Ezekiel Chapter 38 verse 8 Holy Bible

Pulpit Commentary

Pulpit CommentaryVerse 8. - After many days thou halt be visited. The principal controversy raised by these words is as to whether they signify, as Hitzig, Fairbairn, and Kliefoth suppose, that after many days Gog should be entrusted with the command of the aforementioned nations, or, as Ewald, Hengstenberg, Keil, Schroder, Plumptre, and Currey translate, that Gog, who intended to visit Israel, should himself be visited, in the sense of being punished. In support of the former rendering appeal is taken to Nehemiah 7:1; Nehemiah 12:44; and Jeremiah 15:3; but the verb פָםקד when used in this sense is commonly followed by עַל with the accusative of that or those with reference to which or whom the appointment is made or commission issued, and in addition no such commission with reference to these other nations was ever given by God to Gog. In vindication of the second meaning of the words, Isaiah 24:22 and Isaiah 29:6 are ordinarily quoted: while in answer to the objection that it is too soon to talk of punishment for an offense not yet committed, it is customary to reply that, as Jehovah's stirring up of Gog was the first step towards his ultimate overthrow, that stirring up might fairly be described as at least the beginning of his judicial visitation. Havernick's translation, "For a long time thou wilt be missed," i.e. considered as a people that has utterly vanished," is forced; Smend's is better, "After many days thou shalt be mustered," or numbered. In any case Gog's first movement should take place in the latter years; literally, at the end of the years - a frequent prophetic phrase (see Genesis 49:1; Numbers 24:14; Isaiah 2:2; Daniel 10:14; Micah 4:1), here denoting the Messianic era, and should assume the form of an invasion of the land of Israel, which is next described by a threefold characterization. (1) As a land brought back from the sword, not in the sense of its people having been made to desist from war, through being henceforth peacefully inclined (comp. Isaiah 2:4; Micah 2:8), or of their having ceased to expect war, because of living ever after securely (ver. 11), but in that of having been recovered from its devastations (Ezekiel 6:3-5); (2) as a land whose inhabitants had been gathered out of many nations - a phrase, which while starting from and including the return from Babylon, manifestly looked beyond that event to the wider dispersion of Israel that should precede the final ingathering; and (3) as a land whose mountains had been always waste; literally, for a waste continually. If such was their condition prior to the return from captivity, it is undeniable that such has practically been their condition ever since, and such it is likely to continue to be, until the final ingathering of the dispersed of Israel.

Ellicott's Commentary

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers(8) After many days thou shalt be visited.--This clause has been variously interpreted. The expression "after many days" is the common one to indicate that what is predicted is yet far in the future, and corresponds to the "latter years" of the next clause. The words "thou shalt be visited" are the usual form of expressing a coming judgment. Various ingenious attempts have been made, with no great success, to give the words a different sense here. The supposed difficulty arises from not observing that the whole course of Gog is here viewed together as a single transaction. It is not merely his ultimate destruction, but the steps which led to it, his hostile attacks upon the Church, which are represented as brought about under God's providence and forming a part of the visitation upon him. It is as if one spoke now of a man's whole career of sin as a Divine visitation upon the sinner in consequence of his neglect of proffered grace, instead of speaking only of his ultimate punishment.The land.--Rather, a land. Judaea had been long desolated, but was now restored. The word people here, as in Ezekiel 38:6, is in the plural and marks the gathering back, not from one, but from many quarters.Always waste.--Literally, continually waste. The mountains of Israel had been by no means always waste, but during the period of the captivity had been so constantly. Yet the word is commonly used for a relatively long period, for which the time of the captivity seems too short. It may therefore, with the dispersion among "many peoples" of the previous clause, indicate the time of the later and longer continued dispersion of the Jews. In the last clause "shall dwell" is not to be taken as a future, but as a description of the existing condition of the people.