Cornelius a Lapide
Table of Contents
Synopsis of the Chapter
He has treated of the kingdom of Israel and of Christ, and of the resurrection; now he treats of the contrary kingdom of the Antichrist, namely of his leaders, and the army of Gog and Magog, and their power, then foretells their destruction. Together with the peace of the Church, the Prophet thus brings the prophecy and the end of the world to a close. In this chapter, therefore, first he describes the arms, forces, and allied nations of Gog, and the force and attack by which he will invade the Church, and in particular Jerusalem, then faithful and Christian. Then, from verse 17, he pursues his destruction: namely that by mutual slaughter, plague, fire, stones and lightning sent from heaven upon his forces, all shall perish.
Vulgate Text: Ezekiel 38:1-23
1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying: 2. Son of man, set your face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Mosoch and Thubal: and prophesy concerning him; 3. and say to him: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Mosoch and Thubal; 4. and I will turn you about, and put a bridle in your jaws: and I will bring you forth, and all your army, horses and horsemen all clothed in armor, a great multitude, seizing spear and shield and sword. 5. Persians, Ethiopians, and Libyans with them, all with shields and helmets. 6. Gomer, and all his troops, the house of Thogorma, the sides of the North, and all his strength, and many peoples with you. 7. Prepare, and equip yourself, and all your multitude that has gathered to you: and be a commander to them. 8. After many days you shall be visited: in the last years you shall come to the land that has been recovered from the sword, and has been gathered from many peoples to the mountains of Israel, which had been continually desolate: these have been brought out from the peoples, and they shall all dwell in it confidently. 9. And you shall come up like a storm, and like a cloud to cover the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you. 10. Thus says the Lord God: On that day thoughts shall arise in your heart, and you shall conceive a wicked plan: 11. and you shall say: I will go up to the land without walls: I will come upon those who are at rest, dwelling securely: all these dwell without walls, and have no bars or gates: 12. That you may seize spoils, and lay hold of plunder, that you may stretch forth your hand against those who had been desolate and afterwards restored, and against the people gathered from the nations, who have begun to possess, and to be an inhabitant of the navel of the earth. 13. Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tharsis, and all its lions shall say to you: Have you come to seize spoils? Behold, you have gathered your multitude to take plunder, to carry off silver and gold, and to take away furnishings and goods, and to seize endless booty. 14. Therefore prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog: Thus says the Lord God: Will you not know it on that day, when My people Israel shall dwell confidently? 15. And you shall come from your place, from the sides of the North, you and many peoples with you, all riders of horses, a great assembly and a mighty army. 16. And you shall go up against My people Israel like a cloud to cover the land. In the last days it shall be, and I will bring you against My land: that the nations may know Me, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes, O Gog! 17. Thus says the Lord God: You are he of whom I spoke in days of old, through My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days and times, that I would bring you against them. 18. And it shall come to pass on that day, on the day when Gog comes against the land of Israel, says the Lord God, that My indignation shall rise up in My fury. 19. And in My zeal, in the fire of My wrath, I have spoken. Because on that day there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel: 20. and the fish of the sea shall be moved before My face, and the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field, and every creeping thing that moves upon the ground, and all the men who are upon the face of the earth: and the mountains shall be overthrown, and the hedges shall fall, and every wall shall collapse to the ground. 21. And I will summon the sword against him on all My mountains, says the Lord God: every man's sword shall be directed against his brother. 22. And I will judge him with pestilence and with blood, and with violent rain and immense hailstones: I will rain fire and brimstone upon him, and upon his army, and upon the many peoples that are with him. 23. And I will be magnified and sanctified: and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord. You will ask, who are Gog and Magog? The Jews fabricate that they are innumerable Scythian peoples, who lie hidden among the Caspian mountains, and will come with the Antichrist against the Messiah, but will be slain by him in Palestine. Whence they consequently infer that the Messiah has not yet come, because Gog has not yet come, who is to be slain by him.
Verse 2: Set your face (turn yourself and prophesy freely) against Gog, the
2. Set your face (turn yourself and prophesy freely) against Gog, the land of Magog. — The Syriac translates: Set your face upon (against) Gog, and upon the land of Magog, governor (leader, prince), and head of Mosoch and Tubal. The Antiochene Arabic: Hasten and come upon the land, and make a leader (governor), because it has no prince, and Thubal. The text here seems corrupt. The Alexandrian Arabic: Set your face toward Agog, and the land of Magog, the judge of Mosoch and Tebal.
