Commentary on Ezekiel 1 part 17/19

And you shall join them one to another for yourself into one rod, so as to bind them, and they shall be together in your hand.

In the time of Rehoboam the tribes were divided, and the ten formed a group by themselves, establishing their kingdom in Samaria, one of the cities of Ephraim, while the tribe of Judah ruled over itself and over that of Benjamin.

But after the return they were all brought together under a single sovereignty.

namely, that of Judah and of those in accord with him.

Then to join the rods to one another, as though the division should henceforth cease and the union come to pass.

Then He commands the prophet, when the people inquire and wish to know the interpretation, to declare it plainly, saying:

Behold, I will take the tribe of Joseph, which is by the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel that are attached to him, and I will place them under the tribe of Judah, and they shall become one rod in the hand of Judah. Those, He says, who long ago severed themselves from the kingdom of Judah I will make once more acknowledge his rule; and I will put an end to the division that had occurred, and I will cause all the tribes in harmony to obey Judah.

And again He interprets the same thing more clearly.

Behold, I will take the whole house of Israel out of the midst of the nations, where they went in, and I will gather them into the land of Israel.

(2) And I will make them one nation in My land, and on the mountains of Israel; and one ruler shall be over them all as king.

for Zerubbabel was not a king, but became a popular leader and a general.

And they shall no longer be two nations, nor shall they be divided any more into two kingdoms.

(23, 24) That they may no longer defile themselves with their idols, and with their abominations, and with all their impieties;

and I will deliver them from all their impieties, in which they sinned, and I will cleanse them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God.

in their midst, and one shepherd shall be over them all.

And I have other sheep also, which are not of this fold.

and He is called a servant on account of the human nature;

for being in the form of God, He took the form of a servant.

Therefore, in order to display the nature He had assumed, He called Him a servant, that is, according to the flesh He came to be of a servile nature.

But even if God the Word, in becoming man, assumed this nature from a servant, He did not cast away what He was, but by the union with the divine nature glorified what is ours.

And they shall walk in My statutes, and shall keep My judgments, and do them.

(25) And they shall dwell in their land, which I gave to My servant Jacob, in which their fathers dwelt there; and they shall dwell upon it, they and their sons and their sons' sons, for ever.

That such titles in no way fit Zerubbabel, even they themselves would agree;

for in the first place he did not continue as king, but as a popular leader;

and then that very rule of his was dissolved by death.

But that the prophecy is free of falsehood, they too would confess;

clear and manifest also is their stupefaction and unbelief, and our knowledge of God.

For what follows also confirms what has been said.

And I will make with them a covenant of peace; it shall be an everlasting covenant with them.

for He both promised us eternal good things, and granted us reconciliation with Himself.

For He Himself is our peace, as the divine Apostle says.

And again: There is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself a ransom for all.

And what comes after this again accords with what has been said.

And I will set them, He says, and I will multiply them, and I will place My holy things in their midst for ever.

(27) And My habitation shall be among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be My people.

And yet the temple is desolate, and the things of old that were holy.

How then did He promise to set His holy things in their midst for ever, and His habitation among them? Therefore, since we do not see the fulfillment of these things according to the mind of the Jews, but know the truth of the spiritual words, in keeping with what was interpreted before we shall understand these things also;

for we have also the testimony of the facts themselves agreeing with it.

For not only the holy houses of God, but also the divine altars, were given as a gift to all men;

to those who have believed; and one and the same God is called the God both of these and of those;

For the same, He says, is Lord of all, rich unto all that call upon Him. Fittingly He added:

And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, who sanctifies them, when My holy things are in their midst for ever.

For in truth it was through those of the Jews who had believed that the nations also received the light of the knowledge of God;

for of the Jews were the divine apostles, and the first disciples of the apostles; and it was from the prophetic books preserved among the Jews that the nations, learning the things concerning our Saviour Christ, believed the divine proclamation.

For which reason the divine Apostle also said that those of the nations who believe are grafted into the godly root of the Jews, while those of the Jews who disbelieve are broken off and separated from this root.

Therefore, He says, when salvation is bestowed first upon the Jews, the nations shall know that I am the Lord who sanctifies them;

of the Jews were the apostles, and the first heralds.

Fittingly, then, the nations enjoy salvation through these.

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

Son of man, set your face against Gog, and the land of Magog, the prince of Rhos, Mosoch, and Thobel.

