John Gill 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)

To take a spoil, and to take a prey
These are the words of Gog continued; suggesting that he should have no occasion to fight; should have nothing else to do but to seize upon the goods and plunder the substance of these people:

to turn your hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited :
such as were before desolate, and have lain long so, but now peopled and cultivated; these he would attack and demolish, and make a spoil and prey of:

and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations ;
a description of the Jews, as before; (Ezekiel 38:8)

which have gotten cattle and goods ;
so that it should seem that Gog or the Turks will not immediately attack the Jews upon their possession of the land of Judea; but some time after, when they have settled in it, and have acquired much wealth and riches in cattle and goods, and then think to have a fine booty of them:

that dwell in the midst of the land ;
or, "the navel of the land" ^F16 ; which may design Jerusalem, situated in the midst of the land of Israel, and so called the navel of it, as that is in the midst of the body; as Enna is said by Cicero to be the navel of Sicily: or, as Kimchi thinks, the land of Israel itself is meant; which is in the midst of the world, and so the navel of it; though the former seems best.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F16: (Urah rwbj le) (epi ton omfalon thv ghv) , Sept.; "in [vel] super umbilico terrae", Pagninus, Montanus, Cocceius, Starckius.