1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.
10 Thus saith the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.
13 Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?
14 Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord God; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
15 And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
16 And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
17 Thus saith the Lord God; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
18 And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my fury shall come up in my face.
19 For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
21 And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God: every man's sword shall be against his brother.
22 And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
23 Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.
<html><b>toward Gog</b> So is the king’s name. <b>Magog</b> The name of the nation, as Scripture states (Gen. 10: 2): “Gomer and Magog.”</html>
<html><b>And I shall unbridle you</b> [Heb. וְשּׁוֹבַבְתִּיךָ.] I shall make you שׁוֹבָב a unbridled, backsliding, envoyzer in Old French, to unbridle. Whoever follows the dictates of his heart is called שּׁוֹבַב, as (Isa. 57: 17): “for he went rebelliously (שּׁוֹבֵב) in the way of his heart.” <b>and I shall put hooks into your jaws</b> It is customary to lead out a beast with the hooks in its jaws because it does not want to go [voluntarily]. I, too, will put thoughts into your heart and an urge that will draw you from your land to come upon Israel.</html>
<html><b>and all its wings</b> And all those around it.</html>
<html><b>Be prepared and make ready for yourself</b> Prepare yourself, and make ready for yourself an army of others. <b>be prepared</b> [as translated,] be prepared. <b>and you will be to them for a guardian</b> It is the custom of kings to pay attention, concerning their armies, to how they will march forth, and to appoint guards so that a destroyer should not come upon his army at night.</html>
<html><b>From many days past you will be remembered</b> From the many days past that you sinned against Me, you will now be remembered before Me, for [Me] to remember your iniquities and to pay you your recompense. And I shall entice you at the end of years into coming to the land of Israel, “returned from the sword” whose inhabitants returned from the exile wherein they had been exiled by the enemy’s sword. <b>which had been continually laid waste</b> these many years, and [only] shortly before your coming upon them, they returned. <b>but it was liberated from the nations</b> But you should have taken into consideration that it liberated from the nations, and He Who liberated it from the nations will not leave it in your hands.</html>
<html><b>like mist</b> [Heb. כַּשּׁוֹאָה,] like darkness that covers the earth, שּׁוֹאָה is broine, bruine in Old French, fog, mist.</html>
<html><b>words will enter</b> Thoughts will arise. <b>a thought of evil</b> to wage war against Me.</html>
<html><b>upon a land of open cities</b> [Heb. פְּרָזוֹת,] dwellers in villages without a wall, who trust in their might and are not [so] afraid as to gather into fortified cities. פְּרָזוֹת is like (Deut. 3:5): “in addition to the very many open cities (עָרֵי הַפְרָזִי),” without a wall. <b>I shall come</b> to the tranquil ones and see what they trust in.</html>
<html><b>to return your hand upon the resettled ruins</b> To destroy a second time the cities that were in ruins until now, and now have been settled. <b>and to a people gathered</b> from peoples, who now acquire livestock and possessions. <b>on the navel of the earth</b> In the height and the strength of the earth, like the navel, which is in the center of a person and slopes downward from all its sides.</html>
<html><b>and all its magnates</b> [Heb. כְּפִירֶיהָ,] shrewd merchants therein, who are accustomed to roam, like young lions (כְּפִירִים), in all the countries and who know where the place of riches is. <b>Are you coming to take spoil</b> i.e., who told you the place of the riches? Did you know [for a fact] that you are going to a land full of spoil and loot, and that there you will really find powerful wealth?</html>
<html><b>you will know</b> Jonathan renders: you will know the retribution of My might, i.e., you will know and recognize Who is their might and their stronghold.</html>
<html><b>Are you he</b> In those days, the Holy One, blessed be He, will say, “Are you the one about whom I spoke in ancient days through My servants, the prophets of Israel, e.g. Ezekiel and Zechariah?” For he [Zechariah] too prophesied about the wars of Gog and Magog (Zech. 14:2): “And I will gather all the nations, etc.” Our Sages said (Sanh. 17a): Eldad and Medad they [also] prophesied about it. That is the שָּׁנִים stated here. Do not read שָּׁנִים, years, but שְּׁנַיִם, two. Two prophets prophesied one prophecy at one time (though not in the same style of expression).</html>
<html><b>a great noise</b> [Heb. רַעַשּׁ,] through noise and thunder, as he states.</html>
<html><b>and the cliffs shall fall</b> [Heb. הַמַּדְרִגוֹת.] I heard that they are perpendicular hanging rocks, which appear to be falling, but I say that they are mounds of the towers, for they dig around and cast up the earth in the center to raise the mound, and it is made into steps, eschelons, eschillons in Old French, steps, in order that the earth remain, and after it is pressed down well, they remove the forms that hold up the step.</html>
<html><b>And I will call the sword against him upon all My mountains</b> for the sword to come upon them, against him. “And I will call” means, I will prepare. And what is the sword that I will call against him? Their own sword: “every man’s sword shall be against his brother.”</html>
<html><b>and great hailstones</b> Hailstones that glisten like precious stones named גָּבִישּׁ, crystal, as the matter is stated (Job 28:18): “Coral and crystal (וְגָּבִישּׁ).” Our Sages said (Ber. 54b): עַל גַב אִישּׁ: Hailstones that started to fall on Egypt, and stood in the air over the man (עַל גַב אִישּׁ), Moses, who prayed that they not fall, as the matter that is stated (Exod. 9:33), לֹא נִתַּךְ אַרְצָה “[it] did not reach the ground.”</html>