Gog and Magog are Scythian nations;

and they say that Mosoch are the Cappadocians, and Thobel the Iberians;

and the Hebrew tongue rendered Rhos as 'head,' and Aquila too rendered 'the head of Mosoch' by Rhos.

Thus says Adonai the Lord:

Behold, I am against you, Gog and Magog, prince of Rhos, Mosoch and Thobel.

And I will turn you about on every side, and put a bridle in your jaw, and gather you and all your host, horses and horsemen all clad in breastplates, a great assembly;

with light shields and helmets and swords and bucklers, all of them bearing these.

By what has been said He taught us the power of the divine working, and that none of such things comes to pass apart from the divine will, but either as He dispenses it for good, or as He permits grievous things to happen, on account of sins previously committed.

For Persians, He says, and Ethiopians, and Lydians, and Libyans, and Phut are with them.

And this one too was one of the sons of Ham, having become the forefather of the western Libyans.

All with helmets and light shields. All these having bucklers, and helmets, and light shields.

Gomer, and all these round about him.

He says these are the Phrygians;

From the uttermost parts of the north, and all his supports, and many nations with him. — By 'supports' He means the subjects, those who prop up and set upright the kingdom.

Be prepared, prepare yourself, you and all your assembly that is gathered to you, and you shall be a guard for Me.

After many days you shall be made ready, and in the last of the years you shall come into the land, which is turned back from the sword, gathered from many peoples, upon the land of Israel, which had become wholly desolate.

After the return from Babylon, say the teachers of the Church who lived at that time, these nations marched against Judea;

and the interpretation agrees with the prophecy.

You shall come into the land that is turned back from the sword, that is, the land freed from enemies and delivered from captivity.

Gathered from many peoples upon the land of Israel, which had become wholly desolate. They say that while Zerubbabel was general, these nations were destroyed, and that from their spoils the building of the divine temple was accomplished.

For men who were poor and captives had no abundance of money;

and it is likely that the neighbouring peoples, envying the prosperity of the Jews, hired these nations against them.

That they hindered the rebuilding, at one time deceiving the governors and at another the kings of the Persians, the writing of Ezra bears witness.

'And they have come forth out of the nations, and they all dwell in peace.' And from this it is plain that immediately after the return the incursion of these nations took place.

'And they have come forth out of the nations, and they dwell in peace.'

(v. 9.) 'And thou shalt go up as rain, and shalt come as a tempest and as a cloud, to cover the land.'

'And thou shalt fall, and all that are about thee, and many nations with thee.'

'Expecting one thing,' he says, 'thou shalt suffer another, and, while hoping for victory, thou shalt be delivered over to destruction.'

Then he also describes his very reasonings.

'Reasonings shall come up upon thy heart,' he says, 'and thou shalt devise evil thoughts, and shalt say:'

'I will go up against a land that has been cast off.'

'I will come upon a people at ease, dwelling in quiet, inhabiting a land where there is neither wall nor gates.'

'Nor bars, to seize spoil and to plunder their plunder, to turn my hand against a land that has been laid waste,'

'which has been resettled; against a nation gathered together out of many peoples, who have acquired property and possessions, dwelling upon the navel of the earth.'

And all these things teach us that it came to pass after the captivity, when the cities of Judaea had neither walls, nor gates, nor bars, according to the prophecy; wherefore also the aforesaid nations took courage to march against them.

For the people of Israel had become conspicuous after the return, having obtained their return by divine working.

And just as the exodus from Egypt afforded them great renown, so the return from Babylon made them illustrious and much regarded.

For which reason these nations dared to march against them.

And let no one think the prophecy incredible, reckoning up the distance that lies between the Scythian nations and Judaea.

But let him consider that even in our own times this nation overran all the East, and departed having enslaved a very great multitude.

But the Phrygians and Galatians, the Iberians and Persians and Ethiopians, he says march together with him, not as being subject to him, but as being variously mingled with him: some having deserted and served willingly, and others having become prisoners of war and being compelled to fight alongside him.

To these the divine word adds also a characterization put in the mouth of the other nations.

'Art thou come to take spoil, to seize plunder? Thou hast assembled thy multitude to take silver and gold, to carry off property and possessions, to seize great spoil.'

And Sheba, as I have already said, is a nation both Ethiopian and Indian.

But there is also another Ethiopian nation.

'All these nations,' he says, 'seeing thy uprising, shall know that thou hast made this campaign out of love of riches.'

