PARAPHRASE

Verse 1. Therefore, thou Ezekiel, prophesy against the great kingdoms of the world, and say, Thus saith the Lord God, Behold, I am against you, O ye kingdoms that have persecuted my people, and ruled over the whole world.MWV1 71.2

Verse 2. And I will turn you back, and destroy you with six plagues; and I will cause you to come up from the north parts, and will bring you upon the governments of my people.MWV1 72.1

Verse 3. And I will smite your bow out of your left hand, and cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand, i.e. destroy all their power.MWV1 72.2

Verse 4. You shall be destroyed by the government of my people; you, and all your armies, and the people who support your power. I will give you to the warriors of the common people, and to the smaller kingdoms, to be destroyed. This has been literally fulfilled with the four great monarchies, which have each in their turn persecuted the visible people of God. First, Babylon, the lady of kingdoms, was destroyed by the two smaller kingdoms of Media and Persia. Persia, the second great monarchy, was destroyed by the small states of Grecia. Then Grecia became the third great monarchy, and in her turn was swallowed up by the Roman Republic. Rome in her turn became mistress of the world, and a great empire; which was destroyed by the barbarians of the north. (See verse 2.) Then arose up the wonderful beast, Papacy, which is the Gog of our day, and ruled over kings, filled the world with her abominations, and must and will fall upon the mountains of Israel. Already have the kings of the earth eaten her flesh, and no one can dispute but that the present signs of the times indicate her final dissolution; together with the false prophet, the Turkish empire, and Eastern Gog.MWV1 72.3

Verse 5. You shall fall upon the face of the field, (world;) for I have spoken it, saith the LORD GOD.MWV1 72.4

Verse 6. And I will send a fire on Magog, (supporters of Gog,) and among them that dwell confidently in the isles, and they shall know that I am the Lord. So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the Gentiles shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel, (the church.) Thus far we have the character of Gog.MWV1 72.5

Verse 8. “Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord God; this is the day whereof I have spoken.” We learn by this text that Gog had already come, in that day when Ezekiel prophesied, and the work was already done of leading the children of God into bondage, as God had spoken by Moses and his former prophets. Already were the prophecies being fulfilled concerning these kingdoms which would be the chief ones of the earth. Compare Isaiah 14:4-9. Amos 6:1-14.MWV1 73.1

Verse 9. “And they that dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth,” be scattered over the world, or in these kingdoms called Gog, “and shall set on fire and burn the weapons,” their armor of opposition to the word of God, which is compared to fire, (see Jeremiah 5:14,) “both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves and the spears,” (Isaiah 54:15-17,) “and they shall make a fire of them seven years.” Compare with Isaiah 10:12-25. Obadiah 18. Luke 12:49. (The seven years spoken of in this verse will be attended to under my last division.)MWV1 73.2

Verse 10. “So that they shall take no wood out of the field, neither cut down any out of the forests; for they shall burn the weapons with fire.” This shows us that the people of God would not be under the necessity of going forth into the open field of the world to find subjects, on which to operate by the fire of God’s word, but they would find enough among themselves; nor to go into the dark and benighted corners of the earth, while there were heathen enough in their immediate vicinity. “And they shall spoil those that spoiled them, and rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord God.” By this clause it is evident I am right in my construction of the former; for here we are clearly informed, they shall spoil and rob those (meaning the nations) that had spoiled and robbed them. And surely the history of these nations, from Babylon to Rome, has proved this prophecy to be true.MWV1 73.3

Verse 11. “And it shall come to pass at that day, that I will give unto Gog,” meaning Rome papal, who would be chief prince at the closing scene of the world, “a place there of graves in Israel,” meaning a place where the power of Gog, or Rome papal, would be destroyed among the people of God. “The valley of the passengers on the east of the sea.” This, in my opinion, means the great thoroughfare in Europe on the east of the Atlantic, as England, France and Germany; here, Papacy would meet its death-blow. “And it should stop the mouths of passengers; and there shall they bury Gog, and all his multitude; and they shall call it the valley of Hamon-gog,” or multitude of papal Rome. To “bury,” is to put down, or rule over. See Ecclesiastes 8:9, 10: “All this have I seen, and applied my heart unto every work that is done under the sun: there is a time wherein one man ruleth over another to his own hurt. And so I saw the wicked buried, who had come and gone from the place of the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where they had so done: this is also vanity.”MWV1 74.1

