Ezekiel 38:21,22 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

And I will call Rather, But I will call, for a sword against him That is, when he has carried all before him for some time, I will at length raise up those who shall withstand him. God's doing a thing is often expressed in Scripture by his speaking the word, and giving out his command. Thus he is said Psalm (Psa 105:16) to call for a dearth upon the land of Canaan. Throughout all my mountains Throughout all the land of Judea; for, as has been observed before, Judea being very mountainous, it is often in Scripture denominated the mountains of Israel, or, the mountains of the Lord. Every man's sword shall be against his brother God often destroys his enemies by intestine quarrels among themselves, and making them executioners of his judgments upon each other: see the margin. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood Or, I will plead with him. God pleads with men by his judgments, which are a manifest token of the vengeance due to their sins. And I will rain upon him, &c., an overflowing rain, &c. I will as plainly show myself in the destruction of these my enemies, as when I discomfited the armies of the Canaanites and Philistines by tempests of thunder and hail, or when I consumed Sodom and Gomorrah by fire and brimstone from heaven. “It is plain that the extraordinary circumstances mentioned in these verses remain to be accomplished on the future enemies of the Jews, when God's people are reinstated in his favour.” Bishop Newcome.