Verse 3: Chief prince of Mosoch and Thubal
3. Chief prince of Mosoch and Thubal, — that is: Prophesy against Gog; who will be the prince and ruler of the king of Cappadocia and of Spain. For "head" means king, Mosoch is Cappadocia, Thubal is Spain, as I said from Josephus on chapter 27, verse 13. Whence Hector Pintus thinks that the king of Spain will be subject to the Antichrist, and his army will be composed of Spaniards as well as other nations. Cardinal Bellarmine, however, book 3 of On the Pontiff, chapter 17, and Pineda, book 4 of On the Affairs of Solomon, chapter 7, think that the Western Spaniards, and those who migrated to Peru and America, will be in the army of the Antichrist, and this because Apocalypse chapter 20, verse 7, says that these nations will be "upon the four corners of the earth." Although others by Thubal more correctly understand neither Spaniards nor Italians, as Vatablus holds, but the Iberians, as if Ibelos, who are neighbors to the Scythians, about whom I spoke in Genesis 10:2. For Iberia is a northern region near Pontus, between Colchis and Armenia, surrounded by the Caucasian mountains, from which some are said to have set out who came to Spain: whence Spain too gradually came to be called Iberia. For Iberia here is called Northern, which Spain is not. So Ribera, Apocalypse chapter 20, number 61, and Maldonatus here.
Note: Gog will properly be the prince of the land and nation of Magog: but Magog, Mosoch, and Thubal will be three large kingdoms, just as their leaders and first inhabitants Magog, Mosoch, and Thubal were brothers, Genesis 10:2. These kingdoms will therefore each have their own kings; but the prince and emperor of all will be Gog, who is therefore called "chief prince," that is the supreme prince, as the Chaldean translates. Hence he speaks of these three as if of one only, and calls him Gog by a common name. So Maldonatus. Therefore the words of the text are to be connected and explained thus, that is: Set your face against Gog and his land Magog, against the chief prince, I say, of Mosoch and Thubal, that is: Set your face against Gog, who will properly be the prince of the land of Magog; but will be the supreme prince, that is emperor, of the regions of Mosoch and Thubal. For so the Prophet explains himself in the next chapter, verse 1, saying: "Behold, I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Mosoch and Thubal." It is certain therefore that Gog himself, and not another, as some think, will be the supreme prince of Mosoch and Thubal.
Verse 4: I will turn you about
4. I will turn you about, — so also the Septuagint, and this is better than the Chaldean, who translates, I will deceive you; and
Rabbi David, who translates, I will crush you. The meaning is, that is to say: I will bridle you, O Gog, like an unruly and untamed horse, so that you may do nothing, and harm no one, except whom I will or permit.
I will bring you forth — from your land, like a horse from the stable with a bridle placed on it, and I will destroy you outside your land. For Gog will be slain along with the Antichrist near Jerusalem, as is clear from Apocalypse 20, verses 8 and 9.
Clothed in armor. — Vatablus, clad in full armor, that is in every kind of weapon from head to foot; in French, de pied en cap [from foot to head].
Verse 6: Gomer
6. Gomer, — that is the Galatians. So Josephus, Antiquities 1, chapter 6; Theodoret, Vatablus and others.
Togarmah. — The Chaldean and Vatablus say Germany. The Scholiast takes it as the Armenians, or the Cappadocians and Galatians. Others more correctly understand the Phrygians. So Josephus and others. Likewise the Sibyl, book 3 of the Oracles, declares that various nations will come with Gog and be slain:
Woe, woe to you, Gog, and to all thereafter with Magog, Marsog and Augun: what evils fate brings upon you! Many also among the sons of the Lycians, Mysians, and Phrygians, Many also of the peoples of the Pamphylians and Lydians shall fall, And of the Moors and Ethiopians, and nations of barbarous speech, And of the Cappadocians and Arabs, etc.
Verse 7: Prepare
7. Prepare — for war. This is sarcasm, or a hostile mockery, that is to say: Ready yourself for battle; but know that in it you will be slain and perish.
Be a commander to them, — command and rule your army, lead them as a leader and emperor. The Hebrew, Chaldean and Septuagint have: Be a guard to them, that is to say: You will lead and guard in vain; for God will slay them.
Verse 8: After many days
8. After many days, — namely at the end of the world, which St. John, Apocalypse 20:7, expressed: "After a thousand," that is many, "years."
You shall be visited, — you shall be punished by God.
