Ezekiel 38:22-23 - Exposition

Pestilence and blood (comp. Ezekiel 5:17 ; Ezekiel 14:19 ; Ezekiel 28:23 ) … an overflowing rain and great hailstones— literally, stones of ice (comp. Ezekiel 13:11 , Ezekiel 13:13 )— fire, and brimstone , or, pitch (comp. Genesis 19:24 ). The imagery here brought together was probably borrowed from the accounts given in the Pentateuch of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah ( Genesis 19:24 ), of the plagues in Egypt (Exodus 7-10.), and of the extermination of the Canaanites ( Joshua 10:11 ). The result of the whole would be to impress the minds of many nations with the conviction that Israel's God was both great and powerful, that, in fact, he was God alone.