2. Gog in the land of Magog. The Hebrew syntax could also be construed as “Gog of the land of Magog.” Both names, which look quite foreign in the Hebrew, are mystifying and as such have encouraged the mythological readings of this prophecy prevalent in both Christian and Jewish tradition. Gog is sometimes linked by scholars with a King Gugu of Lydia in Asia Minor. Ezekiel does not appear to be referring to a historical figure—in contrast, for example, to Second Isaiah’s references to Cyrus—and may have embraced the name for its sheer strangeness. What is important is that Gog comes from the far north, the direction from which destruction traditionally descends upon Israel, as is repeatedly evident in Jeremiah.

supreme prince. The literal sense is “prince of the chief,” but when two synonyms are joined in a construct form, the effect is to indicate a superlative.

Meshech and Tubal. This kingdom, mentioned previously by Ezekiel, is in Asia Minor.

3. Here I am against you. Although Gog is sent by God on a mission of conquest, he is yanked along with hooks in his jaws and will come to a bad end.

5. Persia, Nubia, and Put. This suggests a vast array of mercenaries assembled by Gog from Persia in the east down to Nubia and Put south of Egypt.

7. assembly. This general term is repeatedly used by Ezekiel in a military sense.

8. a land brought back from the sword. The population of Judah, driven off by the sword, has now been brought back to its land.

9. And you shall come up like a storm. One of the peculiar features of this strange prophecy is that the people of Israel, after having been restored from bitter exile to their land, are to be subjected to still another horrendous assault.

11. a land of unfortified towns. The Judahites returned from exile are so confident of their safety that they leave their towns unfortified, with no walls and “neither bolt nor double doors.”

12. the heartland. The Hebrew phrase tabur haʾarets occurs only here and in Judges 9:37. The Septuagint understood the obscure tabur to mean “navel,” and in that sense it was ensconced in later Hebrew.

13. its leaders. The literal sense is “its lions,” leaving a margin of doubt about the meaning. The translation follows an interpretive tradition going back to Late Antiquity, which essentially takes this as a metaphor for “leaders.”

14. shall you not know? As what follows makes clear, you will come to know the power of the God of Israel.

16. as I am hallowed through you, O Gog. It is Gog’s defeat, despite the overwhelming might of all his forces, that is to hallow God by making manifest God’s power.

17. Are you the one of whom I spoke. No actual mention of Gog appears in any of the earlier prophets, but he is represented here as the realization of the sundry vague prophecies of a dire enemy descending on Israel from the distant north.

18. My wrath shall mount in My nostrils. The second term here, ʾaf, is a synonym for “wrath” because smoke or fire is imagined to be exhaled from the nostrils of the infuriated deity. Here, the idiom is returned to its physical base, and God is imagined breathing fire (fire is mentioned at the beginning of the next verse).

20. the fish in the sea and the fowl in the heavens . . . the beasts of the field and every crawling thing. These terms all recall the Creation story in Genesis 1. It is as though the earthquake that will shake the whole land of Israel will be so cataclysmic that the work of creation itself will be undone. Such language strongly encouraged the apocalyptic reading of this prophecy, linking Gog with the cosmic upheavals of the end of days.

21. And I will call forth the sword against him. It had seemed as though the cataclysm was directed against Israel, but now it emerges that Gog and his vast army will be panicked and destroyed.

22. sulfurous fire. The literal sense is “fire and sulfur,” but this is most likely a hendiadys. In any case, Gog’s army is devastated both by fierce natural forces and by violent internal divisions. (Compare verse 21, “Each man’s sword shall be against his brother.”)

23. I will be magnified and hallowed. The two Hebrew words here, wehitgadalti wehitqadshti, expressing God’s glorification through the sweeping defeat of Gog’s army, are picked up as the first two words of the Kaddish, which is a prayer for the establishment of God’s kingdom on earth.