Chapter Thirty-Eight

The Invasion of Gog

Beyond the return of the chosen people from captivity and their happy life in the promised land, most other prophets do not extend their predictions about Israel. For such an eschatologist as the prophet Ezekiel, the prophetic vision naturally penetrates further and traces the fate of Israel until the final fulfillment in it of all God’s promises. This fulfillment is impossible as long as the pagan world is strong on earth: from its side renewal of struggle against the people of God is always possible. For the full well-being of the latter it is necessary that this world be completely weakened. Besides, the return of the chosen people from captivity and their settlement in the promised land will not restore finally the honor of God’s name, will not fully wipe from it the shame which the humiliation of Israel brought upon it in the eyes of the nations. And the glory of God’s name is determined in Ezekiel chiefly as the relation of God to the world. The final glorification of this great name, or, which is the same, the recognition by the pagans of Jehovah as God requires a new and already final manifestation of God’s glory on earth, a manifestation unprecedented, through an unprecedented decisive weakening, bordering on complete destruction of the pagan world on earth, a weakening which would destroy any remaining doubt in anyone of the exclusive, unique greatness of God’s name. This last struggle of the world hostile to God on earth against God’s kingdom, a struggle destined to end in complete weakening, if not perfect destruction of the first world, is depicted in chapters XXXVIII and XXXIX under the form of a war of the most distant and most varied peoples with Gog at their head against the new Israel. Naturally, this struggle, which in the New Testament is depicted more from its spiritual aspect as the struggle of the antichrist and his false teaching against Christ and His truth, is presented by the Old Testament prophet, writing in an era of widespread bloody wars and weak ideological struggle, in the form of war. However, this does not mean that all the features in this presentation have only symbolic meaning and require spiritual application. It is possible that Ezekiel depicts with material features that very struggle which the New Testament describes from the spiritual and ideological aspect. On earth all the spiritual is so closely united with the bodily and physical that no struggle can be purely spiritual. Just as in all predictions of the final chapters, so in these two the prophet Ezekiel first and foremost contemplates the fate of post-captivity Israel, its truly heroic defense of its nationality and faith from the immeasurably stronger physical pagan world, pressing upon it from all sides and yet unable to destroy this small people, which in the end (in the person of Christianity) gained a decisive victory over it. Even the pagans, who had no direct contact with Israel (like the pagans of chapters XXV–XXXII), had to feel the might of Jehovah. Remarkably, Ezekiel expects this final judgment upon paganism already after a greater change of things; in him the complete renewal of the world and salvation is divided into two acts: the second opens with the overthrow of Gog, just as the first with the destruction of the pagan neighbors of Israel. – It is believed that Ezekiel takes the colors for depicting this great struggle not so much from the campaigns of Nebuchadnezzar as from the invasion of the Scythians into Western Asia that took place about the time of Josiah, which then inspired fear in all of Asia for a long time; from this invasion Jeremiah III–VI and Zephaniah take colors for depicting God’s judgment (“the day of the Lord”), and even directly describe it; Ezek 32:26-27 is also believed to point to this invasion. It could not be doubted that the political situation then did not exclude the possibility of repetition of this invasion. From the north new hordes of Scythians penetrated to the south and took command from preceding ones. What Ezekiel calls Gog was a real force in his time (Smend). This is confirmed by comparison of Ezek 38:2-3, 39 with Ezek 38:5-6. Although the invasion of Gog subsequently became an image of the god-hostile worldly power that will perish at the world judgment (Rev 20:7 and ff.), Gog comes not as an enemy of Jehovah or Israel; he knows nothing of Jehovah and seeks only plunder (Ezek 38:12-13); this is his sin (Smend). Some interpret the prophecy as referring to Babylon. Indeed, although the prophet Ezekiel regards the Chaldeans as executors of God’s commission regarding Judea and its punishment, and therefore as not responsible for the evil they caused to Judea, they could have fulfilled this commission with excessive cruelty. Thus Isaiah passes over to threats against Assyria, in which he saw the punishing rod of God (Isa 10:5 and ff.); and the prophets at the end of the captivity speak of the near destruction of Babylon; the fall of the Babylonian monarchy appeared to be a necessary preliminary condition for the liberation of Israel and Ezekiel, like Jeremiah earlier, was not foreign to the thought of such a fall: Jer 29:13 and ff. cf. Ezek 4:4-5. In the very names Gog and Magog some see a veiled indication of Babylon. It has been suggested (Böhmer in Zeitschrift für wissenschaftliche Theologie 1897, p. 321) that in the name Magog Ezekiel gives the name of Babylon according to one of the methods accepted in Kabbalah, namely through the replacement of each letter (consonant) by the next one in the alphabet and by reading the word in reverse order. Babylon, in Hebrew Babel, has the consonant letters bbL, the letters following them ggm, – in reverse order mgg, magog. But the prophecy concerning Gog refers to later times than the fall of the Babylonian monarchy, to those when Israel, returned from captivity, has already achieved considerable well-being in the sacred land (Ezek 36:33 and ff.). The prophet was surely restrained from the prediction of Babylon’s destruction not by fear of the mighty conqueror (prophets knew no fear of earthly power), but by the benefit of the listeners. If the sufferings of captivity were to bear their fruits further, then it was not yet the time to turn the attention of the people to Babylon’s sin and its certain final destruction.

