Bible Strands
Ezekiel 38:16
You will advance against My people Israel like a cloud covering the land. It will happen in the latter days, O Gog, that I will bring you against My land, so that the nations may know Me when I show Myself holy in you before their eyes.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Lord addresses Gog directly as his northern horde prepares to march against Israel. This declaration occurs at the precise moment the coalition is poised to invade in the latter days.
The words — The Hebrew עָלִיתָ (ʿālîṯā) translates literally as "you will go up" and denotes the military advance. It is paired with כְּעָנָן (kəʿānān), meaning "like a cloud," which the text uses to describe the army's physical movement over the land.
The thread — The text states that God will bring Gog against His land so nations will know Him when He shows Himself holy, a claim repeated in Ezekiel 38:23. The same divine purpose appears in Ezekiel 39:21, where God declares He will display His glory among the nations, and in Ezekiel 36:23, where He promises to show the holiness of His name.
Why it lands — The passage requires the reader to acknowledge that historical movements are directed by divine command rather than human strategy alone. It demands recognition that God’s holiness is publicly demonstrated through His sovereign execution of judgment.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 38:23 I will magnify and sanctify Myself, and I will reveal Myself in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.
- Ezekiel 39:21 I will display My glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the judgment that I execute and the hand that I lay upon them.
- Ezekiel 36:23 I will show the holiness of My great name, which has been profaned among the nations—the name you have profaned among them. Then the nations will know that I am the LORD, declares the Lord GOD, when I show My holiness in you before their eyes.
- Daniel 2:28 But there is a God in heaven who reveals mysteries, and He has made known to King Nebuchadnezzar what will happen in the latter days. Your dream and the visions that came into your mind as you lay on your bed were these:
- Hosea 3:5 Afterward, the people of Israel will return and seek the LORD their God and David their king. They will come trembling to the LORD and to His goodness in the last days.
- Micah 4:1 In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains; it will be raised above the hills, and the peoples will stream to it.
- 1 Timothy 4:1 Now the Spirit expressly states that in later times some will abandon the faith to follow deceitful spirits and the teachings of demons,
- Exodus 14:4 And I will harden Pharaoh’s heart so that he will pursue them. But I will gain honor by means of Pharaoh and all his army, and the Egyptians will know that I am the LORD.” So this is what the Israelites did.
- Deuteronomy 31:29 For I know that after my death you will become utterly corrupt and turn from the path I have commanded you. And in the days to come, disaster will befall you because you will do evil in the sight of the LORD to provoke Him to anger by the work of your hands.”
- 1 Samuel 17:45 But David said to the Philistine, “You come against me with sword and spear and javelin, but I come against you in the name of the LORD of Hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have defied.