In the last years (near the day of judgment) you shall come to the land (that is against the Church), which has been recovered from the sword, — that is freed from the slaughter and persecution which it suffered from tyrants. Vatablus and Pagninus translate: You shall come to the land that has been crushed by the sword, that is to the Church stained with the blood of Martyrs. He alludes to Jerusalem, that is the Jews returned from Babylon; for Jerusalem is the type and symbol of the Church. Moreover, the Antichrist and Gog will literally come to Jerusalem, because the Antichrist will establish his royal seat in Jerusalem, and near it will fight with the faithful and be slain. For this is what St. John says, Apocalypse chapter 20, verse 8: "And they went up (Gog and Magog) over the breadth of the earth, and encompassed the camp of the Saints (the Christians), and the beloved city (Jerusalem). And fire came down from heaven and devoured them."
To the mountains of Israel (that is to the holy land, namely you shall come to Jerusalem. Others explain differently, that is to say: You shall come against the Church which is planted on the mountains of Israel, that is on the holy Patriarchs and Prophets, through the same faith): which had been continually desolate, — that is for a long time, namely the 70 years of captivity, Jeremiah 25:12. Indeed from Christ and Titus all the way to the Antichrist and the end of the world, through so many centuries of years, the Jews were desolate and abandoned by God and men, as were the mountains of Judea.
These (the land, that is the inhabitants of the land) have been brought out from the peoples (many), — that is called out from the Gentiles: or "brought out" from the power of the Chaldeans and of other peoples and kingdoms of the unfaithful, so that in it the citizens dwell confidently and securely.
Verse 9: Like a storm.
9. Like a storm. — Pagninus, like a multitude of waters; others, like a flood of waters that comes with violence; Pintus, like desolation or devastation. By two metaphors, namely of a storm and a cloud, he signifies the multitude and fury of Gog. Similar is Daniel 11:40 and Jeremiah 4:13.
Verse 11: You shall say: I will go up to the land without walls.
11. You shall say: I will go up to the land without walls. — that is, I will invade the Church and Judea and Jerusalem, which then will be stripped of walls and all defense and aid.
Verse 12: That you may stretch forth your hand against those who had been
12. That you may stretch forth your hand against those who had been desolate and afterwards restored — that you may afflict Christians, who in their paganism were desolate, but afterwards were restored by Christ to grace, the Church, and all good things. Secondly, and more aptly in relation to what precedes and follows, that is to say: That you may afflict Christians who in Judea lived oppressed by the Turks and as if desolate; but afterwards, having thrown off the yoke of the Turks, were restored to their freedom. Whence it seems that, as happened under Godfrey of Bouillon, so before the Antichrist the Holy Land will be recovered by Christians. Maldonatus explains differently: In Hebrew, he says, it is: That you may bring back your hand, that is, that you may again plunder those who had previously been plundered by the Chaldeans; or mystically, that you may again draw into the same captivity those who had been under the devil's captivity: or, that you may plunder them not just once, but again and again.
Who has begun to possess, — from the Hebrew you may translate: Who acquires livestock and wealth, that is who gathers livestock and riches. By these two things he means every kind of wealth: for the riches of the ancients were livestock. Mystically, by riches understand the virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit, which the Antichrist and Gog and his ministers will try to snatch from the souls of Christians. So Maldonatus.
The navel of the earth, — that is of Judea, which was in the middle of the earth then inhabited; especially because from Judea Christianity began, and from there Christians were spread in every direction throughout the whole world. For just as an infant sucks nourishment through the navel from its mother: so the other nations through Jerusalem received faith, wisdom, grace, and salvation from God. Thus Cicero, in the sixth Actio against Verres, called the city of Enna the navel of Sicily, because it was situated in the middle of the island. Thus Livy, book 5, says the Aetolians dwell at the navel of Greece: thus we call the town of Rieti the navel of Italy. Thus Cicero, book 2 of On Divination, says: "O holy Apollo, who dwell at the certain navel of the lands." Therefore the Jews err, who think Jerusalem is called the navel of the earth because it is the highest city and region of the whole earth.
Verse 13: Sheba (that is the Sabeans), and Dedan (that is the Idumeans, as is
13. Sheba (that is the Sabeans), and Dedan (that is the Idumeans, as is clear from chapter 25:13 and chapter 27:15), and the merchants of Tharsis. — The Chaldean, of the sea; the Septuagint, of Carthage; others, of Tharsus and Cilicia.
Lions. — The Chaldean, kings; the Septuagint and Theodotion translate, his villages, whom St. Jerome charges with error: "For if you write kephir with a yod," as it is written here, "it is called a lion cub; but if without yod," and you write and read with other vowel points kepher, "it is called a field and a village. Whence Capernaum is called a most beautiful field." For kepher means field, and naim means beautiful.
Verse 14: When Israel shall dwell (that is, when Christians shall dwell
14. When Israel shall dwell (that is, when Christians shall dwell peacefully in the Holy Land, then) you shall know — and you shall see what I here predict about you, O Gog, being fulfilled. The Chaldean: You shall know the vengeance of My power; the Septuagint, you shall rise up, namely against him, that is Israel.
