Ezekiel 38:8,9 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

After many days thou shalt be visited In the latter days of the Messiah's kingdom among men, or after a succession of many generations, shall the judgment here mentioned be inflicted by God upon thee. In the latter years Or days, as in the former clause, and Ezekiel 38:16; that is, toward the end of the world: compare Daniel 8:26. Thou Gog, with all thy numbers; shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword The land of the Jews, a people recovered from the countries into which they had been dispersed by the sword of their enemies. The land, it must be observed, is here put for the people of the land, who are said to be brought back from the sword, in the same sense in which they are elsewhere styled a remnant; those being intended that should remain after the various judgments that had fallen upon the nation, and the hardships they had suffered in their several dispersions. And is gathered out of many people Among whom they had been scattered: see note on Ezekiel 34:13. Against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste It is already two thousand five hundred years since the ten tribes were carried away out of their own land by Shalmaneser. Certainly the expression, always, or perpetually waste, denotes a much longer desolation of the country than that which it suffered during the Babylonish captivity. It seems, all the various desolations of Judea are here included, namely, those by the Assyrians, Babylonians, Antiochus Epiphanes, the Romans, and lastly, as at this time, by the Turks. But it The land of Canaan, that is, the people of it, is brought forth out of the nations This is a repetition of what was said just before, namely, that Israel had been wonderfully preserved, and restored to their own land, through the particular providence of God; to which is added, And they shall dwell safely all of them That is, the same divine power that has delivered and restored them will still continue to protect them. Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm Thou shalt come suddenly, and with a mighty and destructive force. Thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land Thy forces shall be so very numerous as to overspread the land like a dark cloud, which makes every thing look melancholy and dismal: see Ezekiel 30:3. The sense of the passage is, that after the return of the Jews and Israelites into their own country, and their having lived there for some time in peace and safety, this enemy will think to take advantage of their security, and fall upon them unexpectedly. “It seems to me,” says Bishop Newcome, “that the prophecy remains to be fulfilled after the future re-establishment of the converted Jews in their own land, when the Mahommedans and pagans will invade them. On this supposition, the subject matter of this and the following chapter is well connected with the promises of distant blessings made toward the close of chap. 37.”