Ezekiel 38:13
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Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish with all its villages will ask, ‘Have you come to capture the plunder? Have you assembled your hordes to carry away loot, to make off with silver and gold, to take cattle and goods, to seize great spoil?’
Commentaries
Excerpts gathered from published commentaries to ground the reading.
This chapter, and that which follows it, are concerning Gog and Magog, a powerful enemy to the people of Israel, that should make a formidable descent upon them, and put them into a consternation, but their army should be routed and their design defeated; and this prophecy, it is most probable, had its accomplishment some time after the return of the people of Israel out of their captivity, whether in the struggles they had with the kings of Syria, especially Antiochus Epiphanes, or perhaps in some other way not recorded, we cannot tell. If the sacred history of the Old Testament had reached as far as the prophecy, we should have been better able to understand these chapters, but, for want of that key, we are locked out of the meaning of them. God had by the prophet assured his people of happy times after their return to their own land; but lest they should mistake the promises which related to the kingdom of the Messiah and the spiritual privileges of that the kingdom of the Messiah and the spiritual privileges of that kingdom, as if from them they might promise themselves an uninterrupted temporal prosperity, he here tells them, as Christ told his disciples to prevent the like mistake, that in the world they shall have tribulation, but they may be of good cheer, for they shall be victorious at last. This prophecy here of Gog and Magog is without doubt alluded to in that prophecy which relates to the latter days, and which seems to be yet unfulfilled (Rev 20:8), that Gog and Magog shall be gathered to battle against the camp of the saints, as the Old Testament prophecies of the destruction of Babylon are alluded to, Rev. 18. But, in both, the Old Testament prophecies had their accomplishment in the Jewish church as the New Testament prophecies shall have when the time…
Open source ↗38:13 The merchant nations of the world, from Sheba and Dedan in the east to Tarshish in the west, would line up to market the spoils from the apparently sure victory of Gog and his allies.
Open source ↗Original language
The Hebrew and Greek words behind this passage, with Strong's numbers — from openscriptures (CC BY-SA).
Cross-references
Other passages the community most often connects to this one. Tap to read.
The men of Dedan were your clients; many coastlands were your market; they paid you with ivory tusks and ebony.
“Son of man, take up a lament for Pharaoh king of Egypt and say to him: ‘You are like a lion among the nations; you are like a monster in the seas. You thrash about in your rivers, churning up the waters with your feet and muddying the streams.’
Tarshish was your merchant because of your great wealth of goods; they exchanged silver, iron, tin, and lead for your wares.
therefore this is what the Lord GOD says: I will stretch out My hand against Edom and cut off from it both man and beast. I will make it a wasteland, and from Teman to Dedan they will fall by the sword.
Dedan was your merchant in saddlecloths for riding.
They will roar together like young lions; they will growl like lion cubs.
I will send him against a godless nation; I will dispatch him against a people destined for My rage, to take spoils and seize plunder, and to trample them down like clay in the streets.
The ships of Tarshish carried your merchandise. And you were filled with heavy cargo in the heart of the sea.
Your wealth and your treasures I will give up as plunder, without charge for all your sins within all your borders.
My soul is among the lions; I lie down with ravenous beasts— with men whose teeth are spears and arrows, whose tongues are sharp swords.