Ver. 1. Prophesy against Gog.] Prophesy again against him, for my people’s greater comfort. The Jews—noted ever to have been a light, serial, and fanatical nation, apt to work themselves into the fool’s paradise of a sublime dotage—expounding this prophecy according to the letter, conclude that Christ is not yet come, because these things here foretold are not yet fulfilled. When he doth come, they say, he shall set up his kingdom at Jerusalem, gather all Israel out of all coasts unto himself there, send each one to his own tribe, and that most certainly, by the operation of his Holy Spirit. There they shall be no sooner settled, and the kingdom not yet fully established, but Gog and Magog shall bring a huge army against Jerusalem, where they shall fall by the sword, lie unburied, &c.
Ver. 2. And I will turn thee back.] Convertam vel conteram te. See Ezekiel 38:3. And leave but the sixth part of thee.] Or, Strike thee with six plagues, or draw thee back with a hook of six teeth. [as Ezekiel 38:4] Sextabo re. And will cause thee to come.] This is much and often inculcated, that it is God who brings in and drives out the Church’s enemies. This is a quieting consideration. In frusta vel scintillas redigam te. -Pintus.
Ver. 3. And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand.] I will disarm thee. As Herodotus reporteth of Sennacherib and his Assyrians in Egypt, that their quivers, bow strings, and targets were gnawn to pieces by mice and rats in one night, so that they were forced to flee for their lives. And as our chroniclers tell us, that in the battle between Edward III of England and Philip of France, there fell such a piercing shower of rain as dissolved their strings, and made their bows unuseful. Lib. ii. Dan, 237.
Ver. 4. Thou shalt fall upon, the mountains of Israel.] Thither thou shalt come indeed, as Antiochus did into the temple, antichrist into the Church of God, (2 Thessalonians 2:4) but there thou shalt take thy end.
Ver. 5. Thou shall fall upon the open field.] Heb., The face of the field, which thou shall dung with thy dead carcase.
Ver. 6. And I will send a fire on Magog.] So God will one day on Rome, that Radix omnium malorum root of all evil things. (Revelation 18:18,19) And among them that dwell carelessly in the isles.] Who must not think there to moat up themselves against my fire.
Ver. 7. I will not let them pollute my holy name.] As if I were less able to deliver my people, or less mindful of my promises.
Ver. 8. Behold, it is come, and it is done.] It is as good as done. So, “Babylon is fallen”— i.e., It will fall certainly, quickly, utterly. This is the day.] O dieculam illam! O that short time. When shall it once be? O mora! Christe veni. O delay! Christ, come.
Ver. 9. And they that dwell.] Hyperbolical expressions; though the Jews hold otherwise. See on Ezekiel 39:1. Shall set on fire and burn the weapons.] Do not the Church’s champions so at this day, ever since they proclaimed and proved the Pope to be that antichrist; burning up his weapons—his false doctrines and heresies—by the fire of God’s Word, and giving their bodies to be burned for the testimony of Jesus? And they shall burn them with fire seven years,] i.e., Diutissime et saepissime! Most long and most often. This seven years is not yet out. The Jesuits say Satan sent Luther, and God sent them to withstand him. But there is a succession of Luthers to find them work enough still, and to burn up their weapons that the churches may be at rest.
Ver. 10. So that they shall take no wood.] This must needs be hyperbolic, as are also sundry other passages in Holy Scripture. When Luther burnt the Pope’s decrees and decretals at Wittemberg, it was a fair fire doubtless, as Solon once said of the fire he caused to be made at Athens of the bills and bonds of the Athenian usurers.
Ver. 11. I will give unto Gog a place there of graves.] That is all the portion or possession he gets in the Holy Land. On the east of the sea.] The Dead Sea, or the lake of Sodom—a fit place for antichrist to be buried in: he shall at last be cast alive into a worse lake. (Revelation 19:20) And it shall stop the noses of passengers.] By reason of stench, or the mouths of passengers from speaking evil of God’s people. And they shall call it.] For a lasting monument of God’s great mercy, in ridding the country of such pests.
Ver. 12. And seven months shall the house of Israel be burying of them.] That is, a long while; like as the Reformed Churches were in rooting out Popery, those damnable doctrines, ceremonies, images, relics, bulls, and books. Here in England, the Romish religion stood a whole month and more after the death of Queen Mary, as before. December 27, it was permitted that the Epistles, Gospels, Ten Commandments, Lord’s Prayer, Creed, and Litany should be used in the Vulgate tongue. March 22, when the Estates of the realm were assembled, by renewing of a law of Edward VI, was granted the whole use of the Lord’s Supper—that is, under both kinds. June 24, the sacrifice of the mass was abolished, and the liturgy in the English tongue established. In July, the oath of supremacy was ministered; and in August, images were removed out of churches, broken or burnt. “ Tantae molis erat Romanam abscondere gentem. ” Camden’s Elisabeth.
