Ezekiel 38:14-23

38:14 “Therefore, prophesy, son of man, and say to Gog: ‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: On that day when my people Israel are living securely, you will take notice ¹  38:15 and come from your place, from the remote parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great company and a vast army. 38:16 You will advance ²  against my people Israel like a cloud covering the earth. In the latter days I will bring you against my land so that the nations may acknowledge me, when before their eyes I magnify myself ³  through you, O Gog.

38:17 “‘This is what the sovereign Lord says: Are you the one of whom I spoke in former days by my servants ⁴  the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in those days ⁵  that I would bring you against them? 38:18 On that day, when Gog invades ⁶  the land of Israel, declares the sovereign Lord, my rage will mount up in my anger. 38:19 In my zeal, in the fire of my fury, ⁷  I declare that on that day there will be a great earthquake ⁸  in the land of Israel. 38:20 The fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the wild beasts, all the things that creep on the ground, and all people who live on the face of the earth will shake ⁹  at my presence. The mountains will topple, the cliffs ¹⁰  will fall, and every wall will fall to the ground. 38:21 I will call for a sword to attack ¹¹  Gog ¹²  on all my mountains, declares the sovereign Lord; every man’s sword will be against his brother. 38:22 I will judge him with plague and bloodshed. I will rain down on him, his troops and the many peoples who are with him a torrential downpour, hailstones, fire, and brimstone. 38:23 I will exalt and magnify myself; I will reveal myself before many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’

Joel 3:2

3:2 Then I will gather all the nations,

and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. ¹³ 

I will enter into judgment ¹⁴  against them there

concerning my people Israel who are my inheritance, ¹⁵ 

whom they scattered among the nations.

They partitioned my land,

Joel 3:9-16

Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat

3:9 Proclaim this among the nations:

“Prepare for a holy war!

Call out the warriors!

Let all these fighting men approach and attack! ¹⁶ 

3:10 Beat your plowshares ¹⁷  into swords,

and your pruning hooks ¹⁸  into spears! ¹⁹ 

Let the weak say, ‘I too am a warrior!’ ²⁰ 

3:11 Lend your aid ²¹  and come,

all you surrounding nations,

and gather yourselves ²²  to that place.”

Bring down, O Lord, your warriors! ²³ 

3:12 Let the nations be roused and let them go up

to the valley of Jehoshaphat,

for there I will sit in judgment on all the surrounding nations.

3:13 Rush forth with ²⁴  the sickle, for the harvest is ripe!

Come, stomp the grapes, ²⁵  for the winepress is full!

The vats overflow.

Indeed, their evil is great! ²⁶ 

3:14 Crowds, great crowds are in the valley of decision,

for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision! ²⁷ 

3:15 The sun and moon are darkened;

the stars withhold ²⁸  their brightness.

3:16 The Lord roars from Zion;

from Jerusalem ²⁹  his voice bellows out. ³⁰ 

The heavens ³¹  and the earth shake.

But the Lord is a refuge for his people;

he is a stronghold for the citizens ³²  of Israel.

Micah 4:11-13

4:11 Many nations have now assembled against you.

They say, “Jerusalem must be desecrated, ³³ 

so we can gloat over Zion!” ³⁴ 

4:12 But they do not know what the Lord is planning;

they do not understand his strategy.

He has gathered them like stalks of grain to be threshed ³⁵  at the threshing floor.

4:13 “Get up and thresh, Daughter Zion!

For I will give you iron horns; ³⁶ 

I will give you bronze hooves,

and you will crush many nations.” ³⁷ 

You will devote to the Lord the spoils you take from them,

and dedicate their wealth to the sovereign Ruler ³⁸  of the whole earth. ³⁹ 

Zechariah 14:2-3

14:2 For I will gather all the nations against Jerusalem ⁴⁰  to wage war; the city will be taken, its houses plundered, and the women raped. Then half of the city will go into exile, but the remainder of the people will not be taken away. ⁴¹ 

14:3 Then the Lord will go to battle ⁴²  and fight against those nations, just as he fought battles in ancient days. ⁴³ 

Matthew 25:32

25:32 All ⁴⁴  the nations will be assembled before him, and he will separate people one from another like a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats.

Revelation 16:14

16:14 For they are the spirits of the demons performing signs who go out to the kings of the earth ⁴⁵  to bring them together for the battle that will take place on the great day of God, the All-Powerful. ⁴⁶ 

Revelation 19:17-19

19:17 Then ⁴⁷  I saw one angel standing in ⁴⁸  the sun, and he shouted in a loud voice to all the birds flying high in the sky: ⁴⁹ 

“Come, gather around for the great banquet ⁵⁰  of God,

19:18 to eat ⁵¹  your fill ⁵²  of the flesh of kings,

the flesh of generals, ⁵³ 

the flesh of powerful people,

the flesh of horses and those who ride them,

and the flesh of all people, both free and slave, ⁵⁴ 

and small and great!”

