Gog

See Magog

Gog occurs Eze 38:3; Eze 38:14, and Eze 39:11, as a proper name—that of a prince of Magog, a people that were to come from the North to invade the land of Israel, and be there defeated. In a different sense, but corresponding with the assertions of other Oriental authors, in whose traditions this people occupy an important place, Gog occurs in Rev 20:8, as the name of a country.

Interpreters have given very different explanations of the terms Gog and Magog; but they have generally understood them as symbolical expressions for the heathen nations of Asia, or more particularly for the Scythians, a vague knowledge of whom seems to have reached the Jews in Palestine about that period. As a collective name, Magog seems also to indicate in the Hebrew the tribes about the Caucasian mountains. According to Reinegge, some of the Caucasian people call their mountains Gog, and the highest northern points Magog.

Gog. (mountain). A Reubenite, 1Ch 5:4, son of Shemaiah.

1. 1Ch 5:4.

2. GOG AND MAGOG. Magog was second son of Japhet, connected with Gomer (the Cimmerians) and Madai (Medes). In Ezekiel 38; 39, these two appear in the N. country, their weapon the bow, their warriors horsemen and notorious for cruel rapacity; probably the Scythians, the dominant Japhetic race between the Caucasus (Ghogh and Moghef are names still applied to its heights) and Mesopotamia from 630 to 600 B.C., who invaded Palestine and besieged Ascalon under Psammeticus.

Gog is the ideal head of Magog the land and people; also prince of Rosh (Roxolani), Mesech (Moschi), and Tubal (Tibareni); Eze 38:2, "the chief prince," rather "prince of Rosh" (the Scythian Tauri). Hengstenberg supports KJV. The names resemble Russia and Moscow, but Slavi and Wends were the ancient name of the Russians. In Rev 20:8 Gog and Magog are both peoples. The Scythians were expelled 596 B.C., just before Ezekiel wrote, after making their name a terror to Asia. The prophet naturally uses their name taken from familiar history to represent the anti-Christian confederacy about, to assail the Jews in the Holy Land before the millennium; Rev 20:7-9, to represent the confederacy headed by Satan, and about to assail the beloved city after the millennium.

Antiochus Epiphanes, the Old Testament antichrist, the "little horn" of the third world empire, who defiled Jehovah’s temple and altar with swine sacrifices and set up Jupiter’s altar there, prefigures the "king of fierce countenance" who, "when the transgressors shall come to the full, shall destroy the holy people" (Dan 8:10-26); "the king of the N." (compare Eze 39:2), who "shall do according to his will, and exalt and magnify himself above every god, and speak marvelous things against the God of gods, and shall enter also into the glorious land and plant the tabernacles of his palaces between the seas in the glorious holy mountain, and shall come to his end," through Michael’s interposition, after a "time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation" (Dan 11:21-45; Dan 12:1; Zec 13:9; Zec 14:2-3). Gog represents antichrist the beast; Magog the ten kingdoms leagued under him (Revelation 16-17). Haughty, blasphemous self confidence is his characteristic (2 Thessalonians 2).

Sheba, Dedan, Tarshish, mercantile peoples, though not openly joining his invasion of Israel, yet from selfish love of gain, sympathize with it secretly (Eze 38:13; Eze 39:6, "the isles"); they shall therefore share antichrist’s doom, the robber shall be robbed in righteous retribution, the spoiler spoiled, and the slayer slain. Where antichrist thought to find an inheritance he shall only find a grave, and that near his prototypes, the fire blasted cities of the Dead Sea. No weapon formed against God’s people shall prosper (Isa 54:17); not a fragment shall be left to defile the Holy Land.

(Heb. גּוֹג, Ant; Sept. and N.T. Γώγ, but Γούγ in 1Ch 5:4; Vulg. Gog), the name of two men, but whether they have any connection is doubtful. It also occurs in the Samaritan and Sept. for AGAG, in Num 24:7, apparently for the sake of specialty, tradition (Mishna, Shabb. 118) making the Messianic time to be distinguished by an antecedent struggle with Gag, as the Apocalypse does the millennium. SEE HAMON-GOG.