'Thus saith the Lord Adonai:'

'Shall it not be in that day, when my people Israel are settled in peace, that thou shalt know and be roused up? And thou shalt come from thy place, from the uttermost parts of the north, thou and many nations with thee;'

'all of them riders upon horses, a great assembly and a mighty host.'

'And thou shalt go up against my people Israel, as a cloud to cover the land. It shall be in the last of the days;'

that is, after the return of Israel.

'When my people Israel are settled in peace, thou shalt know and be roused up.' Such too is that which was said by the blessed Moses:

'...against them, O Gog.' The nations now have no need of Gog for the teaching concerning the God of all;

but of old, before the Lord's incarnation, they had need of such wonders.

For indeed, when Sennacherib lost in Judaea those many thousands, the nations came to know, through the wonder, the God of all.

'God is known in Judaea; in Israel his name is great.' And when these nations were destroyed in Judaea, all, having learned the power of the God of all, moved their tongues to song of praise.

'That all the nations may know me, when I am sanctified in thee.' That is, When I am glorified, my power being made manifest.

'Thus saith the Lord Adonai to Gog:'

'Art thou he of whom I spoke in former days by the hand of my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days and years, that I would bring thee up against them?'

Joel too, and Hosea, and Micah, and the other prophets uttered predictions concerning these nations.

'And I will make a covenant with them in that day, with the beasts of the field, and with the birds of heaven, and with the creeping things of the earth;'

'and bow, and sword, and war I will break off from the earth, and I will make thee to dwell in hope.' And Joel also says, 'Behold, in those days and in that time, when I shall turn back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all the nations, and bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgement with them there on behalf of my people and of my inheritance Israel.' And Micah speaks thus:

'Be in travail and be strong, O daughter of Zion, like a woman in childbirth, for now thou shalt go forth out of the city, and shalt encamp in the field, and shalt come as far as Babylon;'

'thence shall the Lord thy God deliver thee out of the hand of thine enemies.'

'And now many nations are gathered together against thee, who say:'

'We will rejoice, and our eyes shall look upon Zion; but they knew not the reckoning of the Lord, nor did they understand his counsel, that he gathered them as sheaves of the threshing-floor.'

'Arise and thresh them, O daughter of Zion, for I will make thy horns iron, and I will make thy hoofs brass, and thou shalt beat in pieces many nations, and thou shalt crush many peoples, and shalt dedicate their multitude to the Lord, and their strength to the Lord of all the earth.' And Zechariah too says:

'This is the word of the Lord to Zerubbabel, saying:'

'Not by great might, nor by strength, but by my Spirit, saith the Lord Almighty.'

'Who art thou, O great mountain, that art before the face of Zerubbabel, to set him right?' From which it is plain that after the return these nations marched against them, and were brought to nought by the divine hand.

'And it shall come to pass in that day, in the day when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord Adonai, that my fury shall come up in my wrath.'

'And my jealousy in the fire of my wrath;'

'I have spoken to you; in that day there shall be a great shaking upon the land of Israel.'

By 'shaking' he calls the magnitude of the event.

For just as we all receive the sensation of an earthquake with dread, so also do we receive the knowledge of great wonders.

Nor is it improbable that an actual earthquake also came to pass, being brought as a punishment upon the impious and brutish ones.

But the fury, and the wrath, and the jealousy, and the fire of the wrath, we shall understand in a manner befitting God.

For in human fashion he has set them down, indicating the punishment.

And he says that from the fear of the things that had happened not only men shall be shaken, but also the fishes, and the birds, and the creeping things, and the beasts;

and that the mountains shall be rent, and the ravines shall be filled up, and the walls shall be broken down.

From which it is plain that he called the shaking a shaking in very truth.

For not only upon rational beings, but also upon the irrational, does the earthquake lay dread; and it rends mountains, so that from the pieces broken off the ravines are blocked up.

And it overthrows walls, and buries cities together in ruin; and, in a word, of this experience is the teacher.

'And I will call together against him the fear of the sword upon all my mountains, saith the Lord Adonai.'

He says, 'I will cast cowardice upon them, and the fear of enemies, so that, taking to flight, they shall not recognize one another, and shall be slain by one another.'

For this he made plain when he said:

'Every man's sword shall be against his brother.'

(v. 22.) 'And I will judge him with death and blood.'

And not only shall they be consumed by one another, but I also from above will make war upon them.