Verse 12, shows how long the kings of the earth would be putting down the power of Rome papal. “Seven months shall the house of Israel be in burying them, that they may cleanse the land.” This would be done by christian kingdoms. See Revelation 17:16, 17: “And the ten horns which thou sawest upon the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God hath put in their hearts to fulfil his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom unto the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled.”MWV1 74.2

Verse 13. “Yea, all the people of the land shall bury them; and it shall be to them a renown, the day I shall be glorified, saith the LORD GOD.” This text shows us that this will be done immediately previous to the glorification of the saints. And who cannot see, in the history of Europe, an exact fulfilment of this prophecy, for more than two centuries past?MWV1 74.3

Verse 14. “And they shall sever out men (missionaries) of continual employment, passing through the land to bury with the passengers those that remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it: after the end of seven months (which I will show was 1798) shall they search.”MWV1 75.1

Verse 15. “And the passengers (or people of God who are called “strangers and pilgrims”) that pass through the land, when any seeth a man’s bone, (or principles of Papacy,) then shall he set up a sign by it, till the buriers (kings or rulers) have buried it in the valley of the multitude of Gog,” (or Papacy.)MWV1 75.2

Verse 16. “And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus shall they cleanse the land.” What city is this? I answer, it is the great city, Babylon, that “made all nations (multitude) drink of the wine of the wrath of her fornication.” Revelation 14:8. It is the great city which is now or will be “divided into three parts.” Revelation 16:19. Also the great city “which reigneth over the kings of the earth.” Revelation 17:18. It is called a woman, because she claims to be the church of Christ; she is called the multitude, because she is the mother of more children than any other, or all others, on the earth; she is called Gog, because she is chief prince, and rules, or hath ruled, over the kings of the earth.MWV1 75.3

Ezekiel 39:17-21.MWV1 75.4

And, thou son of man, thus saith the Lord God; Speak unto every feathered fowl, and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves, and come; gather yourselves on every side to my sacrifice that I do sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that ye may eat flesh and drink blood. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan.MWV1 75.5

Revelation 19:17-21.MWV1 75.6

And I saw an angel standing in the sun; and he cried with a loud voice, saying to all the fowls that fly in the midst of heaven, Come, and gather yourselves together unto the supper of the great God; that ye may eat the flesh of kings, and the flesh of captains, and the flesh of mighty men, and the flesh of horses, and of them that sit on them, and the flesh of all men, both free and bond, both small and great. And I saw the beast, and the kings of the earth, and theirMWV1 75.7

Ezekiel 39:17-21. cont.MWV1 76.1

And ye shall eat fat till ye be full, and drink blood till ye be drunken, of my sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. Thus ye shall be filled at my table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all men of war, saith the Lord God. And I will set my glory among the heathen, and all the heathen shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.MWV1 76.2

Revelation 19:17-21. cont. armies, gathered together to make war against him that sat on the horse, and against his army. And the beast was taken, and with him the false prophet that wrought miracles before him, with which he deceived them that had received the mark of the beast, and them that worshipped his image. These both were cast alive into a lake of fire burning with brimstone. And the remnant were slain with the sword of him that sat upon the horse, which sword proceeded out of his mouth: and all the fowls were filled with their flesh.MWV1 76.3

