Bible Strands
Ezekiel 38:21
And I will summon a sword against Gog on all My mountains, declares the Lord GOD, and every man’s sword will be against his brother.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — Yahweh speaks to Ezekiel during a prophetic vision of a future coalition attack led by Gog. The declaration occurs immediately after the description of cosmic tremors and collapsing terrain that precede divine intervention.
The words — וְקָרָאתִי (veqarati) translates literally as "and I will summon," and חֶרֶב (herev) means "sword." The text states Yahweh will call a sword against Gog on every mountain, causing every man's sword to turn against his brother.
The thread — This motif of divinely instigated internal conflict appears in Judges 7:22, where the Lord sets the Israelite camp against itself, and aligns with Haggai 2:22, which describes the overturning of royal thrones and kingdoms. Ezekiel 14:17 also records Yahweh sending a sword to cut off both man and beast from a land.
Why it lands — The text asserts that human military coordination will collapse into mutual destruction when divine judgment intervenes. It requires the reader to acknowledge that God uses internal fracture as the primary mechanism to dismantle hostile forces.
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 I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God: every man’s sword shall be against his brother.
Cross-references
- Haggai 2:22 I will overturn royal thrones and destroy the power of the kingdoms of the nations. I will overturn chariots and their riders; horses and their riders will fall, each by the sword of his brother.
- Judges 7:22 And when the three hundred rams’ horns sounded, the LORD set all the men in the camp against one another with their swords. The army fled to Beth-shittah toward Zererah as far as the border of Abel-meholah near Tabbath.
- Ezekiel 14:17 Or if I bring a sword against that land and say, ‘Let a sword pass through it,’ so that I cut off from it both man and beast,
- 2 Chronicles 20:23 The Ammonites and Moabites rose up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction. And when they had finished off the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another.
- 1 Samuel 14:20 Then Saul and all his troops assembled and marched to the battle, and they found the Philistines in total confusion, with each man wielding the sword against his neighbor.
- Psalms 105:16 He called down famine on the land and cut off all their supplies of food.