Matthew Poole and continuators on Ezekiel 38:4

4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy chaws, and I will bring thee forth, and all thy army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company, with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords.

The words seem to imply a diverting him from some other enterprise, or else intimate to us, when that mighty power come out, they are still under God's controul, and he will turn them back from what they intended, that they shall not effect it.

See this expression chap. 29.4.

So dispose affairs, thou shalt leave thine own Countrey to invade and spoil, and destroy

The whole power thou canst make.

Those Nations Sarmatae, or Scythians, Cappadocians, &c. or, which comprise all the Turks and Tartars are to this day strong in Horse, and their Armies consist much of Horsemen.

Their Leaders both rich and gaudy, yet well armed, and their Souldiers well provided too, and we know how they, and other Antichristian Souldiers march which all Warlike provisions.

In vast Armys far greater, then any of their Neighbours can bring out against them.

Bucklers for their foot, and sheilds for their Horsemen, as Servius observes the difference between the two latin words scutum and clypeus, if not misreported, I doubt whether the Heb. words do so differ, however these were for defence of those, that bear them, and to this day the Tartars use oblong shields for defence on Horseback, as the figures represent them to our eye.

That is very ready, expert and strong in using the sword, this to slay the Enemies, as the other to save themselves.

Marginal references: 2 [illegible: 1 span] chap. 3[illegible: 1 letter].[illegible: 1 letter]; chap. [illegible: 1 letter]3