19:19 Then ⁵⁵  I saw the beast and the kings of the earth and their armies assembled to do battle with the one who rode the horse and with his army.

[38:14]  ¹ tn The Hebrew text is framed as a rhetorical question: “will you not take notice?”

[38:16]  ² tn Heb “come up.”

[38:16]  ³ tn Or “reveal my holiness.”

[38:17]  ⁴ tn Heb “by the hand of my servants.”

[38:17]  ⁵ tn The Hebrew text adds “years” here, but this is probably a scribal gloss on the preceding phrase. See L. C. Allen, Ezekiel (WBC), 2:201.

[38:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “goes up against.”

[38:19]  ⁷ sn The phrase “in the fire of my fury” occurs in Ezek 21:31; 22:21, 31.

[38:19]  ⁸ tn Or “shaking.”

[38:20]  ⁹ tn Or “tremble.”

[38:20]  ¹⁰ tn The term occurs only here and in Song of Songs 2:14.

[38:21]  ¹¹ tn Heb “against.”

[38:21]  ¹² tn Heb “him”; the referent (Gog, cf. v. 18) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[3:2]  ¹³ sn There is a play on words here. Jehoshaphat in Hebrew means “the Lord has judged,” and the next line in v. 2 further explicates this thought. The location of this valley is uncertain (cf. v. 12). Many interpreters have understood the Valley of Jehoshaphat to be the Kidron Valley, located on the east side of old Jerusalem. Since this is described as a scene of future messianic activity and judgment, many Jews and Muslims have desired to be buried in the vicinity, a fact attested to in modern times by the presence of many graves in the area. A variation of this view is mentioned by Eusebius, Onomasticon 1:10. According to this view, the Valley of Jehoshaphat is located in the Hinnom Valley, on the south side of the old city. Yet another view is held by many modern scholars, who understand the reference to this valley to be one of an idealized and nonliteral scene of judgment.

[3:2]  ¹⁴ tn Heb “I will execute judgment.”

[3:2]  ¹⁵ tn Heb “concerning my people and my inheritance Israel.”

[3:9]  ¹⁶ tn Heb “draw near and go up.”

[3:10]  ¹⁷ sn Instead of referring to the large plow as a whole, the plowshare is simply the metal tip which actually breaks the earth and cuts the furrow.

[3:10]  ¹⁸ sn This implement was used to prune the vines, i.e., to cut off extra leaves and young shoots (M. Klingbeil, NIDOTTE 1:1117-18). It was a short knife with a curved hook at the end sharpened on the inside like a sickle.

[3:10]  ¹⁹ sn This conversion of farming instruments to instruments of war is the reverse of Isa 2:4 (cf. Mic 4:3), where military weapons are transformed into tools for farming. Isaiah describes a time of kingdom blessing and prosperity, whereas Joel describes a time of eschatological conflict and judgment.

[3:10]  ²⁰ sn The “weak” individual mentioned here is apparently the farmer who has little or no military prowess or prior fighting experience. Under ordinary circumstances such a person would be ill-prepared for assuming the role of a soldier. However, in the scene that Joel is describing here even the most unlikely candidate will become a participant to be reckoned with in this final conflict.

[3:11]  ²¹ tn This Hebrew verb is found only here in the OT; its meaning is uncertain. Some scholars prefer to read here עוּרוּ (’uru, “arouse”) or חוּשׁוּ (khushu, “hasten”).

[3:11]  ²² tc The present translation follows the reading of the imperative הִקָּבְצוּ (hiqqavÿtsu) rather than the perfect with vav (ו) consecutive וְנִקְבָּצוּ (vÿniqbbatsu) of the MT.

[3:11]  ²³ tc Some commentators prefer to delete the line “Bring down, O Lord, your warriors,” understanding it to be a later addition. But this is unnecessary. Contrary to what some have suggested, a prayer for the Lord’s intervention is not out of place here.

[3:13]  ²⁴ tn Heb “send.”

[3:13]  ²⁵ tn Heb “go down” or “tread.” The Hebrew term רְדוּ (rÿdu) may be from יָרַד (yarad, “to go down”) or from רָדָה (radah, “have dominion,” here in the sense of “to tread”). If it means “go down,” the reference would be to entering the vat to squash the grapes. If it means “tread,” the verb would refer specifically to the action of those who walk over the grapes to press out their juice. The phrase “the grapes” is supplied in the translation for clarity.