The speech of chapter XXXVIII, besides the introduction, v. 1–2, contains three parts: v. 2–9 develop the thought that in essence Jehovah himself in the last days will draw Gog as it were even against his will into his land, in order through his destruction to reveal his almightiness. In passages parallel to this part, v. 10–16 (cf. v. 9 and 16) it is proved that, on the other hand, Gog will be drawn by his thirst for plunder. V. 17–23 speak of the punishment of Gog, its correspondence with the prophetic predictions, and the impression upon the world, through which the latter will know Jehovah.

Ezekiel 38:2. “Son of man, turn your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him Gog here appears as a person, a prince from the land of Magog, but in Rev 20:7 this name, like Magog, are names of peoples. The particle ma in Sanskrit carries the idea of land and placed before the name of Gog may mean the land of Gog. The name Gog could have been such a formation from Magog as the Arabic Yajuj from Majuj, Maij, Maji (Persians). Consequently, the nearest determination of the mysterious name “Gog” depends on the meaning of the more known name “Magog.” The article placed here with Magog shows that this is a known people and refers to Gen 10:2, the only place in the Old Testament where this people is named (1 Chr 1:5). According to this passage Magog is the 2nd son of Japheth: Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan (Elisha), Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras. Of these names the following after Magog have found very probable identifications: Madai – the Medes, Javan – the Greeks, etc. According to Josephus Flavius (Antiquities 1:6, 1) and others, Magog means the Scythians. But the Scythians, who in the time of Josiah attacked Western Asia, are called by Ezekiel Ezek 32:26, apparently, Meshech and Tubal, and here the peoples with these two names are subject to Gog and seem recently so. Probably Gog penetrated from the north. And chapter X of Genesis places the land of Magog in the country to the north of the Caucasus, because, as is probable, the people “Gomer” lived there. If here Gog is presented as living in the land of Magog and appears as the prince of Meshech and Tubal, this does not yet follow that the lands of Magog must be sought close to these latter peoples. Against this speaks Gen 10:2, which places between Magog and Meshech a number of names. Meshech and Tubal are obviously conquests of Gog. By all this the name Magog does not correspond to either the Massagetae, who in the time of Herodotus lived between the Caspian and Aral seas and in the Kyrgyz steppes, nor to Armenia, which even under the Achaemenids formed a separate satrapy and was populated chiefly by Scythian pastoral tribes. Even less suitable for determining the land of Magog is the so-called Scythian wall, which stretched from Derbent on the Caspian Sea to the Euxine Pontus and among the Arabs was called a name corresponding with Magog. If it is so difficult to say anything definite about the meaning of the name Magog and the place of this country or people, despite the fact that the Old Testament seems to have connected with this name a definite and well-known conception, then it is even more difficult to say anything about the name Gog, used only by Ezekiel (However, it is found also in 1 Chr 5:4 as the name of one descendant of Reuben, about whom nothing is reported). The name has been compared with the Turkic g’g, sky, Persian kog, mountain; travelers of the 13th century call the prince of the Tatars kot-khan; the title of a prince in many languages sounds so: kuk, khon, king, konig; cf. our Russian “gosudar” (ruler), “goi” (archaic term for stranger), “izgoi” (outcast). In the cuneiform inscription of Ashurbanipal beside Biriguda the prince of the Medes, are named Sarite and Parizi, sons of Gaagi, prince of the Saka (Scythians?): perhaps this latter is also the same as Guto, Gyges, the Lydian king (Del. W.d.d. Par. 246). In the El-Amarna letters (Schrad. Keilinchr. Bibl. V, 5) Hagaya is a designation of some northern barbarians. The name of Gog is also compared with Antiochus Epiphanes: (Ant)ioch(us) and ‘Ώγυγος – At Ezekiel the word Gog, terrible in its newness and striking in its brevity and energy, is first used, and he perhaps paired it with the similarly-sounding name Magog, one of the most northern peoples, to designate by this rare and little-known name all the new enemies of Israel of the distant future, which will appear from the most distant parts of the always hostile north, from which the last catastrophe – captivity – has descended upon them (cf. Ezek 1:4; Jer 1:14), from which have come all the enemies of Israel (Assyria, Scythians, Babylon, Persians) – and appearing thence, will receive strong auxiliary troops from the south (v. 5), thanks to which as it were the whole world will bear down upon Israel. “Prince,” Hebrew nasi, i.e., of the peoples named further, which were probably, as conquered, more subject to Gog than his own people Magog. “Rosh” in Hebrew means “head,” “chief,” wherefore this perhaps is a definition of nasi: “chief prince,” as the high priest was called cohen rosh, “chief priest”; so indeed the Vulgate: princeps capitis. But the LXX and all other ancient translations consider Rosh a proper name, consequently, the name of a people. The Bible does not know of such a people. It is compared with the Rhos of Byzantine and Eastern writers of the 10th century (cf. Rûs in the Quran XXV, 50), who call thus a Scythian mountain people, at the Arctic Taurus or at the Black Sea and Volga, thus apparently, us Russians; against such identification (Gesenius) Hengstenberg observed (we are grateful to him) that “Russians cannot be placed among the enemies of God’s kingdom.” It is also compared with Roxolani of Pliny (Hist. nat IV, 12) and Ptolemy (III, 5) Rhos † Alani and the Rasi of cuneiform inscriptions, which must be sought on the western boundary of Elam at the Tigris (Del. W. d. d. Par. 322. Schr. Keil. u. A.T., 427). In any case, a people of the most distant north and terrible in their obscurity. “Meshech” and “Tubal” – see explanation of Ezek 27:13, cf. Ezek 32:26. Meshech also in Ps 119:5 (Mosoch in the Russian Bible) is an image of a merciless barbarous people.

Ezekiel 38:4. And I will turn you around and put hooks in your jaws, and I will lead you out with all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company with buckler and shield, all of them handling swords. Although Gog undertook this campaign on his own impulse, from a desire for plunder (v. 13), he followed an unperceived impulse from Jehovah, who led him like a wild beast by his will. In Rev 20:7 he is led by Satan; cf. 2 Sam 24:1 with 1 Chr 21:1. Later theology designates the relation of Deity to such actions by the term “permission.” – “And I will turn you around,” Hebrew shuv, to return in the form Poel – admits also the translation “seduce” (cf. Isa 47:10), “attract”; but the LXX: “I will turn you back”; Vulgate circumagam. – “Put hooks in your jaws” – see explanation of Ezek 29:4; hysteron proteron. The Vatican and other manuscripts do not have both propositions. Further description of the enemy corresponds to the Assyro-Babylonian army, about which the prophet repeatedly uses the words hayil, “army,” Slavonic “force,” and “host,” katal. – “In full armor,” literally “in the clothing of perfection,” – brilliant armor. See explanation of Ezek 23:12. – “A great company,” perhaps the infantry in distinction from the cavalry mentioned earlier, armed if not so brilliantly, then still fully: “in buckler and shield.” Shields were more the attribute of infantry (not cavalry), with which were famous according to Ezek 27:10 the peoples enumerated in the following verse.