Ver. 13. And it shall be to them a renown.] A monument or trophy of their triumph. When the Switzers, A.D. 1443, had vanquished the Thuricenses in battle, they banqueted in the place where they won the victory, using the dead bodies of their adversaries instead of stools and tables. Lanquet Chron., p. 263.
Ver. 14. And they shall sever out men of continual employment.] Viros quotidianos; men that shall stick to it, making it their business: Pollinctores: vespillones. So do our public professors and others, to confute Popish tenets, and to decry their customs. In doing whereof, they are assidui et accubui. constant and near.
Ver. 15. Then shall he set up a sign by it.] A statue, pillar, or sepulchral monument, that the butlers may bury it. Oh that in like sort God would cause the prophet, all relics and rags of Popery, and other heresy, together with the unclean spirit, to pass out of our land. (Zechariah 13:2)
Ver. 16. And also the name of the city shall be Hamonah,] i.e., Multitude or tumult; and all to keep up the memory of that signal victory. Near unto the University of Cambridge, on the southeast side, there appear aloft certain high hills called Gog Magog hills; but wherefore I know not. But not far from them is Heretics’ hill, so called by the Papists because Bilney and Latimer were wont there to walk.
Ver. 17. Speak unto every feathered fowl.] A further explanation of that which had been said. (Ezekiel 39:4) Assemble yourselves.] Jeremiah 12:9 Re 19:17; To my sacrifice.] To this great slaughter of enemies whom I do sacrifice, as it were, to my justice.
Ver. 18. Ye shall eat the flesh of the mighty.] Whose flesh may he, perhaps, more delicate. And drink the blood.] Blood royal, of a noble alloy. Sed nihil inde colligas, quam perpetuam eorum damnationem qui verbum Dei persequuntur, quique populum Israel spiritualem exagitant. It importeth the eternal damnation of atheists and antichrists. Oecolampadius.
Ver. 19. Of my sacrifice.] Or, Of my good cheer. So God calleth it, to show how well pleased he is with the destruction of his Church’s enemies.
Ver. 20. With horses and chariots,] i.e., With men that ride on horses, and fight out of chariots.
Ver. 21. And all the heathen shall see my judgment.] Antiochus did so, and Maximinus the emperor, and other tyrants, when seized upon by such judgments of God as they could neither avoid nor abide.
Ver. 22. From that day and forward.] Their experience shall breed confidence.
Ver. 23. And the heathen shall know.] They shall be convinced of the equability of my proceedings, and the truth of my menaces.
Ver. 24. According to their uncleanness.] I have not shown my sovereignty, or exercised tyranny towards them, but done them right.
Ver. 25. Now will I bring again.] Three things he here promiseth his people, notwithstanding all the sorrow, (1.) Effectual vocation; (2.) Justification here; (3.) Glorification. (Ezekiel 39:29) The Sun of righteousness loves not to set in a cloud. And will be jealous.] Or, Zealous; “the zeal of the Lord of hosts,” his free grace, “shall effect it,”
Ver. 26. After that they have borne their shame.] Are become soundly ashamed of their sinful practices: Hoc enim ingenium est verae fidei, saith Oecolampadius, for this is the nature of true faith, to blush and bleed for sins past. When they dwelt safely in their land.] And so settled on their lease through carnal security.
Ver. 27. And am sanctified in them,] i.e., Have fully shown my sanctity and majesty, both by their punishment and by their deliverance.
Ver. 28. And have left none of them any more there.] Here the Jews triumph and say, When was this promise ever fulfilled? and how, then, can the Messiah be come already? Hereunto it is rightly answered, that this prophecy is to be taken partly literally, and so it was fulfilled at the return of the captives out of Babylon. See Ezra 3:1. Partly spiritually; and so Christ will at the last day raise up every one of his elect,—that Israel indeed,—and gather them to himself; not one of them shall be missing. Lavat. in loc.
Ver. 29. Neither Will I hide my face any more from them.] They shall have beatiful vision and fruition for ever. See on Ezekiel 39:25. For I have poured out my spirit.] Have already, and will do yet more liberally in the days of the gospel. (Acts 2:2-7 John 7:38)