[3:13]  ²⁶ sn The immediacy of judgment upon wickedness is likened to the urgency required for a harvest that has reached its pinnacle of development. When the harvest is completely ripe, there can be no delay by the reapers in gathering the harvest. In a similar way, Joel envisions a time when human wickedness will reach such a heightened degree that there can be no further stay of divine judgment (cf. the “fullness of time” language in Gal 4:4).

[3:14]  ²⁷ sn The decision referred to here is not a response on the part of the crowd, but the verdict handed out by the divine judge.

[3:15]  ²⁸ tn Heb “gather in.”

[3:16]  ²⁹ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[3:16]  ³⁰ tn Heb “he sounds forth his voice.”

[3:16]  ³¹ tn Or “the sky.” See the note on “sky” in 2:30.

[3:16]  ³² tn Heb “sons.”

[4:11]  ³³ tn Heb “let her be desecrated.” the referent (Jerusalem) has been specified in the translation for clarity.

[4:11]  ³⁴ tn Heb “and let our eye look upon Zion.”

[4:12]  ³⁵ tn The words “to be threshed” are not in the Hebrew text, but have been supplied in the translation to make it clear that the Lord is planning to enable “Daughter Zion” to “thresh” her enemies.

[4:13]  ³⁶ tn Heb “I will make your horn iron.”

[4:13]  ³⁷ sn Jerusalem (Daughter Zion at the beginning of the verse; cf. 4:8) is here compared to a powerful ox which crushes the grain on the threshing floor with its hooves.

[4:13]  ³⁸ tn Or “the Lord” (so many English versions); Heb “the master.”

[4:13]  ³⁹ tn Heb “and their wealth to the master of all the earth.” The verb “devote” does double duty in the parallelism and is supplied in the second line for clarification.

[14:2]  ⁴⁰ map For location see Map5 B1; Map6 F3; Map7 E2; Map8 F2; Map10 B3; JP1 F4; JP2 F4; JP3 F4; JP4 F4.

[14:2]  ⁴¹ tn Heb “not be cut off from the city” (so NRSV); NAB “not be removed.”

[14:3]  ⁴² sn The statement the Lord will go to battle introduces the conflict known elsewhere as the “battle of Armageddon,” a battle in which the Lord delivers his people and establishes his millennial reign (cf. Joel 3:12, 15-16; Ezek 38–39; Rev 16:12-21; 19:19-21).

[14:3]  ⁴³ tn Heb “as he fights on a day of battle” (similar NASB, NIV, NRSV).

[25:32]  ⁴⁴ tn Here καί (kai) has not been translated.

[16:14]  ⁴⁵ tn BDAG 699 s.v. οἰκουμένη 1 states, “the inhabited earth, the world…ὅλη ἡ οἰκ. the whole inhabited earth…Mt 24:14; Ac 11:28; Rv 3:10; 16:14.”

[16:14]  ⁴⁶ tn On this word BDAG 755 s.v. παντοκράτωρ states, “the Almighty, All-Powerful, Omnipotent (One) only of God…(ὁ) κύριος ὁ θεὸς ὁ π. …Rv 1:8; 4:8; 11:17; 15:3; 16:7; 21:22.”

[19:17]  ⁴⁷ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.

[19:17]  ⁴⁸ tn The precise significance of ἐν (en) here is difficult to determine.

[19:17]  ⁴⁹ tn On μεσουρανήματι (mesouranhmati) here see L&N 1.10: “high in the sky, midpoint in the sky, directly overhead, straight above in the sky.” The birds mentioned here are carrion birds like vultures, circling high overhead, and now being summoned to feast on the corpses.

[19:17]  ⁵⁰ tn This is the same Greek word (δεῖπνον, deipnon) used in 19:9.

[19:18]  ⁵¹ tn The ἵνα (Jina) clause, insofar as it is related to the first imperative, has the force of an imperative.

[19:18]  ⁵² tn The idea of eating “your fill” is evident in the context with the use of χορτάζω (cortazw) in v. 21.

[19:18]  ⁵³ tn Grk “chiliarchs”; normally a chiliarch was a military officer commanding a thousand soldiers, but here probably used of higher-ranking commanders like generals (see L&N 55.15; cf. Rev 6:15).

[19:18]  ⁵⁴ tn See the note on the word “servants” in 1:1.

[19:19]  ⁵⁵ tn Here καί (kai) has been translated as “then” to indicate the implied sequence within the narrative.