Charles Ellicott Commentary Ezekiel 38:12

"to take the spoil and to take the prey; to turn thy hand against the waste places that are [now] inhabited, and against the people that are gathered out of the nations, that have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the middle of the earth." — Ezekiel 38:12 (ASV)

In the midst of the land.— Literally, in the navel of the earth. (See Note on Ezekiel 5:5.) The important position of Israel in reference to the other nations of the earth combined with its unsuspecting security and its riches to tempt the greed of Gog and his allies,