As to the signification of Gog, it appears to mnean mountain, i.e. Caucasus (Persic koh, Ossetic ghogh, i.e., mountain; and even the classical name "Caucasus" originated in Koh-Kaf), since Caucasus was the chief seat of the Scythian people. The hardening of the last sound (h) into g (gog from koh) seems to have taken place early, and when the name had already become that of a people, the other names, Magog, Agag (Samaritan Agog, gentile Agagi, Phoenic. Agog) also arose. Another explanation from the Pehlvi koka, "moon" (see Grabschrift des Darius, page 64), because they prayed to the moon, is improbable. A Sheneitic etymology is also possible. From the reduplicated form גַּאגֵא (from the root גָּא, whence גָּג, a roof), in the sense of "to be high or overtopping," גּוֹג might signify a mountain or summit (compare Arabic juju, breast of a ship, i.e., something heightened). Figuratively this stem would mean gigantic, great of stature, powerful, warlike (cognate with קִואּקִן of Isa 18:2); camp. Sanskrit kû, to be mighty, kavi (in the Vedas, Persic kav), king, modern Persian kay, warlike or valiant; in which sense the Amalekite name Ageg or Agog, the Heb. name Gog, and the Phoen. Agog in the story of Ogyges, may be taken. In Genesis 14, Symmachus has taken גּוֹי, Goy, i.e., heathen, for גּוֹג, Gog, and therefore translates it by "Scythians." — Fürst. Heb. Lex. s.v.

1. Son of Shemaiah, and father of Shimei, and one of the descendants (apparently great-great-grandson) of Reuben (1Ch 5:4). B.C. post 1856. Most copies of the Sept., however, reads, very different names here.

2. In Ezekiel Gog is

(1.) the name of a mixed race dwelling in the extreme north, comprehended by the Greeks under the name of the Scythians; thence transferred

(2.) to the center and representative of their race, i.e. their king (Ezekiel 38:39). Gog comes forth from the distant north (Eze 38:15; Eze 39:2), the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal (apparently also of Siras), with his army of cavalry (Eze 38:15), marching against the people of Israel, where he is miraculously encountered (Eze 38:17-23) and annihilated (Eze 39:1-8). In the later tradition which sprang fronm Ezekiel’s description, Gog along with Magog represents the mnixed population of the north, the Scythians, Caucasians, etc.

(3.) Gog is the name of the country of the people Gog, i.e. of the Scythians, but this only in the somewhat modified language of the Apocalyptic seer (Rev 20:8, Γώγ, together with Μαγώγ), as it has become a geographical name in Arabic likewise; and this corresponds with the assertions of other Oriental authors, in whose traditions this people occupy an important place, as the name of a country (see D’Herbelot, Bibl. Or. page 528).

Interpreters have given very different explanations of the terms Gog and Magoag; but they have generally understood them as symbolical expressions for the heathen nations of Asia, or more particularly for the Scythians, a vague knowledge of whom seems to have reached the Jews in Palestine about that period. Thus Josephus (Ant. 1:6, 3) has dropped the Hebrew word Magog, and rendered it by Σκύθαι; and so does Jerome, while Suidas renders it by Πέρασι — a difference that matters but little in the main question, since Σκύθαι, in the ancient authors, is but a collective name far the northern but partially-known tribes (Cellarius, Notit. 2:753 sq.); and, indeed, as such a collective name, Mageg seems also to indicate in the Hebrew the tribes about the Caucasian mountains (comp. Jerome on Ezekiel ibid.). Bochart (Phal. 3:13) supports the opinion of Josephus, though by but very precarious etymologies. According to Reinegge (Descrip., of the Caucasus, 2:79), some of the Caucasian people call their mountains Coy, and the highest northern points Magog. The Arabians are of opinion that the descendants of Gog and Magog inhabit the northern parts of Asia, beyond the Tartars and Sciavonians, and they put Yajuj and Majuj always in conjunction, thereby indicating the extreme points of north and northeast of Asia (Bayer, in Comment. Acad. Petrop. 1). Nor are there wanting interpreters who understand by the Gag of Revelations the anti- Christ, and by the Gog of Ezekiel the Goths, who invaded the Roman empire in the 5th century of the Christian aera. (See Danderstad, Gog et Magog, Lips. 1663; Zeitschr. f. wissensch. Theol. 1862, page 111.) In the Apocalypse these names appear to symbolize some future barbarian or infidel enemy that is to arise against Christianity (Stuart’s Comment. ad loc.). SEE MAGOG.

Gog and Magog (gŏg and mâ’gŏg). Eze 38:2. Magog was the name of one of Japheth’s sons. Gen 10:2. It was also a general name of a country north of the Caucacus or Mount Taurus, or for the people of that district. Gog was the king of the country. This people seems to have sustained relations of hostility to Israel, and is associated with Antichrist Rev 20:8.

