First Thing: ‘Impossible’ to reopen strait of Hormuz amid ‘flagrant’ ceasefire breaches, Iran says

Ezekiel 38-39 describes an end-times coalition led by 'Gog of the land of Magog' moving against Israel, with Persia (Ezekiel 38:5, Hebrew 'Paras') explicitly named among the allied forces. The identification of Paras with ancient and modern Persia (Iran) is the most linguistically direct of all the coalition members — it is not disputed that Paras equals Persia.

The image of God putting 'hooks into the jaws' of this great power and drawing it into a military campaign captures the prophetic idea that Iran's military aggression in the region — however self-motivated — is being sovereignly guided toward a predicted eschatological showdown. This is a possibility the text warrants raising, not a certainty.

Iran is the direct linguistic descendant of Ezekiel's 'Paras,' and its current military aggression — seizing ships, closing a global sea-lane, confronting the world's leading naval power — represents an escalation of exactly the regional belligerence Ezekiel 38 associates with Iran in the last-days scenario. While this standoff is not the Gog-Magog war itself, it shows Iran continuing to position itself as a militarily aggressive power in the precise theater Ezekiel describes, consistent with the prophetic trajectory.

Joel 3 (Hebrew 4) presents a final-days scenario in which the Lord summons the nations to account in the Valley of Jehoshaphat — a name meaning 'the LORD judges.' The original near-horizon addressed the nations that had sold Judah into captivity; the far horizon, confirmed by the NT's use of Joel (Acts 2), points to an eschatological gathering and judgment of the nations around the land of Israel. The Strait of Hormuz sits at the maritime doorway to the Persian Gulf — the very theater where ancient Persia (modern Iran) and the great sea-powers have historically collided.

The gathering of naval forces in that corridor directly east of Israel fits the pattern of nations maneuvering toward a confrontation zone adjacent to the biblical epicenter.

Iran and the United States are currently positioning competing naval forces in a chokepoint that directly affects global commerce and Middle Eastern stability. This mirrors the prophetic image of nations being 'brought down' — drawn by their own ambitions — into a theater of confrontation near Israel's immediate region.

Whether or not this is the ultimate fulfillment, it fits the pattern Joel describes: nations in armed standoff over resources and power in the ancient Near Eastern corridor.

Habakkuk describes the LORD permitting a powerful, aggressive nation — Babylon — to 'seize dwellings not their own,' capturing ships, peoples, and territories as an instrument of divine judgment and geopolitical upheaval. The structural pattern is: a nation of notorious aggression uses military force to seize what belongs to others on international waters and trade routes.

This is not an identification of Iran as Babylon, but a genuine structural parallel: a state using armed power to seize commercial vessels in international waters, disrupting the commerce of nations, exactly as Babylon swept through the ancient Near East seizing what was not theirs.

Iran's seizure of commercial ships in the Strait of Hormuz — vessels that are not Iranian territory and whose cargoes are not Iran's to take — mirrors the pattern Habakkuk describes: a nation marching through its region of influence, seizing what does not belong to it. The prophet's point was that such aggression, even when God permits it as judgment, does not go unanswered.

Habakkuk's lament and God's response remind believers that lawless seizure of others' property on the high seas sits within God's sight and sovereign reckoning.