1 And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying,
2 "Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him,"
Gog was the king of the countries of Meshech and Tubal and ruled from the town of Magog. Some translations add the country of Rosh in here.
The original Magog, Meshech and Tubals were the sons of Japheth, son of Noah. They, like many of their brothers and cousins, established countries that were named after them. They were located in the Syrian/Turkey region, though we aren’t entirely sure of the exact location.
3 "And say, 'Thus says the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:'"
Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, descendant of Seleucid, conquered Judah in the second century BC. Since this prophecy fits his rule so closely, Antiochus is probably Gog.
4 "'And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armor, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:'"
He had a big army.
5 "'Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:'"
Persia was under the rule of Antiochus (1 Maccabees 3:31) and according to Daniel 11:43 Ethiopia and Libya were his allies.
6 "'Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.'"
These were all countries that were independent at the time of Ezekiel but under the rule of Antiochus four hundred or so years later.
Ezekiel began his prophecies in 514BC.
Cyrus the Great gave the command to return to Jerusalem in 457BC.
Alexander the Great was believed to have entered Judah in 329BC.
Antiochus ruled the land in around 169-166BC, while Christ was probably born about 5BC, and Judah destroyed by the Romans in AD70.
(These dates are approximate and subject to adjustment by a year or two as the science of Archeology advances. Our exact calendar and recording of dates did not come into use until AD1582 and has been under adjustment ever since. It is difficult to align older dates to it and information is often still sketchy anyway, since ancients kept such records by who was king. Two different countries would begin their counting at different times due to different kings and different wars, so we now have to figure out how to correlate them all and fit them into our calendar system. New discoveries often change all the old dates.)
7 "'Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 "'After many days thou shall be visited: in the latter years thou shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.'"
Ezekiel now gives the time of the fulfillment of this scripture: it will be a while yet, just before the end of the nation Israel (which was destroyed about two hundred years after Antiochus), the Israelites will have returned to their land, and God will protect them.
Gog/Antiochus attacked the returnees after they have had a time of peace.
9 "'Thou shall ascend and come like a storm, thou shall be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.
10 "'Thus says the Lord God; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shall think an evil thought:'"
Antiochus was a very evil man.
11 "'And thou shall say, "I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,"'"
Only those cities that believed they were safe from attack would not have walls. They would be peace loving people, likely too weak to be a threat to anyone. Much of Judah fit this description.
12 "'To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.'"
Judah became very rich in the time between the Babylonian Captivity and Antiochus. Even Alexander the Great hadn’t destroyed the land, but was welcomed as a liberator from Persian taxation.
13 :;Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, “Art thou come to take a spoil? Have thou gathered thy company to take a prey? To carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?”'"
These other countries bargained with Antiochus in order to take part in the riches of Judah.
14 "Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, 'Thus says the Lord God; In that day when My people of Israel dwells safely, shall thou not know it?
15 "'And thou shall come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
Syria, Antiochus’ country, was directly north of Judah.
16 "'And thou shall 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.'"
God will use this attack by Antiochus to bring glory to Himself.
17 "'Thus says the Lord God; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by My servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?'"
There were other prophecies of Antiochus’ attack, most notably in Daniel.
18 "'And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, says the Lord God, that My fury shall come up in My face.
19 "'For in My jealousy and in the fire of My wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;'"
I don’t know if there was a literal earthquake or not, but there was certainly a great political shaking.
20 "'So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at My presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.'"
God worked miracles to rescue His people from the Seleucids (Antiochus’ family).
21 "'And I will call for a sword against him throughout all My mountains, says the Lord God: every man’s sword shall be against his brother.'"
God raised up the Maccabee brothers to lead the fight against Antiochus. Miracles happened and the scraggly Jews defeated their enemies. Sometimes they had to fight their own country men in the process since some had greatly prospered under Antiochus.
22 "'And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
23 "'Thus will I magnify Myself, and sanctify Myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the Lord.'"