Who Is “Gog”?
Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grass- hoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings.
Amos 7:1
“Behold” appears as an abrupt participle…What on earth does this verse mean?
And it came to pass, that when they had made an end of eating the grass of the land, then I said, O Lord GOD, forgive, I beseech thee: by whom shall Jacob arise? for he is small. The LORD repented for this: It shall not be, saith the LORD.
Amos 7:2, 3
Amos intercedes, like Moses did (Num 14:11-21).
“It shall not be”: So the Lord changed His mind: thus, this prophesied event never happened. [So why is this all written here?]
Thus hath the Lord GOD shewed unto me; and, behold, he formed grass- hoppers in the beginning of the shooting up of the latter growth; and, lo, it was the latter growth after the king’s mowings.
The Lord hath shown me, and, Behold, a swarm of locusts were coming, and behold, one of the young devastating locusts was Gog the King. Amos 7:1 (LXX)
The Septuagint (LXX) is over 1000 years older than the Masoretic Text (MT), which is the basis of our English translation of the Old Testament text.
Gwg o` basileu,j = Gog the King. However, the locusts “have no king” (Prov 30:27).
The locusts have no king, yet go they forth all of them by bands; Proverbs 30:27
And they had a king over them, which is the angel of the bottomless pit, whose name in the Hebrew tongue is Abaddon, but in the Greek tongue hath his name Apollyon. Revelation9:11
Abaddon (Hebrew), Apollyon(Greek). Abaddon: 6 X in OT (Job26:6; 28:22; 31:12; Ps 88:11; Prov 15:11; 27:30). Apollyon:“destroyer,” Jn 10:10. “Prince of the Air”: Eph 2:2; Jn 14:30; Isa 14:15.
The Gog Identity
The Demon King identity would solve several interpretive problems: It would supply the missing background linkage regarding a key eschatological personage. It explains how both Gog and Magog could reappearat the end of the Millennium (Rev20:8). “Magog” is a people; “Gog” is demon title.
Meshech and Tubal, identified with the people named Sarmatians and Mushovites who lived in the ancient province of Pontus in Northern Asia Minor. Muscovy and the Thobelites were founded by Meshech and Tubal.
Linguistic Links
Meshech was the barbarous people known as the Moschi who dwelt in the Moschian Mountains; the root from which the city of Moscow gets its name. Rosh, or Ros, possibly a proper name, referred to those dwelling north of the Tarus Mountains near the Vulga River.
Ham
- Mizraim: Upper & Lower Egypt;
- Philistines (“Palestinians” = not sons of Ishmael);
- Cush: Ethiopia, Kassites, E of Assyria (Settled S of the 2nd cataract of the Nile);
- Nimrod: Bab-El, Erech, Accad, Calneh;
- Phut: (Settled W of Egypt) Libya, N Africa;
- Canaan: Sidon to Gaza, Sodom, & Gomorrah;
- Khittae (“Cathay”); Sinites (Sino = China).
Japheth
- Gomer: (Herodotus, Plutarch, et al.). Cimmerians settled along the Danube and Rhine;
- Ashkenaz: Germany;
- Riphath: (Josephus: Paphlagonians; “Europe” from Riphath);
- Togarmah: Armenians, Turkey, Turkestan;
- Magog: “Scythians” (Critical to understanding Ezek 38 & 39);
- Hesiod, Greek didactic poet, 8th cent. B.C.;
- Herodotus, “The Father of History”, 5th cent. B.C.
The Magog Identity
- Hesiod, Greek Didactic Poet, 8th century B.C.
- Magogians = Scythians.
- Herodotus, “Father of History,” 5th century B.C.
- Scythians (10th – 3rd century B.C.).
- Philo, Josephus, et al.
- The Great Wall of China: “Ramparts of Gog & Magog.”
- Soviet Archaeologists’ discoveries.
- From the “Uttermost parts of the north.”
Classic Identities
Writing prior to 1900, identifying the Rosh as Scythians, and Russia: Bishop Lowth of England, 1710; Dr. John Cumming, London, 1864; Rev. Walter Chamberlain, 1854; J.A. Seiss, Commentary on the Book of Revelation, 1860.
The ancient writers refer to the Great Wall of China as Sud Yagog et Magog, the “Ramparts of Gog and Magog.”
Japheth
- Madai: Medes (Kurds) emerged about 10th century B.C. coalition with Persia (Elam), 7th century B.C.
- Tubal: Eastern Anatolia (Turkey).
- Meshech: Eastern Anatolia (Turkey).
- Javan: Ionia; Greece.
- Tiras: Pelasgians of the Aegean the Etruscans of Italy.
Madai represented the Medes east of Assyria and southwest of the Caspian Sea. Javan was the general word for the Hellenic race, the Ionians of western Asia Minor. Tubal and Meshech were northern military states in Anatolia, (now eastern Turkey). Tiras may refer to the seafaring Pelasgians of the Aegean coasts.
The Scythians
The name Scythian designates a number of nomadic tribes which dominated the Russian steppes from the Ukraine to China, from the 10thto the 3rd centuries B.C.
