Ezekiel 38, Gog and Magog

Ezekiel has told of a valley of dry bones coming to life and the people of Israel being gathered together and renewed. But there are still some old enemies. We now have a two-chapter interlude, in which a future battle is described.

Mackie (in sessions 23 and 24 of his Ezekiel class) calls these two chapters the "Gog oracle."

Ezekiel 38:1-6, Gog in Magog

The word of the LORD came to me: "Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal; prophesy against him and say: `This is what the Sovereign LORD says: 

I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army--your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords.   

Persia, Cush and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops--the many nations with you.   

An unusual individual is mentioned now, Gog, prince in the land of Magog, associated with Meshech and Tubal. Meshech and Tubal were probably far north of Palestine, in Asia Minor or the Caucasus. (These nations also appear in Ezekiel 32.) 

Gog is called out to attack Israel. He comes with armies of seven kingdoms, Meshech, Tubal, Persia, Cush, Put, Gomer and Beth Togarmah. While Meshech and Tubal are north of Israel, the others come from all points of the compass. Persia, for example, is to the east while Cush, in Egypt, is southwest of Israel.

The individual Magog was a descendant of Japheth in the Table of Nations (see Genesis 10:2.) His descendants take a land named after them, said ancient historian Flavius Josephus in his Antiquities of the Jews (book 1, chapter 6, paragraph 1.)  Josephus identifies these people as Scythians.

Ezekiel 38:7-9, Invaders

"`Get ready; be prepared, you and all the hordes gathered about you, and take command of them. After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety. You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up, advancing like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land.   

The people of Gog and his armies will invade the peaceful land of Israel.

Ezekiel 38:10-13, Plans to plunder

"`This is what the Sovereign LORD says: 

On that day thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme. You will say, "I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people--all of them living without walls and without gates and bars. I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of the land." 

Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all her villages will say to you, "Have you come to plunder? Have you gathered your hordes to loot, to carry off silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods and to seize much plunder?"'   

The nearby nations will plan to take advantage of the peaceful, vulnerable Israelite villages.

Ezekiel 38:14-16, A horde from Gog

"Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: `This is what the Sovereign LORD says: 

In that day, when my people Israel are living in safety, will you not take notice of it? You will come from your place in the far north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army. You will advance against my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come, O Gog, I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I show myself holy through you before their eyes.   

Gog, leading nations from the north, will invade Israel.

Ezekiel 38:17-23, Earthquake

"`This is what the Sovereign LORD says: 

Are you not the one I spoke of in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel? At that time they prophesied for years that I would bring you against them.

 

This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign LORD. In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish of the sea, the birds of the air, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground.

 

I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign LORD. Every man's sword will be against his brother. I will execute judgment upon him with plague and bloodshed; I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him. And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.' 

When Gog attacks Israel, YHWH defend His people. Gog's defeat will be accompanied by natural disasters, earthquakes, plagues, hailstones and so on, reversing the creation of animals in Days 5 and 6 of Genesis 1:20-27.

There have been numerous attempts to identify Gog. The name Gog appears in an ancient genealogy in 1 Chronicles 5:4. There appears to be no connection between that individual and this future prince. Some identify Gog with Gugu/Gyges, a king of Lydia in the seventh century BC. (This is the Gyges of legend appearing in Plato's Republic.) It is possible that the word, like Pharaoh or Caesar, is an official title. 

The text says that YHWH spoke of this enemy ruler "in former days." The term Gog does not appear in the Masoretic Text earlier. However, in Balaam's prophecy in Numbers 24:7, the name Agag appears and Israel is prophesied to later have a king greater than Agag. (And in 1 Samuel 15:7-8, 32-33, an Amalekite king Agag is captured and killed.) Mackie says that the Septuagint and some Hebrew texts of the Numbers passage write "Gog" instead of "Agag", dropping a single aleph. Was this the passage to which Ezekiel refers?

The most natural interpretation of the Gog oracles is to see Gog (and Magog) as representative enemies set on destroying Israel.

Some Random Thoughts

Much has been made of the Hebrew word rosh, translated "chief" by the NIV in verse 2. That word is translated as "head" in Genesis 3:15 and elsewhere in the Old Testament. But there have been attempts to make it a prophetic word for Russia, an interpretation which commentator Alexander views as ridiculous. (Rus first appears in a name for a tribe north of the Black Sea in the 10th century AD.) Those attempting to sound out rosh into Russia also attempt to turn Meshech into Moscow. These suggestions display considerable creativity in Bible interpretation but little regard for the original text.

Magog is definitely north of Israel in Ezekiel's time and Russia is north of Israel today, but any attempt to precisely locate Magog in today's world raises a fog of questions. 

The text above lists enemy nations from all directions around Israel. Reading Russia as the enemy of Israel is not consistent with the text.