'With overflowing rain and hailstones, and fire and brimstone I will rain upon him, and upon all that are with him;'

'and I will be magnified, and be glorified, and be sanctified, and be made known before many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.'

For when these have been delivered over to destruction, they who until now were ignorant of me shall recognize my power, and shall worship my dominion.

Then again He charges the prophet to prophesy against him and against the nations that are with him, since by His permission they will come from the uttermost north, in order to pay the penalty worthy of their brutality.

He goes on to declare also the weakness that shall come upon them.

For I will strike, He says, thy bow out of thy left hand, and thine arrows out of thy right hand.

And I will cast thee down upon the mountains of Israel, and thou shalt fall, thou and all that are round about thee, and the many nations that are with thee.

To these He adds that they shall be given as food to the birds of heaven and to the flesh-eating beasts.

I will send fire upon Gog, and the isles shall be inhabited in peace, and they shall know that My name is the Lord: He shows that, once Gog has undergone that utter destruction, not only the mainlanders but even the islanders shall take courage;

for they had been in dread when they heard of the campaign of those men.

And My holy name, He says, shall be made known in the midst of Israel, and My holy name shall no more be profaned.

And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in the midst of Israel. For when the nations have learned the power of My providence, and how I shield the people that bears My name, they will no longer accuse Me of weakness, nor will they suppose that the former captivity of My people came about through any inability on My part.

Then He shows the certainty of what has been said.

Behold, it comes, and thou shalt know that it shall be, saith the Lord Adonai.

Reckon these things, He says, as already come to pass, and hold an unshakeable faith concerning them as concerning things already done;

for the things foretold by Me shall assuredly come to pass.

This is the day of which I have spoken. Concerning this day, He says, I have often given warning beforehand.

And He calls the time of Gog's punishment a day.

Then He teaches that all Israel shall use those men's weapons in place of firewood, spears and bows and arrows, shields and bucklers and staves;

and that they shall not need to fell timber, but for seven years the aforesaid weapons shall suffice them for their need.

And by these things He also indicates the multitude of them;

and He foretells also the tomb that shall be Gog's.

For it shall come to pass in that day, He says, that I will give to Gog a place of renown, a grave in Israel, the burial-ground of the multitude of those who came up from the east of the sea.

There, He says, where they buried those who came up against them from the eastern parts, there also they shall bury this one.

By this He reminds them of the slaughter of the Assyrians that took place in the time of Sennacherib;

that then too they enjoyed His succour, and that hereafter also they shall obtain His forethought.

He says that a length of time shall be spent upon this burial;

and that they shall make notable the day of that man's utter destruction.

For it shall be for them, He says, for a name, the day in which I shall be glorified, saith the Lord Adonai. Moreover, He says, they shall also set apart men to pass over the land and to give to burial those who, in their flight, met their death.

And all who pass through the land, traversing it, shall seek out; and he that sees a man's bone shall build a marker beside it, until the buriers have buried it in the valley of the multitude of Gog.

For a long time, He says, they shall go about, giving to burial those left unburied;

and the travellers too, if anywhere they should find a bone, gathering stones upon it, shall make it plain to those entrusted with the burying, so that they may collect those bones also and grant them the customary rites.

And the name of the place shall be called Downfall and Multitude, and the land shall be cleansed.

Having thus foretold these things, He charges the birds and the beasts to come, as it were, to a certain feast and banquet, seeing that many and countless bodies had been cast forth;

not that He gives this charge to them as to rational creatures, but persuading rational beings that these things too come to pass by His permission.

As for the words, Ye shall eat the flesh of calves, and of rams, and of lambs, and of he-goats, and of bullocks all fatted, He spoke figuratively, naming their kings and rulers and champions under the figure of the calves and rams and he-goats and bullocks.

And He has called the destruction of those men, brought about by His will, His own sacrifice.

And ye shall be filled, He says, at My table, that is, with the food provided to you by Me.

And to show what this is, He added:

And I will set My glory among you, and all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and My hand which I have laid upon them.

When the slaughter has taken place, He says, and such a feast has been set before you, all the nations shall behold both the might of My providence and the justice of My judgment.

And the words, From this day and beyond, censure their former ignorance.

And all the nations shall know that the house of Israel were led captive because of their sins, in that they dealt treacherously against Me, and I turned My face away from them, and delivered them into the hands of their enemy nations, and they all fell by the sword.