Verse 15: From the sides of the North
15. From the sides of the North, — from Scythia; others say, from Babylon.
Verse 16: My land
16. My land, — Judea, which I made as it were My own for the fathers, and in which I, Christ, was born and lived.
When I shall be sanctified in you, — namely by punishing and slaying you, and by freeing My Christians. For then all shall glorify the holy justice and mercy of God, and shall acknowledge and worship Him as the true God.
Verse 17: Through My prophets
17. Through My prophets, — through My Prophets; for Daniel, chapters 7, 8, and 9, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and many others whose writings do not survive, prophesied about the Antichrist and his army.
Verse 18: My indignation shall rise up in My fury
18. My indignation shall rise up in My fury, — that is My raging indignation, or My furious wrath. God declares that He will be greatly angered against the Church; because on account of the sins of the faithful He will permit it to be grievously attacked and harassed by Gog and the Antichrist. Whence there will be:
Verse 19: An earthquake
19. An earthquake, — that is a great disturbance, or a most mighty earthquake, as Vatablus explains. Whence follows: "And the mountains shall be overthrown, and the hedges shall fall, and every wall shall collapse to the ground." Therefore an immense earthquake, unheard of for ages, will then occur.
Verse 20: Fish and birds.
20. Fish and birds. — This is hyperbole, that is to say: So great will be the calamity and destruction, and so universal, that fish and birds will seem to sense and dread it. For, as Pliny says, book 2, chapter 84: "Floods of the sea occur together with earthquakes, the same breath having been poured in, or having been received in the bosom of the settling earth." Therefore this spirit disturbs and alters fish in the sea and birds in the air, as much as men and things on the land, when it shakes the earth as well as the sea. Hence an earthquake was first called terripavium, then terripudium, then tripudium, from pavio, that is I strike.
The hedges shall fall. — The Chaldean: Towers shall fall; St. Jerome: Fortifications shall fall, that is to say: With all defenses and fortifications removed, nothing anywhere will be safe.
Tropologically, mountains and hedges, that is magnates, prelates, renowned and celebrated preachers shall fall and yield to the Antichrist.
Verse 21: Him
21. Him, — Gog, that is to say: I will stir up other nations, or rather his own soldiers in mutiny against Gog, who shall slay him. Whence explaining, he adds:
Every man's sword shall be directed against his brother, — that is, I will cause the soldiers of Gog to kill one another with mutual wounds, as I formerly did to the Philistines, 1 Samuel 14:20, so that thus the forces and camps of Gog and the Antichrist may be weakened.
Verse 22: And I will judge (that is, I will punish Gog) with pestilence, and
22. And I will judge (that is, I will punish Gog) with pestilence, and with blood (that is with slaughter and carnage), and with immense stones (the Chaldean and Septuagint, hailstones. God will therefore rain from heaven stones and hail upon Gog, also) fire and brimstone, — which is the punishment of the damned, so that they may begin their hell here. This is what the Psalmist sings in Psalm 10: "He shall rain upon sinners snares: fire and brimstone, and a stormy wind, shall be the portion of their cup." Moreover, it is established that hailstones have sometimes fallen so large that men and animals were struck down and killed by them. Such was the hail sent upon Egypt through Moses, Exodus 9:24, of which it is said: "It struck all that were in the fields, from man to beast." Concerning hail the Wise Man again says, chapter 5:23: "From stony wrath, hailstones full of force shall be hurled." Such was the hail sent by God against the Amorites, Joshua 10:11: "And more died by hailstones than the children of Israel slew with the sword." Whence concerning the same Sirach says, chapter 46:6: "The great and holy God heard him (Joshua praying) with hailstones of exceeding great force." Such will be the hail at the end of the world, as is said in Apocalypse chapter 16:21: "And great hail, like the weight of a talent, came down from heaven upon men." I have reviewed more examples of immense hail in Exodus chapter 9, verse 24.
Furthermore, Proclus, Archbishop of Constantinople, aptly applied these things about Gog and Magog to the Scythians fighting against Theodosius and struck down from heaven. For "their leader, named Rugas, died by lightning, and a plague that followed destroyed the greatest part of those who had been under him. Nor did the plague cease thus, but fire falling from heaven consumed many of the rest," says Socrates, book 7, chapter 43. For Gog and Magog will be Scythians, Tartars, etc.
Verse 23: I shall be sanctified
23. I shall be sanctified — in the holy vengeance upon the impious.
I shall be known. — The Chaldean: I will manifest My power.