The hippomolgoi (“mare-milkers”) mentioned in Homer’s Iliad were equestrian nomads of the northern steppes, and several authorities identi- fied these with the Scythians. (One of the delicacies I was offered while I was a guest of the Deputy Chairman of the Soviet Union was fermentedhorse milk! These traditions seem to have a deep history, indeed.)
After being repulsed from Media, many of the later Scyths settled in the fertile area of the Ukraine north of the Black Sea. Other related tribes oc- cupied the area to the east of the Caspian Sea. Herodotus describes them living in Scythia. [Scythia as a square, 20 days journey (360 miles) on a side. It encompassed the lower reaches of the Dniester, Bug, Dnieper, and Don Rivers, where they flow into the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov.]
The Scythian language belonged to the Iranian family of the Indo-Euro- pean languages. The original area in which Iranian was spoken extended from the mid-Volga and the Don regions to the northern Urals and beyond. From here, Iranian-speaking tribes colonized Media, Parthia, Persia, Central Asia, and as far as the Chinese border.
In the 7th century B.C., the Scythians swept across the area, displacing the Cimmerians from the steppes of the Ukraine east of Dnieper River, who fled from them across the Caucasus. [Herodotus 4.12.] Even the name “Caucasus” appears to have been derived from Gog-hasan, or “Gog’s Fort.”
The Scythians occupied territory from the Danube to the Don; the northern boundary extended beyond the latitude of Kiev. Meshech and Tubal are in the region known today as Turkey. (Note Georgia blocking the way south…)
Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. Colossians 3:11
v5. Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
“…Persia” = Elam: or Iran; “…Ethiopia” = Cush: Kassites, E of Assyria (Settled S of the 2nd cataract of the Nile); “Libya” = Phut: (Settled W of Egypt) Libya, N Africa.
v6. Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee.
“Gomer”: Cimmerians settled along the Danube and Rhine: Poland, Czechoslovakia East Germany, et al. [Herodotus, Plutarch, Josephus, et al.]. Josephus points out that Ashkenaz became what was in the Roman Empire called “the Reginians,” which today would derive to Poland, Czechoslavacia and East Germany. Also, the Hebrew Talmud references support the same concept.
“Togarmah”: Armenians, Turkey, Turkestan.
“…of the north quarters”: “The uttermost part of the north” (Ezek 38:6, 15; 39:2). In the Hebrew, the word for North has been modified to imply the extreme or uttermost parts of the North. That is why, if you have a modern English transla- tion, or an Amplified, you may see it read a little differently.
v7. Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
“…and all thy company”: So who is currently providing Persia, Cush, Phut, Gomer and Togarmah their arms? Russia. (This was written 2600 years ago!)
v8. After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
The Land has been restored from its desolation…
Tarshish?
A source of tin (Ezek 27:12). Britannia was from a word meaning tin; the Phoenicians brought tin from Cornwall.(Legendary folklore re: British Israelism.) Jonah bought a ticket to that city; but he never saw it—instead he saw the interior of a big fish!
The “ships of Tarshish” were the larger merchant vessels that were made for distant ocean-going traffic—two year voyages? (1 Kgs 22:48; Isa 2:16; Cf. Ezek 27:12, 25). Worldwide trade at Stonehenge… (made over a period 300 years; the eclipse capability had an error every 300 years. Re: Gerald Hawkins).
v14. Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say unto Gog, Thus saith the Lord GOD; In that day when my people of Israel dwelleth safely, shalt thou not know it?
“…my people of Israel”: One of the reasons that many scholars believe this is a “post-Church” event.
v15. And thou shalt come from thy place out of the north parts, thou, and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company, and a mighty army:
“…north parts”: Grammatically, “the uttermost parts of the north.”
v16. And thou shalt come up against my people of Israel, as a cloud to cover the land; it shall be in the latter days, and I will bring thee against my land, that the heathen may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.
v17. Thus saith the Lord GOD; Art thou he of whom I have spoken in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those days many years that I would bring thee against them?
v18. And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, that my fury shall come up in my face.
v19. For in my jealousy and in the fire of my wrath have I spoken, Surely in that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
“…great shaking”: A global phenomenon (Cf. v.20).
v.20 So that the fishes of the sea, and the fowls of the heaven, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep upon the earth, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the steep places shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.
“…and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall shake at my presence…”: A 25-megaton warheads could alter the orbit of the Earth (Classified Research Report).
v21. And I will call for a sword against him throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord GOD: every man’s sword shall be against his brother.
(Reminiscent of Ishmael: “And he will be a wild man; his hand will be against every man, and every man’s hand against him; and he shall dwell in the presence of all his brethren” Gen 16:12.)
v22. And I will plead against him with pestilence and with blood; and I will rain upon him, and upon his bands, and upon the many people that are with him, an overflowing rain, and great hailstones, fire, and brimstone.
v23. Thus will I magnify myself, and sanctify myself; and I will be known in the eyes of many nations, and they shall know that I am the LORD.
This article is an excerpt from Chuck Missler’s teachings on Ezekiel 38
