the word of the Lord. 5. Thus saith the Lord God unto these bones; Behold, I will cause breath to enter into you, and ye shall live. 6. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will bring up flesh upon you, and cover you with skin, and put breath in you; and ye shall live, and ye shall know that I am the Lord. 7. So I prophesied as I was commanded: and, as I prophesied, there was a noise; and, behold, a shaking; and the bones came together, bone to his bone. 8. And when I beheld, lo, the sinews and the flesh came up upon them, and the skin covered them above: but there was no breath in them. 9. Then said he unto me, Prophesy unto the wind, prophesy, son of man, and say to the wind; Thus saith the Lord God; Come from the four winds, O breath *, and breathe upon these slain that they may live. 10. So I prophesied as he commanded me, and the breath came into them, and they lived, and stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

11. Then he said unto me, Son of man, these bones are the whole house of Israel: behold, they say, our bones are dried, and our hope is lost; we are cut off for our parts. 12. Therefore prophesy, and say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, O my people, I will open your graves, and cause you to come up out of your graves, and bring you into the land of Israel. 13. And ye shall know, that I am the Lord, when I have opened your graves, O my people, and brought you up out of your graves. 14. And I will put my Spirit in you, and ye shall live, and I will place you in your own land: then shall ye know, that I the Lord have spoken it, and performed it, saith the Lord.

15. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, 16. And thou, son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his com

sun and in the wind, that lo, they were very dry. The prophet adds, These bones are the whole house of Israel, Ephraim, as well as Judah; and puts these emphatic words into the mouth of that nation, which separately or wholly has been expecting, expecting, and trampled under foot, more than 25 centuries, Our bones are dried, and our hope is lost.

*Come from the four winds, O breath] "The words figuratively represent the restoration of the Jewish nation from the several countries whither they were dispersed over the world, expressed by their being scattered toward all winds." Mr. Lowth in loc.

panions. Then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel his companions*: 17. And join them one to another into one stick, and they shall become one in thine hand. 18. And, when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these? 19. Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel, his fellows, and will put them upon him with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand. 20. And the sticks, whereon thou writest shall be in thine hand before their eyes. 21. And say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the children of Israel from among the nations whither they be gone, and will gather them on every side, and bring them into their own land: 22. And I will make them one nation in the land upon the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king to them all; and they shall be no more two nations, neither shall they be divided into two kingdoms any more at all. 23. Neither

shall they defile themselves any more with their idols, nor with their detestable things, nor with any of their transgressions: but I will save them out of all their dwelling places wherein they have sinned, and will cleanse them, and they shall be my people, and I will be their God. 24. And David my servant shall be king over them, and they shall all have one shepherd: and they shall walk in my judgments, and observe my statutes, and do them. 25. And they shall dwell in the land that I have given unto Jacob my servant, wherein your fathers have dwelt; and they shall dwell therein, even they and their children, and their children's children, for ever :

*

Judah, and the children of Israel his companions-Joseph, and all the house of Israel his companions.] This remarkable expression might alone prove, that the restoration of the house of Israel, so often predicted by the prophets, did not take place, to the degree that it ever will take place, at the return from the Babylonian captivity. Judah is here mentioned, with the children of Israel his companions; or Levi, Benjamin, and such individuals of the ten tribes as followed him from Babylon: while Joseph is separately mentioned, as having all the house of Israel for his companions; or the great body of the ten tribes. After the destruction of Antichrist, Judah so circumstanced, and Joseph so circumstanced, are to coalesce into people.

and my servant David shall be their prince for ever. 26. And I will make a covenant of peace with them: it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will place them, and multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for evermore. 27. And my taber. nacle shall be with them: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. 28. And the nations shall know, that I the Lord do sanctify Israel*, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for evermore.

xxxviii. 1. And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, son of man, set thy face against Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Mesech, and Tubal†, and prophesy against him: 3. And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Mesech, 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 end of years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back

"The conver

* The nations shall know, that I the Lord do sanctify Israel.] sion of the Jewish nation, and their being restored to their former state of favour and acceptance with God, will be a work of Providence taken notice of by the heathens themselves, who shall join themselves to the Jews, as the church of God and temple of truth. See Chap. xxxvi. 23." Mr. Lowth in loc.

Gog of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Mesech, and Tubal.] So the LXX. Aρxovтa 'Pws, Mecox, naι Oobeλ. Our translation takes way to be a common name, and thence reads chief prince, which is a manifest tautology: whereas is the name of a people, like Mesech, and Tubal. The Russians and Muscovites seem to be colonies of Rosh and Mesech or (as the name may be pronounced) Mosch; but I know not, that we have any reason for supposing that they are here intended (See Bochart. Geog. Sacr. L. iii. C. 12, 13. or Well's Geography of the Old Testament. Vol. i. p. 78.) We may infer from Daniel, that we ought to look for the confederacy of Gog and Magog within the ancient territories of the three first beasts: there accordingly we find the ori ginal settlements of all the nations enumerated by Ezekiel. But let us forbear to speculate on this obscure subject, further than we have the express warrant of Scripture. See Abp. Newcome's Ezek. in loc.

from the sword, and gathered out of many peoples, against the mountains of Israel, which have been perpetually for a desolation: yet it is brought forth out of the nations, and they are dwelling in confident security 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 in confident security, 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 once desolate places that are now inhabit, ed, upon the people 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; Shalt not thou know† in that day when my people Israel dwelleth in confident security? 15. Yea, 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 Israel, as a cloud to cover the land in the end of

* The merchants of Tarshish.] I know not who can be here intended except the great maritime nation of faithful worshippers, which had so vigorously opposed the tyranny of Antichrist, and which had been so instrumental in bringing back the converted division of Judah. It is pleasing to behold them, at the end of the Millennium, still preserving their ancient character, and refusing to cast in their lot with Gog and Magog, as they had heretofore refused to do with Edom. Faithful to their old principles and their old alliance, they ask, in astonishment at this new impiety, "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 ?"

†Shalt not thou know.] Abp. Newcome translates this passage Shalt thou not rise up? instead of Shalt thou not know ? reading yn on the authority of the LXX. who translate the word, as it stood in their copy, eyepenon.

days it shall be that I will bring thee against my land, that the nations 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.

xxxix. 1. And thou, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the prince of Rosh, Mesech, and Tubal: 2. And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts, and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel: 3. And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right

* The end of days.] Since Antichrist is destroyed at the end of days, and since Gog and Magog likewise perish at the end of days; and since Antichrist is destroyed previous to the commencement of the Millennium, and Gog and Magog at the close of it: the end of days must necessarily mean, as I have elsewhere argued, that portion of time which begins at the termination of the great apostasy of 1260 years, and which expires at the end of the Millennium. See my Dissert. on the 1260 years. Vol. i. p. 85-88, 2d edit. p. 89---92.