Ezekiel 38:5. Persia, Cush, and Put are with them, all equipped with shields and helmets. Besides the unheard-of peoples of the north, Gog’s army will have a whole series of peoples of the south or civilized, but not yet having appeared on the prominent historical stage. The Persian are first of all, naturally, among these latter peoples, Hebrew paras – see explanation of Ezek 20:10. – “Cush” – see explanation of Ezek 29:10, Slavonic “Murians.” – “Put,” Hebrew Put or Fut, see explanation of Ezek 27:10. Slavonic also “Lydians” (not in the Greek either) – doublet or insertion by Ezek 27:10. – “With shields” – see v. 4.

Ezekiel 38:6. Gomer and all his troops; the house of Togarmah from the remote parts of the north with all his troops – many peoples are with you. “Gomer” is mentioned only in Gen 10:3 1 Chr 1:6. It is identified either with the Cimmerians (Homer Odyssey XI, 14), cuneiform Gimiraya at the Black Sea, or with the Cappadocians, who among the Armenians mentioned here at the same time (“house of Togarmah”) are called Gamir (Eus. Chron. Arm. I, 95; II, 12). Since the Cimmerians according to Strabo (I, 3, 21) made raids on Asia Minor and even invaded the Lydian kingdom pressed by Scythians (Herod. I, 6, 15 etc.), they could have left traces of their name in Asia Minor among the Cappadocians (wherefore, it seems, Josephus Flavius understands by Gomer the Galatians). Cf. also the names “Cimbri” or “Cumri.” – “With all his troops,” Hebrew agan, translated in XII, 14 “all armies,” see explanation there. Slavonic “all around him.” – “House of Togarmah” – see explanation of Ezek 27:14. – “Many peoples” – more numerous smaller and secondary ones.

Ezekiel 38:7. Be prepared, and keep yourself ready, you and all your companies that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them. “Be prepared and keep yourself ready.” Ironical exhortation: he will perish anyway. – “Be a guard for them.” All the peoples named here are not subjects of Gog, but only are under his command; hence the somewhat unusual expression. But Hebrew mishmar means properly “banner.” LXX: “and you will be for Me a front guard,” προφυλακτης, vanguard (Bertholet): “reserve,” a meaning confirmed by the following verse.

Ezekiel 38:8. After many days you will be mustered; in the latter years you will come against the land that is restored from war, the land whose people were gathered from many nations, now dwelling securely, all of them, on the mountains of Israel, which had long been a desolation; its people were brought out from the nations and now all of them dwell securely. Although Gog is already prepared, the time has not yet come for the Lord to use him, because first Israel must be settled in his own land. – “After many days” (cf. Isa 24:22) is the same as “in the latter years,” at the end of the world, according to Rev 20:7 after the mysterious 1000 years. – “You will be mustered” – a tentative translation of the Hebrew tippaked, which the LXX translate more precisely “you will be equipped” (properly “to make inspection”), Vulgate visitaberis. – “The land that is restored from war.” Land – is a synonym for people, of which, properly, only can be said: restored (but the LXX: “destroyed”) from war, and especially “gathered from many nations,” from captivity. – “The mountains of Israel” – a favorite designation in Ezekiel for Palestine, in which the love for one’s own country shows, that of a highlander forcibly settled in a far and lowly foreign land. – “Long been a desolation,” the LXX: “very desolate,” δι ὃλον. Palestine lay desolate during the 70 years of captivity; but the expression may point to the time from the death of the Savior to the coming of the Antichrist during which the Jews are in dispersion. – “All of them dwell securely.” “Such will be the condition of the Church before the last struggle between good and evil” (Trochon.).

Ezekiel 38:9. You will advance, coming like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land, you and all your troops, and many peoples with you. “A storm” (Slavonic “rain”) and a cloud – images of great calamity; cf. Isa 11:1 and others. “Cover the land,” as a cloud darkens the sky. – “You and all” – Greek ἔσῃ σύ καὶ πάντες, which the Slavonic somehow transmits: “you will fall”; it is too early to speak of his death.