Let the reader compare, if he please, Ezekiel 38:14-22, with Revelation 16:14 to 21, and he must see a striking likeness between the two prophecies; and that, in both places, they describe the last great battle of the kings and of the world, when Christ will come and destroy all the kingdoms of this world, and set up a kingdom which will fill the whole earth. Every living thing on earth is described as taking part in this awful conflict. The heavens and earth shake in this mighty war; voices and thunders, lightnings and earthquakes, fish and fowl, beast and birds, men and worms, blood and fire, plague and pestilence, rain and hail, all commingle in this last great throe of expiring nature. How awful is the scene described by these two prophets! Some expositors have supposed this to be a moral battle only; but I am of the opinion, as every living and active thing, whether in earth, air or water, is described as taking a part in this mighty struggle, so will every power, whether spiritual or physical, be put in desperate requisition in this last struggle for an earthly existence. I could not, upon the supposition of a moral battle only, account for this description of kings and captains, warriors and mighty men, horses and chariots, bond and free. If it is all to be understood in a moral sense, why are they called princes of the earth? Why are they to eat fat and drink blood until they are full? Surely, I think these questions cannot be answered, if it is a moral battle only. From the 22nd to 24th verse inclusive, God shows the prophet, that then he will justify himself in the eyes of his people, and in the eyes of the world, and show good and sufficient cause why he suffered his people to be persecuted in the world, a scattered and a peeled people; why he suffered the chief princes to rule over them; why they have been so long robbed and spoiled and led into captivity. He gives one good reason; yet we heed it not. He says it was for our iniquities, trespasses, uncleanness and transgressions.MWV1 76.4

Verse 25. “Therefore thus saith the Lord God: Now will I bring again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel, and will be jealous for my holy name.” Some have supposed that we have here a proof of the Jews being gathered to their own land; but I cannot so understand it; for not only Jacob would have to be gathered, but the whole house of Israel; and this would prove too much, unless they admit a literal resurrection before it takes place. They could not all be there without; for Jacob is dead. O yes, says the objector, but Jacob is used in that passage as a figure. Very well, sir; the very same arguments that you would bring to prove Jacob is used in a figurative sense, I will bring to show that the whole house of Israel is used so too; then what becomes of literal Israel? Paul has given us, in Romans 11:26, the meaning of Jacob; it is those whose sins are forgiven through the atonement, and turned from ungodliness. Israel is said to be the children of Christ. Romans 9:6-8. Then the bringing of them again is the bringing of his sons to glory. Hebrews 2:10. And the gathering of his elect from the four winds of heaven, and from the land of death, the last enemy, and sanctifying them in the sight of the world, (for every eye will see them separated, changed, and caught up to meet the Lord at his coming,) is an explanation of the 27th verse.MWV1 77.1

Verse 28. “Then shall they know that I am the Lord their God, which caused them to be led into captivity among the heathen: but I have gathered them unto their own land,” (new heavens and new earth, 2 Peter 3:13,) “and have left none of them any more there.” Where? None are left in death, nor in the grave; for certainly the grave is called the land of the enemy. Jeremiah 31:16. Now if this passage means the literal Jew, then certainly it includes the whole; for none are left any more there. This would prove too much for our judaizing teachers.MWV1 77.2

Verse 29. “Neither will I hide my face any more from them.” This certainly must be after Christ’s second advent. 1 John 3:2: “Beloved, now are we the sons of God; and it doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when he shall appear, we shall be like him; for we shall see him as he is.” See Isaiah 54:8: “In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy Redeemer.” Now let the reader examine this chapter, and he will find the same gathering and promises as in Ezekiel, and if one means Jews only, so must the other. “For I have poured out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.” The house of Israel. What language could the prophets have used, in the days when the Old-Testament prophets prophesied, to have described the people of God under the new dispensation, better than Jacob, Israel, etc.? What, my brethren, will rend the veil from your faces in reading the Old Testament? Have you no love for the soul of the perishing Jew? Will you deceive them until the last? Will you forever harp on the old string, “God’s ancient covenant people?” Will you not even inquire who are that people? Are they the Jews? No, sir, not the Jews only; for the promise was first made to Abraham, that in his seed all the nations of the earth should be blessed. Where is the Jew, as a Jew, said to be entitled to one promise in the gospel, that the Gentile is not? Can you say they have a promise of the land of Canaan, which is not fulfilled? See Joshua 23:14, 15: “And ye know in all your hearts, and in all your souls, that not one thing hath failed of all the good things which the Lord your God spake concerning you; all hath come to pass unto you, and not one thing hath failed thereof.” Then, in my opinion, the captivity spoken of in verse 25th, is the subjection the people of God have been and will continue in to Gog, the principal kingdoms of the world, until Christ’s second advent; when he will destroy all those kingdoms, conquer death, and let his people go free.MWV1 78.1