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<p>This prophecy begins as that before (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.38.3-Ezek.38.4" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.38.3-Ezek.38.4">Ezek. 38:3-4</a>; <i>I am against thee, and I will turn thee back</i>); for there is need of line upon line, both for the conviction of Israel’s enemies and the comfort of Israel’s friends. Here, as there, it is foretold that God will bring this enemy <i>from the north parts</i>, as formerly the Chaldeans were fetched from the north, <a class="bibleref" title="Jer.1.14" href="/passage/?search=Jer.1.14">Jer. 1:14</a> (<i>Omne malum ab aquilone—Every evil comes from the north</i>), and, long after, the Roman empire was overrun by the northern nations, that he will bring him <i>upon the mountains of Israel</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.39.2" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.39.2">Ezek. 39:2</a>), first as a place of temptation, where the measures of his iniquity shall be filled up, and then as a place of execution, where his ruin shall be completed. And that is it which is here enlarged upon. 1. His soldiers shall be disarmed and so disabled to carry on their enterprise. Though the men of might may <i>find their hands</i>, yet to what purpose, when they find it is put out of their power to do mischief, when God shall smite their <i>bow out of their left hand</i> and their <i>arrow out of their right</i>? <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.39.3" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.39.3">Ezek. 39:3</a>. Note, The weapons formed against Zion shall not prosper. 2. He and the greatest part of his army shall be slain in the field of battle (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.39.4" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.39.4">Ezek. 39:4</a>): <i>Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel</i>; there they sinned, and there they shall perish, even upon the holy <i>mountains of Israel</i>, for <i>there broke he the arrows of the bow</i>, <a class="bibleref" title="Ps.76.3" href="/passage/?search=Ps.76.3">Ps. 76:3</a>. The mountains of Israel shall be moistened, and fattened, and made fruitful, with the blood of the enemies. “Thou shalt <i>fall upon the open field</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.39.5" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.39.5">Ezek. 39:5</a>) and shalt not be able even there to make thy escape.” Even upon the mountains he shall not find a pass that he shall be able to maintain, and upon the open field he shall not find a road that he shall be able to make his escape by. He and <i>his bands</i>; his regular troops, and the people that are <i>with him</i> that follow the camp to share in the plunder, shall all <i>fall with him</i>. Note, Those that <i>cast in their lot</i> among wicked people (<a class="bibleref" title="Prov.1.14" href="/passage/?search=Prov.1.14">Prov. 1:14</a>), that they <i>may have one purse</i> with them, must expect to <i>take their lot with them</i>, and fare as they fare, taking the worse with the better. There shall be such a general slaughter made that but <i>a sixth part shall be left</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.39.2" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.39.2">Ezek. 39:2</a>), the other five shall all be cut off. Never was army so totally routed as this. And, for its greater infamy and reproach, their bodies shall be a feast to the birds of prey, <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.39.4" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.39.4">Ezek. 39:4</a>. Compare <a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.39.17" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.39.17">Ezek. 39:17</a>; <i>Thou shalt fall</i>, for <i>I have spoken it</i>. Note, Rather shall the most illustrious princes (Antiochus was called <i>Epiphanes—the illustrious</i>) and the most numerous armies <i>fall to the ground</i> than any word of God; for he that has spoken will <i>make it good</i>. 3. His country also shall be made desolate: <i>I will send a fire on Magog</i> (<a class="bibleref" title="Ezek.39.6" href="/passage/?search=Ezek.39.6">Ezek. 39:6</a>) and <i>among those that dwell carelessly</i>, or confidently, <i>in the isles</i>, that is, the nations of the Gentiles. He designed to destroy the land of Israel, but shall not only be defeated in that desi
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