And they went up on the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city: and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
On the breadth of the earth - completely overspreading it. Perhaps translate, ' ... of the (holy) land.'
The camp of the saints ... and the beloved city - the camp of the saints encircling the beloved city, Jerusalem (Sir 24:11). Contrast "hateful" in Babylon, (Revelation 18:2; 'Jacob, the beloved,' Deuteronomy 32:15; Septuagint) Ezekiel's prophecy of Gog and Magog refers to the attack on Israel before the millennium; but this attack is after the millennium; so that "Gog and Magog" represent the final adversaries led by Satan. Ezekiel's Gog and Magog come from the north, but those here 'from the four corners of the earth.' Gog is by some connected with a Hebrew root, 'covered.'
From God. So B, Vulgate, Syriac, Coptic, Andreas; but A omits. Even during the millennium there is a separation between heaven and earth, humanity transfigured and humanity in the flesh. Hence, an apostasy can take place at its close. In the judgment on this the world of nature is destroyed and renewed, as the world of history was before the millennium: it is only then that the new heaven and new earth are perfected. The millennial heaven and earth, connected but separate, are but a foretaste of this everlasting state, when the upper and lower congregations shall be no longer separate, and new Jerusalem shall descend from God out of heaven. Man's birth-sin, the flesh, shall be the only influence during the millennium to prevent the saving of all souls. When this time of grace shall end, no other shall succeed. For what can move him in whom the Church's visible glory, while evil is restrained, evokes no longing for communion with the Church's King? As the history of nations ended with the manifestation of the Church in glory, so that of mankind in general shall end with the separation of the just from the wicked (Revelation 20:12) (Auberlen).