39 is all of one piece: it begins with Jewish bones scattered in Gentile lands, and ends with Gentile bones scattered in the land of Israel!

As to the time of this prophecy: the detailed parallel between Eze 34 and Eze 37/38, both prophecies of the restoration, is unmistakable:

Eze 34 compared with Eze 37,38: