Persia Cush Put

There's a very specific text in Ezekiel 38 that appears to describe some of the political alignments occuring in the middle east. Actually it's remarkable how little has changed in that area, it's basically the same set of players. It's only that Persia isn't being so nice to the Jews as they were in the days of Cyrus. Too bad there's no queen Esther to get rid of the modern Haman types in Iran.

vs 5 "Persia, Cush and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, 6 also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops—the many nations with you..." These are ancient alliances in the named places, could the "many nations" be alluding to outsiders backing up the local tough guys threatening Israel? It's not clear who that would be but there are no shortage of countires that wouldn't like to take a piece out of Israel.


and in Ezekiel 30 I noticed another listing:
"Cush and Put, Lydia and all Arabia, Libya and the people of the covenant land will fall by the sword along with Egypt".

Nation lists have been an important aspect of Israelite history, all the way back to Genesis. At the very least they paint a broad canvas of circumstances surrounding important events in early times. Likewise today, I think they are useful in prophecies like Ezekiel in pointing out circumstances that Israel is subjected too by the nations. But the end of these alignments against her will come. The time for the incoming kingdom of God to take visible action is ripe.