Board index ‹ Specific Bible verses, texts, and passages ‹ Ezekiel

[Cryptographer]

I'm a little confused by it.

[jimwalton]

The context of the chapter is the Day of the Lord—the End Times—when God will judge the nations (Ezk. 38.22). The Lord will come to make war against the kingdoms of this world.

"Gog and Magog" represent the enemies of the Lord. As the nations attack Israel, God Himself will come to their defense (vv. 18-21 [the verse you asked about]).

V. 21: "I will summon a sword against Gog." God will raise up nations to defend Israel.

"The sovereign Lord." This is the Hebrew Adonai YHWH, a title denoting authority. God possesses both the power and authority to do what He is doing.

“Every man’s sword will be against his brother." The same thought appears in Zechariah 14.13. The same military chaos shows up in Judges 7.22. It's an image of the decisive victory God will secure. Meyers and Meyers, in the Anchor Bible, write, "In the unspeakable chaos of a military rout, people flail in all direction, willy-nilly striking at anything that moves, even their own compatriots. When God’s hand intervenes and brings battle against his enemies, they will lose all sense of what they are about. Not only are the enemy soldiers stricken with disease and rotting flesh, but in desperation and confusion they turn on each other with violent force and lethal results. How ironic for the enemy to succumb in the final battle to their own internal assaults upon each other."