“I spoke in former days...”: Inner -biblical allusion in the Gog oracles

The Gog oracles (Ezekiel 38-39) envision a future battle in the land of Israel between God and the nations of the earth. This study examines the Gog oracles' far-reaching reformulation of Ezekiel's vision of restoration and clarifies the last stages in the book's literary history, through an examination of the Gog oracles' reuse of antecedent textual materials from Ezekiel 1-37. The composer of the Gog oracles alludes to ten oracles in Ezekiel (6:1-14; 11:17-21; 16:53-63; 20:39-44; 28:25-26; 33:27-29; 34:1-31; 36:1-15; 36:16-23b; 37:1-14) and reformulates seven topics addressed in these ten oracles: the time of restoration, profanation and sanctification of God's name, return from exile, shame, inward transformation of the people, defilement and purification of the land and people, and the fate of Israel's enemies. By reformulating these subjects, the Gog oracles modify the message of the book in six ways. (1) The restoration is divided into two stages. A meager restoration precedes the war with Gog. The full restoration will follow it. (2) The war with Gog is established as the marker of the dawn of the eschatological age. (3) The geographical perspective of the book is widened to encompass the nations of the earth. (4) Ezekiel's deterministic view of history is likewise extended to include the nations. (5) Judgments targeting Israel are reapplied to Gog and his allies. (6) Details not resolved in Ezekiel are explained or resolved. The author's habits of allusion and composition lead to three conclusions about the literary history of the Gog oracles and the book of Ezekiel. The Gog oracles were composed by a single author. This author is responsible for all of the material in chaps. 38-39 (excepting only a few verses). The Gog oracles were written as a supplement to an edition of the book of Ezekiel that contained nearly all the materials currently found in chaps. 1-37 and may have included chaps. 40-48.