According to their uncleannesses, and according to their transgressions, I dealt with them, and I turned My face away from them.

The nations, He says, beholding the destruction brought upon Gog, shall know that I was able to bring this same punishment upon the Babylonians also;

but that, exacting from Israel the penalty of their impiety and lawlessness, I permitted them to be led away into slavery, deeming them worthy of no succour.

And this too plainly teaches us that the uprising of these nations occurred immediately after the return.

For all the nations, He says, shall know that the whole house of Israel were led captive because of their sins. For when all men behold the sudden destruction of those people, using right reasoning they will understand that it was in paying the penalty of their sins that they endured that captivity.

And the words that follow bear witness to these things:

Now will I turn again the captivity of Jacob, and have mercy on the house of Israel, and be jealous for My holy name's sake.

And they shall bear their dishonour, and all their iniquities whereby they trespassed against Me, when they dwelt upon their own land in peace, and there was none to make them afraid.

When I bring them back from the nations, and gather them out of their lands.

They themselves became the authors of these things to themselves, and the cause of their dishonour was their own iniquity.

These reasonings, He says, they shall employ when they have returned to their own land, and have been delivered from these grievous enemies;

for then, And I shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the nations. Which is as much as to say:

And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, when I have manifested Myself to them among the nations.

And I will gather them upon their own land, and I will leave none of them there any more. This too, so far as pertained to the divine care, has been accomplished;

but those who were wont to resist the divine laws refused to return, and the greater part preferred the foreign land to that of their fathers.

And I will no more turn away My face from them, because I have poured out My wrath upon the house of Israel, saith the Lord Adonai.

And this too follows upon the disposition of men.

For it lies with us to set the fulfilment upon the good promises;

and if we are diligent, and with all readiness keep the divine laws, we shall by all means enjoy the good things that have been promised.

Thus also He promised the Jews that He would not turn His face away from them, that is to say, provided they obeyed Him and believed in Him and kept the divine laws.

And that these things are so, history bears witness;

for having led the people out of Egypt, He promised to bring them into the promised land;

but since, resisting the divine ordinances, they continued to live in impiety, He delivered them all to death in the wilderness, fulfilling the promises to two only out of all those who had received the promises.

Here too, then, those who have believed and have received the saving proclamation possess the promise as sure;

for He did not turn His face away from them.

But I marvel not only at the folly of the Jews, but also at that of certain persons who, while bearing the name of Christian, yet give heed to Jewish fables;

and who say that the uprising of Gog and Magog has not taken place, but expect it as yet to come.

These men ought to have understood, first, that this prophecy is coupled with the recall from Babylon;

and next, that by these means He said the nations should learn the power of God.

For of what teaching, let them say, do the nations now have need in order to attain the knowledge of the divine power—they who have been taught to believe in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, and have learned to glorify and to worship the divine nature, and have been delivered from the error of idols? And what such teaching could the destruction of Gog convey, as that which the proclamation of the sacred apostles contains? For this teaches all men the doctrines concerning the Trinity and the Unity, and that in the one nature we behold the three properties.

And in addition to these things, the resurrection of the dead, the judgment, and the recompense of good things and of their opposites, the kingdom of heaven, the punishment in Gehenna, the lessons of virtue, the teachings of true philosophy, and all the other things which both the divine Gospel comprehends and the sacred writings of the apostles contain.

But the destruction of Gog taught the nations only this: that the God of the Jews possesses the greatest power, and that it was not through His weakness that they came under the Babylonians, but through their own transgression of the law.

And through that event the nations shall learn to reverence the God of all—the things concerning Gog being counted greater than the saving Cross, than the death which destroyed death, and than the divine apostles, who illumined the whole inhabited world with the light of the knowledge of God.

For all these things, they say, could not avail to teach the nations the God of all, but the destruction of Gog alone will make Him manifest to all—

so plainly do those who fabricate such tales Judaize.

But we, persuaded by the divine Scripture, have set forth the interpretation stated above, having shown that this one has already come and that the events concerning him have reached their end.

And then the nations learned that it was not through the divine weakness that the Jews endured captivity, but through their own transgression of the law.

To Him belongs glory unto the ages of ages.

And it came to pass in the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, in the first month, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city had been taken.

And from this it is clear that the prophet shared in the captivity together with Jeconiah the king;

after whom Zedekiah reigned eleven years, less a few months;

for in the eleventh year of Zedekiah's reign the city was captured.