Verse Lens · Context pointer
Ezekiel 38:12 Explained in Context
Use this verse as a doorway into the larger passage—not as an isolated saying.
Verse 12. 12To 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.
King James Version — public domain in the United States · Bible text and permissions
Role in This Section
The prophetic word through Ezekiel states or reports “To take a spoil, and to take a prey” at Ezekiel 38:12 as a specific part of “Gog Conceives an Exploitative Plan against Unwalled Settlements.”
Read It With
- Ezekiel 38:10–13
Read Ezekiel 38:12 with 38:10–13. By itself, “To take a spoil, and to take a prey” can be detached from the speaker, addressee, date, exilic horizon, visionary movement, or outcome that gives it force. The complete unit establishes: An evil plan targets a people imagined at rest without walls in order to seize spoil, while Sheba, Dedan, and Tarshish question the invasion's commercial aim.
Why It Needs Context
Keep the line with Ezekiel 38:10–13. The prophetic word through Ezekiel states or reports “To take a spoil, and to take a prey” at Ezekiel 38:12 as a specific part of “Gog Conceives an Exploitative Plan against Unwalled Settlements.” The literary form and this limit govern it: The unwalled-land image does not describe every security policy or authorize suspicion of named modern countries and ethnicities.
Continue in Context
Read the complete section for the connected explanation and how it should shape life. This verse is a doorway into that passage, not a saying that stands alone.
Read Ezekiel 38:10–13 — Gog Conceives an Exploitative Plan against Unwalled SettlementsSources used for this context pointer
How certain is this explanation? probable
These are the sources used directly for this lens. Language, grammar, disagreements, and the complete source shelf remain attached to the full thought-unit research record.
Biblical text
King James (Authorized) Version — eng-kjv2006
eBible.org and CrossWire Bible Society
USFM archive eng-kjv2006_usfm.zip; source files dated 2026-08-19; downloaded 2026-08-24; archive SHA-256 aec1b3b26c622fd3d963d2bbac963016b9513246ffbfa20da00bb100372ea007; normalized corpus SHA-256 09aef51d90488aa7b9722b3fd9a93f4b25f6bf2064c5fd798fb39673c300ddf2.
Supports: Exact displayed KJV wording, verse order, paragraph metadata, supplied-word markup, and complete thought-unit coverage.
Exact location: Ezekiel 38:10–13, pinned eng-kjv2006 USFM-derived repository corpus
Open source ↗hebrew text and morphology
Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible: Ezekiel
Open Scriptures
Open Scriptures, release 2.2
Supports: Masoretic Hebrew wording and morphology checked at the exact unit without treating morphology as a critical apparatus or interpretation.
Exact location: Open Scriptures MorphHB v2.2, commit 6a5db284c715c18b239422e57bb89684e6a19f00, wlc/Ezek.xml, OSIS 38:10–13
Open the fixed Hebrew Ezekiel file ↗