John Gill Commentary Ezekiel 38

Ver. 1. And the word of the Lord came to me
At the same time as Ezekiel 38:2

Son of man, set your face against Gog
Of the phrase, "setting the face towards", or "against", (See Gill on Ezekiel 6:2) (See Gill on Ezekiel 21:2) (See Gill on Ezekiel 25:2) but who this Gog is the prophet is bid boldly to face, and intrepidly declare the wrath of God against, interpreters are divided about. Calmet ^F13 thinks that Cambyses and his army are meant by Gog and Magog, which to mention is enough; and it is the opinion of St. Ambrose ^F14 that the Goths who ravaged the Roman empire in the fifth and sixth ages are meant: others, who suppose this prophecy was fulfilled after the Jews' return from the Babylonish captivity, and before the coming of Christ, take Gog to be a common name of the kings of the lesser Asia and Syria, or the Seleucidae, who distressed the Jews in the times of the Maccabees; the chief of whom was Antiochus Epiphanes, who is supposed, to be more especially designed, and was a type of antichrist; and they are the more strengthened in this opinion, because they find, in Pliny ^F15 , that the city of Hierapolis in Syria was called by the Syrians Magog; and they fancy the name of Gog is the same with Gyges a king of Lydia, whose country was called from him Gygea, or Gog's land, who was grandfather to Croesus; and which country came into the hands of Cyrus, and from the Persians into the hands of the Greeks, and so to the Seleucidae; for which reason they may bear this name in this prophecy.

But it is certain that the prophecy refers to what should be in "latter years", and in the "latter days", (Ezekiel 38:8Ezekiel 38:16) , phrases which respect the times of the Messiah, the Gospel dispensation, and oftentimes the latter part of that; and even those times when the Jews shall return to their own land, and continue in it for ever, as the preceding prophecy, with which this is connected, shows; and so the Jews always understand it of an enemy of theirs yet to come.

Cocceius is of opinion, that the Romish antichrist is meant; and that Gog signifying the covering or roof of a house, fitly points him out; who puts himself between God and man, as the roof is between heaven and earth; and who keeps out the light of divine things, the heat of love, and rain of spiritual blessings, from the church; and compares with this the veil over all nations, (Isaiah 25:7) and the covering cherub, (Ezekiel 28:14Ezekiel 28:16) , but I rather think the Turk is here meant, the eastern antichrist, in whose possession the land of Judea now is; and which, when recovered by the Jews, will greatly exasperate him, and he will gather all his forces together to regain it, but in vain.

The learned Vitringa ^F16 , though he is of opinion that this prophecy, according to its first and proper sense, respects the kings of Syria, the persecutors of the church, that should bring large and well disciplined armies into the land of the people of God, gathered out of the northern nations, and Scythians, and would be defeated in the land of Canaan; yet mystically intends the Turks, the Scythian nation and northern people, who, by a like attempt, will infest the church of the people of God, and invade their country; and this he makes no doubt of is the proper aspect of Gog and Magog: and Samuel Dauderstat, a Lutheran divine, has wrote a dissertation, "De Antichristo Orientali", concerning the eastern antichrist, which he explains of Gog and Magog: and Michael Buckenroder, another Lutheran, has written upon the irruption to be made by Gog and Magog into the mountains of Israel ^F17 . Osiander thus explains the several names mentioned; by Gog I think the Turk is meant, by Magog the Tartarian, by Meshec the Muscovites, and by Tubal the Wallachians; and Starckius on the place observes, that if this prophecy is yet to be fulfilled, we shall easily find our Gog, and point out his metropolis Constantinople; so that I am not singular in my opinion.