Son of Shemaiah, a Reubenite. 1Ch 5:4.

GOG.—1. The ‘prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal,’ from the land of Magog (Eze 38:2, and often in chs. 38, 39), whom Ezk. pictures as leading a great host of nations from the far North against the restored Israel, and as being ignominiously defeated, by J″ [Note: Jahweh.] ’s intervention, upon the mountains of Canaan. Whence the name ‘Gog’ was derived we do not certainly know: the name reminds us of that of Gyges (Gr. Guges, Assyr. [Note: Assyrian.] Gugu), the famous king of Lydia, of whom Hdt. (i. 8–14) tells us, and who, Ashurbanipal states (KIB [Note: IB Keilinschriftliche Bibliothek.] ii. 173–5), when his country was invaded by the Gimirrâ (Cimmerians), expelled them with Assyrian help (c [Note: circa, about.] . b.c. 665); and it has been conjectured (Sayce) that this name might have reached Palestine as that of a distant and successful king, who might be made a typical leader of a horde of invaders from the North. That Gomer (= the Cimmerian), who was really his foe, appears in Ezk. among his allies, might be explained either from the vagueness of the knowledge which reached Pal., or because Ezk. had in view, not the historical ‘Gog’ but merely an ideal figure suggested by the historical ‘Gog.’

Upon the basis of Eze 38:1-23; Eze 39:1-29, ‘Gog’ and ‘Magog’ appear often in the later Jewish eschatology as leading the final, but abortive, assault of the powers of the world upon the Kingdom of God. Cf. Rev 20:7-9; in the Mishna, Eduyoth 2. 10; Sib. Orac. iii. 319–322; and see further reff. in Schürer, § 29. iii. 4; Weher, Altsynag. Theol. (Index); Volz, Jüd. Eschat. p. 176 (and index).

2. The eponym of a Reubenite family (1Ch 5:4).

S. R. Driver.

Name of a king of Mosoch and Thubal, or of the "land of Magog" mentioned in Ezechiel, 38. His armies came "from the northern parts," from the country bordering on the Black Sea, i.e., from Scythia. In Apocalypse 20, Gog and Magog represent the last host that makes an assault upon the followers of Christ. Gog and Magog are also the fanciful names of two gigantic wooden statues in the Guildhall in London.

To cover: surmount: top

gog (גּוג, gōgh; Γούγ, Goúg):

(1) A son of Joel, and descendant of the tribe of Reuben (1Ch 5:4).

(2) The prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal (Eze 38:2 f; 39:1-16). His territory was known as the land of Magog, and he was the chief of those northern hordes who were to make a final onslaught upon Israel while enjoying the blessings of the Messianic age. He has been identified with Gagi, ruler of Sakhi, mentioned by Ashurbanipal, but Professor Sayce thinks the Hebrew name corresponds more closely to Gyges, the Lydian king, the Gugu of the cuneiform inscriptions. According to Ezekiel’s account Gog’s army included in its numbers Persia, Cush, Put, Gomer or the Cimmerians, and Togarmah, from the extreme North. They are represented as a vast mixed horde from the far-off parts of the North, the limits of the horizon, completely armed and equipped for war. They were to come upon the mountains of Israel and cover the land like a cloud. Their purpose is plunder, for the people of Israel are rich and dwell in towns and villages without walls. His coming, which had been prophesied by the seers of Israel, shall be accompanied by a theophany and great convulsions in Nature. A panic shall seize the hosts of Gog, rain, hailstones, pestilence, fire and brimstone shall consume them. Their bodies shall be food for the birds, their weapons shall serve as firewood for seven years and their bones shall be buried east of the Jordan in Hamon-gog and thus not defile the holy land. The fulfillment of this strange prophecy can never be literal. In general it seems to refer to the last and desperate attempts of a dying heathenism to overturn the true religion of Yahweh, or make capital out of it, profiting by its great advantages.

(3) In Rev 20:7 Satan is let loose and goes to the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to muster his hosts for the final struggle against God. In Ezekiel the invasion of Gog occurs during the Messianic age, while in Revelation it occurs just at the close of the millennium. In Ezekiel, Gog and Magog are gathered by Yahweh for their destruction; in Rev they are gathered by Satan. In both cases the number is vast, the destruction is by supernatural means, and is complete and final. See MAGOG.