Ezekiel 38:10. Thus says the Lord God: On that day thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme. The 2nd part of the speech (see preliminary remarks to the chapter). Although in essence Jehovah himself brings Gog, the will (more accurately: the permission) of the Lord coincides with the strivings of Gog. The parallel of v. 2–9 and 10–16 could be a classical place for what in theology is called concursus: divine action, influence is not something different compared with the action of creation, but this single and indivisible action (Bertholet). “Thoughts.” Hebrew davar, word, often has such a meaning, the LXX “words,” Vulgate sermones.

Ezekiel 38:11. and you said, “I will go up against the land of unwalled villages; I will fall upon the quiet people who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and without gates or bars; “A land of unwalled villages” – literally “a land of villages,” without cities with their fortifications. The future sacred land is presented in this verse as lying in the deepest peace, not having even cities, but only villages; cf. Zech 6:5. The prediction has not yet been fulfilled. – “Against the quiet people who dwell securely”; the Slavonic is better (without a tone of condemnation): “against those silent in quiet and dwelling in peace.”

Ezekiel 38:12. to seize spoil and carry off plunder; to assail the waste places that are now inhabited, and the people who were gathered from the nations, who have gotten cattle and goods, who dwell at the center of the earth. “Your hand,” Hebrew “your hand,” the LXX “my hand” (in Gog’s speech). – “On the newly settled ruins.” Gog wishes to devastate the land, hardly healed from its misfortunes and former assaults. – “Who have acquired possessions and goods,” literally: “who have acquired property (mikne) and goods.” The chosen people of the blessed future is presented as agricultural, not commercial. In the mysterious sense these are the virtues and gifts of the Holy Spirit, which the antichrist and his servants wish to seize from Christians. – “At the center” – the Slavonic is more precise – “at the navel.” See explanation of Ezek 5:5. The expression first appears in Judg 9:37. Thus Canaan could be called for its mountainousness, and the mysterious promised land of the future for the beauty and abundance of God’s blessing upon it. The expression is not foreign to classical writers: Cic. c. Verrem VI, 48 De divinat. 2. Liv. XXXV, 18; Odyssey I, 50.

Ezekiel 38:13. Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its young lions will say to you, “Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your hosts to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to seize a great amount of spoils? The most mercantile peoples of the world, wise in riches, understand that greed alone armed Gog and his peoples and impels them to war (Trochon.). The rumors that have reached them of his grandiose campaign they try to verify on the spot, in order to draw profit from his future rich plunder; just as battlefields attract hyenas (Kretschmar), so large armies always draw to themselves crowds of speculators. Just as Gog’s army is composed of the most distant peoples, so merchants gather to his army from all ends of the earth (Smend). – “Sheba” see explanation of Ezek 27:22. – “Dedan” – Ezek 27:20. – “Merchants of Tarshish” – Slavonic “Carthaginian” – Ezek 27:12. – “Young lions” – a completely unexpected addition; the LXX must be a periphrase: “and all its villages”; Kretschmar allows in the Hebrew in kefirega a corruption of kipri, Cypriot (Song 4:13; Song 1:13).

Ezekiel 38:14. Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord God: On that day when my people Israel are dwelling securely, will you not know it? It is repeated with some changes and supplements what was said in v. 10–13. “Will you not know it.” The LXX “you will rise” (instead of teda they read teor).

Ezekiel 38:15. and you will come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde and a mighty army. “From the uttermost parts of the north.” The north – a dark land, the symbol of the source of all calamities (see explanation of Ezek 1:4 “from the north”). From the north the Jews suffered the greatest blows of fate (see preliminary remarks to the chapter). This property of the north with penetration deeper into it, to its edge, is strengthened. – “All riding on horses.” Scythian cavalry amazed the East. “A great horde” – a quantitative definition, and “mighty army” (Slavonic “force”) – a qualitative one.

