38:5 Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya. Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya are all ancient nations; and they are still important nations “after many days” (Ezekiel 38:8), collaborating with the northern confederation to go against Israel.

38:5 shield and helmet. The emphasis in Ezekiel 38:4-5 is that the invading armies are heavily armed. Ezekiel in his vision could only identify their armaments in terms of things he knew, so he spoke of “horses,” “swords,” etc., to refer possibly to tanks and guns, but he also summarized it as “all sorts of armour” (Ezekiel 38:4).