ii. Vv. 10‐16.—But like the Assyrian in the time of Isaiah, Gog “meaneth not so”; he is not aware that he is Jehovah’s instrument, his purpose being to “destroy and cut off nations not a few.”(195) Hence the prophet proceeds to a new description of the enterprise of Gog, laying stress on the “evil thought” that will arise in his heart and lure him to his doom. What urges him on is the lust of plunder. The report of the people of Israel as a people that has amassed wealth and substance, and is at the same time defenceless, dwelling in a land without walls or bolts or gates, will have reached him. These two verses (11, 12) are interesting as giving a picture of Ezekiel’s conception of the final state of the people of God. They dwell in the “navel of the world”; they are rich and prosperous, so that the fame of them has gone forth through all lands; they are destitute of military resources, yet are unmolested in the enjoyment of their favoured lot because of the moral effect of Jehovah’s name on all nations that know their history. To Gog, however, who knows nothing of Jehovah, they will seem an easy conquest, and he will come up confident of victory to seize spoil and take booty and lay his hand on waste places reinhabited and a people gathered out of the heathen. The news of the great expedition and the certainty of its success will rouse the cupidity of the trading communities from all the ends of the earth, and they will attach themselves as camp‐followers to the army of Gog. In historic times this _rôle_ would naturally have fallen to the Phœnicians, who had a keen eye for business of this description.(196) But Ezekiel is thinking of a time when Tyre shall be no more; and its place is taken by the mercantile tribes of Arabia and the ancient Phœnician colony of Tarshish. The whole world will then resound with the fame of Gog’s expedition, and the most distant nations will await its issue with eager expectation. This then is the meaning of Gog’s destiny. In the time when Israel dwells peacefully he will be restless and eager for spoil;(197) his multitudes will be set in motion, and throw themselves on the land, covering it like a cloud. But this is Jehovah’s doing, and the purpose of it is that the nations may know Him and that He may be sanctified in Gog before their eyes.