Gog signifies "high" ^F18 and eminent, one in a very exalted station: it comes from the same root, and has the same signification, as Agag, to whose height and exaltation there is an allusion in (Numbers 24:7) , where the Samaritan and Septuagint versions read Gog: it is the same with , "Jagog", by which name the Arabians called the Scythians that lived far east, particularly those that were situated to the north of China beyond Imaus, as Golius ^F19 observes; and Josephus ^F20 says that the posterity of Magog are called Scythians, and these inhabited Tartary; and there, as Paulus Venetus ^F21 affirms, are the countries of Gog and Magog, which they call Gug and Mungug now; from hence came the Turks, even from Tartary, which is called by the eastern writers Turchestan, from which they had their name; and so may with great propriety be called by the name of Gog; their emperor also being a high and mighty one, whose empire must be destroyed; and which is signified by the passing away of the second woe, and the drying up of the river Euphrates, (Revelation 11:14) (16:12) , upon which passages this and the following chapter may be thought a good commentary: and so the Jews ^F23 make Gog to be the general of the Ishmaelites or Turks, as Armillus of the Christians, and who shall reign in the kingdom of Magog or Scythia. Gog is the name of a man, (1 Chronicles 5:4) , as it is here, and not of a country.

The country of Gog is called, as follows, the land of Magog ,
of which Gog is king, as Jarchi and Kimchi interpret it: it may be supplied in connection with the former clause, set your face against Gog, in the land of Magog ;
or, "against Gog", against "the land of Magog", so Kimchi. The countries of Jagog and Magog, according to the Arabic geographer ^F24 , are surrounded by Mount Caucasus, which Bochart ^F25 conjectures has its name from thence; it being in the Semi-Chaldee language, the language of the Colchi and Armenians, (Noxgwg) , "Gog-hasan", or Gog's fortress. This land of Magog is the same with Cathaia or Scythia, that part of Tartary from where the Turks came; and which perhaps may come into their hands again before this prophecy is fulfilled; and even now the Turk calls himself king of Tartary; and the Magog of Pliny in Syria, the same with Aleppo, is in his dominions; which Maimonides ^F26 also takes notice of as in Syria, though he seems to distinguish it from Haleb or Aleppo; however, according to him, they were near to one another; though some ^F1 think the place in Pliny is corrupted, and that it ought to be read Magog, as it is, by Maimonides, Magbab.

Gog is further described as the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal :
some render it, "prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal"; taking Rosh, as the rest, for the name of a place, a part of Scythia, from where the Russians came, and had their name. So it is rendered by the Septuagint, Symmachus, and Theodotion; and some later Greek writers ^F2 make mention of a country called Ros, which, they say, is a Scythian nation, situated between the Euxine Pontus and the whole maritime coast to the north of Taurus, a people fierce and wild. Meshech and Tubal were the brethren of Magog, and sons of Japheth, (Genesis 10:2) , whose posterity inhabited those counties called after their name; who, according to Josephus ^F3 , are the Cappadocians and Iberians; and among the former is a place called Mazaca, which has some affinity with Meshech; and there was a country called Gogarene ^F4 , a part of Iberia. According to Bochart ^F5 , these are the Moschi and Tybarenes, people that dwell near the Euxine sea, and under the dominion of the Turk; wherefore the Grand Turk may be called the chief prince of them:

and prophesy against him :
foretell his ruin and destruction, which is hinted before. Mention is made of his invasion of the land of Judea, and that for the comfort of the Jews, that they might have nothing to fear from this formidable army.

FOOTNOTES:

• F13: Dictionary in the words "Gog" and "Magog".
• F14: "De fide ad Gratianum", l. 2. sect. 4. col. 144. tom. 4.
• F15: Nat. Hist. l. 5. c. 23.
• F16: Comment. in Jesaiam, vol. 1. p. 954.
• F17: Vid. Calmet. Bibliotheca Sacra, art. 67. p. 442.
• F18: Hiller. Ononmastic. Sacr. p. 67, 406, 477.
• F19: Lexic. Arabic in Rad. col. 26.
• F20: Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.
• F21: Apud Schindler. Lex. Polyglott. col. 288. And Harris's Voyages and Travels, vol. 1. p. 604.
• F23: Vid. Huls. Theolog. Jud. par. 2. p. 511.
• F24: Geograph. Arab. par. 9. clim. 5. lin. 22, 23.
• F25: Phaleg. l. 3. c. 13. col. 187.
• F26: Hilchot Terumot, c. 1. sect. 9.
• F1: See Hyde Not, in Peritsol. Itinera Mundi, p. 42.
• F2: Zonaras, Cedrenus, & Joan. Curopalates apud Selden. de Synedriis, l. 2. c. 3. sect. 6.
• F3: Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.
• F4: Strabo. Geograph. l. 11. p. 364.
• F5: Phaleg. l. 3. c. 13. col. 188.

