Bible Strands
Ezekiel 38:9
You and all your troops, and many peoples with you will go up, advancing like a thunderstorm; you will be like a cloud covering the land.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The Lord speaks through Ezekiel to a prophesied coalition of nations, predicting their mobilization against a securely dwelling people in the mountains of Israel after a long interval.
The words — The text uses כַּ/שֹּאָ֣ה (ka./sho.'Ah) to mean "like the storm" and כֶּ/עָנָ֛ן (ke./'a.Nan) to mean "like the cloud," describing the invading force's movement.
The thread — This storm and cloud imagery for advancing armies appears in Isaiah 28:2, Jeremiah 4:13, and Joel 2:2 to depict overwhelming, inescapable force.
Why it lands — It asks the reader to recognize the sheer scale of the coming assault and to note that the invasion originates from human strategy, not divine initiation.
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
Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.
Cross-references
- Isaiah 28:2 Behold, the Lord has one who is strong and mighty. Like a hailstorm or destructive tempest, like a driving rain or flooding downpour, he will smash that crown to the ground.
- Jeremiah 4:13 Behold, he advances like the clouds, his chariots like the whirlwind. His horses are swifter than eagles. Woe to us, for we are ruined!
- Joel 2:2 a day of darkness and gloom, a day of clouds and blackness. Like the dawn overspreading the mountains a great and strong army appears, such as never was of old, nor will ever be in ages to come.
- Isaiah 25:4 For You have been a refuge for the poor, a stronghold for the needy in distress, a refuge from the storm, a shade from the heat. For the breath of the ruthless is like rain against a wall,
- 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.
- Isaiah 8:9 Huddle together, O peoples, and be shattered; pay attention, all you distant lands; prepare for battle, and be shattered; prepare for battle, and be shattered!
- Isaiah 21:1 This is the burden against the Desert by the Sea: Like whirlwinds sweeping through the Negev, an invader comes from the desert, from a land of terror.
- Ezekiel 13:11 tell those whitewashing the wall that it will fall. Rain will come in torrents, I will send hailstones plunging down, and a windstorm will burst forth.
- Daniel 11:40 At the time of the end, the king of the South will engage him in battle, but the king of the North will storm out against him with chariots, horsemen, and many ships, invading many countries and sweeping through them like a flood.