Ezekiel 38:18-20 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Bible Comments

My fury shall come up in my face An expression taken from human passions, which cause the blood to fly up into the face. So Isaiah describes Almighty God as burning with anger, his lips being full of indignation, and his tongue as a consuming fire, Ezekiel 22:31, where see the note. For in my jealousy My zeal for the salvation and happiness of my people, and for my own glory; have I spoken Against my enemy Gog, and his herd. Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking A great commotion, as Dr. Waterland renders the expression; or a great disturbance, tumult, and confusion. Great changes and alterations in kingdoms and governments are often expressed in Scripture by shaking of heaven and earth, the sea and dry land: see the margin. So that the fishes of the sea, &c., shall shake at my presence Every part of the creation shall bear its share of this calamity, as if there were a convulsion of the whole frame of nature. The prophets often describe God's judgments upon particular countries or persons, as if a dissolution of the whole world took place, because his particular judgments are an earnest of the general judgment: see note on Isaiah 13:10. And the mountains shall be thrown down The strong holds situate on the mountains, and the walls, towers, and other fortifications, shall be beat down and demolished.

Ezekiel 38:18-20

18 And 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.

19 For 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;

20 So 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.