How have you counselled [him that has] no wisdom ?
&c.] A man deprived of wisdom has need of counsel, and it should be given him; and he does well both to ask and take it; and be it so, as if Job should say, that I am the foolish and unwise creature you take me to be, what counsel and advice have you given me? what a wise counsellor have you shown yourself to be? or rather, what a miserable part have you acted under this character?

and [how] have you plentifully declared the thing as it is ?
the thing in controversy, set it forth in a clear light, and in a copious manner, when he had not said one word about it, namely, concerning the afflictions of the godly, and the prosperity of the wicked; thus jeering at him, and laughing at the short reply he had made, and which was nothing to the purpose.

And say, thus saith the Lord God, behold, I am against thee, O
Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.
Which is repeated for the confirmation of it, that so it would certainly be; that the Lord, the mighty God, and King of kings, would in his providence frown upon him, and appear against him; and his titles are repeated also, to show that all his greatness, grandeur, and power, would not protect him from the vengeance of God.

And I will turn you back, and put hooks into your jaws
Or, I will put hooks in your jaws, and with them turn you back; or rather, "turn you about" ^F6 ; and lead you 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) , as Kimchi and Ben Melech observe.

So the Targum, ``I will persuade you, and put hooks in your jaws;'' that is, incline his heart to take such a step, which should be to his destruction:

and I will bring you forth, and all your army ;
all his janizaries, and large army out of Turkey, and other parts of his dominions:

horses and horsemen ;
the Turkish armies, chiefly consisting of cavalry; (See Gill on Revelation 9:16):

all of them clothed with all sorts of [armour] ;
or completely clothed, as the Targum; for the word "armour" is not in the text; and besides, their armour is particularly mentioned afterwards; and so Kimchi has it, with all kind of ornaments, richly clothed and decorated, especially the principal officers, and, so made a fine show:

even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords ;
or large armies, as the Targum; the Turks have always been used to bring prodigious large armies into the field; (See Gill on Revelation 9:16).

FOOTNOTES:

• F6: (Kytbbwv) "circumducam te", Piscator; "circumagam te", Grotius.

Persia, Ethiopia, and Lybia with them
These are the confederates or auxiliaries of the Turks, which shall join with them in this expedition. Persia is a neighbouring kingdom to the Turks, and may fall into their hands before this comes to pass; and is in a fair way for it at this time, through the internal divisions in it; however, it will be confederate with them. Ethiopia or Cush does not design the country of the Abyssines in the dominions of the Great Mogul, but Arabia Chusea, which lay between Judea and Egypt, and is now in the hands of the Turks; and Lybia or Phut is the name of one of the sons of Ham, (Genesis 10:6) who, according to Josephus ^F7 , founded Lybia; and from him the inhabitants of it were called Phuteans (as they are here by the Targum); and he observes that there is a river of his name in Mauritania. Lybia is a country in Africa, to the west of Egypt and subject to the Turks.

all of them with shield and helmet ;
the Lybians are described by Jeremiah, (Jeremiah 46:9) , as those that handle the shield ;
and the Egyptians, to whom the Lybians were near neighbours, and whom they might imitate in their warlike arms, as in other things, wore shields down to the feet, as Xenophon^F8 relates.

FOOTNOTES:

• F7: Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 2.
• F8: relates. Cyropaedia, l. 6. c. 14. & l. 7. c. 11.