Ezekiel 38King James Version
A prophecy against Gog of the land of Magog. In the latter days, Gog will come against the mountains of Israel with a great army. God will draw him there and defeat him. The chapter has become one of the main sources for apocalyptic speculation in Jewish and Christian history.
God tells Ezekiel to prophesy against Gog of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, who with a great coalition of nations will come against a restored and peaceful Israel in the latter days. God himself brings Gog forward for the purpose of demonstrating his holiness to the nations. When Gog attacks, God's fury rises: earthquake, plague, flooding rain, great hailstones, fire and brimstone will consume the invading army.
After restoration, there is one final assault on the renewed people, and God fights it himself without Israel's participation: the ultimate demonstration of divine protection.
4: "And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army." God is not defending against Gog incidentally: he is actively bringing Gog forward for a purpose.
Around 585 to 571 BC, after the restoration oracles of chapters 33 to 37. The vision is explicitly set 'after many days, in the latter years' when Israel is living in restored peace. The contrast with the vulnerable scattered exiles of the earlier chapters is deliberate: the attack comes when the people are settled, not when they are weak.
Gog of Magog as the apocalyptic enemy; Meshech, Tubal, Persia, Ethiopia, Libya, Gomer, and Togarmah as coalition members; restored Israel as the target and protected party; the LORD who fights through natural catastrophe.
Gog and Magog are referenced in Revelation 20:8 as the final enemies of God at the end of the age. The identification has been debated for centuries: various interpreters have mapped Gog onto the Scythians, Persians, Romans, various medieval and modern nations, and apocalyptic figures. What is clear in Ezekiel is that the vision belongs after restoration, as a final trial that God himself defeats.
For when you fear that even if things improve, something will come to take it away again. The chapter is honest that this fear is not irrational: something does come. And then it shows what happens to it.
1And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
3And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
4And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.
7Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.
10Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
13Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
14Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
15And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
17Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
18And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
20So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
21And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man's sword shall be against his brother.
22And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
23Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.