Ezekiel 38:16. and you will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I show my holiness before their eyes. “Like a cloud” – see explanation of v. 9. – “In the latter days,” see explanation of v. 8. – “I will bring you.” Independently of his wish, Gog will fulfill also God’s will. – “Show my holiness” – explanation of the phrase: “that the nations may know me.” Through the destruction of Gog (the highest embodiment of evil), God will reveal himself to the world from the aspect of holiness, the chief property of his being, so as he had not revealed himself before. Then in truth will they fully know God.

Ezekiel 38:17. Thus says the Lord God: Are you he of whom I spoke in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel, who in those days prophesied that I would bring you against them? “Are you he.” The LXX “you are,” perhaps because they considered it unbecoming for God as it were to reason over his former predictions. – “In former days by my servants the prophets.” Although Gog is not named by earlier prophets, everything hostile to God, of which the prophets spoke, was in essence the same as Gog, and the latter’s judgment by God, the so-called “day of the Lord,” the final day – is the destruction of Gog. In particular Ezekiel may have had in mind here Num 24:7 (“Agag” is Gog according to Blessed Jerome), Isa 10:5-34 and ff.; Mic 5:11; Zeph 3:8. The prophecy is presented here already as a relatively completed and objective fact, which in history sooner or later must be fulfilled. Such a presentation is natural on the eve of the cessation of the prophetic gift in the Old Testament; cf. Zech 1:4. – “In those days” – ancient and long.

Ezekiel 38:18. On that day, when Gog comes against the land of Israel, says the Lord God, my wrath will be kindled in my anger. “Anger” – another motive for the destruction of Gog; besides favor toward the chosen people – indignation against evil.

Ezekiel 38:19. For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath I have spoken: Surely on that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel. In the nearest sense God’s anger and glory will be manifested in a strong earthquake (“shaking” – Slavonic more precisely: “tremor”), which he will produce when the enemies enter his land. An earthquake from Amos (Amos 8:8) – one of the signs of the “day of the Lord,” God’s final judgment: Joel 3:16; Hag 2:6-7; Matt 24:7 and parallels; Rev 16:8. – “Surely,” the LXX more precisely “if not,” – a formula of oath.

Ezekiel 38:20. The fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the people that are on the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground. Together with the earth the whole of nature will come into trembling: the four-part animal kingdom, all mankind, and inanimate nature.

Ezekiel 38:21. And I will call for the sword against Gog on all my mountains, says the Lord God; every man’s sword will be against his brother. Then Gog’s army will be destroyed by the fact that the allies will rise up against one another and turn swords on themselves. This perhaps is represented as the consequence of the confusion into which they will fall from the terrible earthquake. Cf. Judg 7:22; 1 Sam 14:20; 2 Chr 20:23; Zech 14:13. – “On all my mountains” – in the mountainous land of Israel. But the expression is not as natural as in v. 8 and below. Therefore the LXX is better: “all fear” (garadah instead of garay), to which the Slavonic alone adds: “sword-bearing”; without this – more smoothly, because the next subject is the sword.

Ezekiel 38:22. And I will enter into judgment with him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him and upon his hordes and upon the many peoples that are with him, torrential rains and hailstones, fire and sulfur. “The entire arsenal of divine punishments will be used against Gog” (Kretschmar). – “Pestilence and blood” see explanation of Ezek 5:17. – “Torrential rains” – almost a second flood. “Hailstones,” as in Egypt and under Joshua (Josh 10:11), literally “huge stones” (Vulgate) see explanation of Ezek 13:11. – “Fire and sulfur,” as upon Sodom. Gen 19:24; Ps 10:6; 2 Sam 1:10. Those punishments of God which were sent separately upon each developing wickedness will now be united all against Gog, because he will be the completion of earthly wickedness. The union of the strongest calamities will be as terrible as will be this last uprising against God upon the earth.

Ezekiel 38:23. So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord. “Greatness” – first in Ezekiel, cf. Isa 10:15; Dan 5:19. “I will make myself known” – also first. God will then be known to the earth so fully and deeply as he could not have been known before. But fully – hardly: after the events of chapters XL–XLVIII this knowledge will be still fuller.