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GOG

(Heb. gôg), MAGOG (māgôg)

A ruler and his land or people, portrayed as Israel’s apocalyptic foe.

Magog appears in the Table of Nations (Gen. 10:2) as a son of Japheth. He is apparently also the eponymous ancestor of a people in Anatolia (cf. Magog’s “brothers,” whose names are attached to the Anatolian regions of Meshech and Tubal). In Ezek. 38:2 Magog is the name of a country, again associated with Meshech and Tubal in eastern Anatolia. The threefold identification of Magog as an ancestor, a people, and a land is not unusual (cf. Israel). Unfortunately, no precise connection can be drawn to any known people or territory. Josephus (Ant. 1.123) identifies the people of Magog as the Scythians, but no concrete evidence supports such a specific identification.

In Ezek. 38-39 Gog is “of the land of Magog” in “the remotest parts of the north” (38:15; 39:2). He is the commander who, following Israel’s return from Babylonian exile, will invade the land and so provoke a final, decisive battle with Yahweh. The battle between Gog and Yahweh is depicted in the cosmic imagery associated with the Day of Yahweh; earthquake and storm accompany the enemy’s demise. Yahweh’s victory will at last vindicate his holy name, proving that the Exile occurred because of Israel’s sins rather than through Yahweh’s weakness.

Gog’s identity is a matter of continued debate. The 7th-century b.c.e. Lydian monarch Gyges (Akk. gûgu) has often been suggested, but it is doubtful why Ezekiel (or a later editor) would cast this distant and long-dead ruler as the great nemesis of God. Another interpretation sees Gog as chaos incarnate, the primal and ultimate enemy, whose destruction heralds God’s unchallenged reign (an event foreseen in Ezek. 40–48). Certainly, Gog symbolizes all that opposes Yahweh and as such is the embodiment of chaos. Gog’s symbolic role, however, does not preclude the possibility that a historical figure stands behind the symbol. In Ezekiel’s historical context Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon is the monarch whose power clearly opposes Yahweh’s own and whose defeat is essential for the vindication of Yahweh’s name. A number of parallels between the depictions of Gog and descriptions of Nebuchadnezzar elsewhere in Ezekiel support this possibility. The prophet’s Babylonian location would explain his use of a pseudonym for the Babylonian ruler.

Gog and Magog reappear in Rev. 20:7-10, identified as distant nations rather than as a ruler and his nation. The role of Gog and Magog in Revelation corresponds to that in Ezek. 38–39. Inspired by Satan, Gog and Magog will march against Jerusalem, initiating God’s final victory over Satan and the triumphant reign of the Lamb from the New Jerusalem. The part played by Gog and Magog in inaugurating the eschaton has led to a number of attempts to interpret them as codes for modern nations and individuals, who in turn are seen as enemies of God and harbingers of the last days.

In 1 Chr. 5:4 an otherwise unknown Gog is listed as a “son of Joel.”

Bibliography. B. F. Batto, Slaying the Dragon: Mythmaking in the Biblical Tradition (Louisville, 1992); S. L. Cook, Prophecy and Apocalypticism (Minneapolis, 1995); B. Otzen, “gôg [gôgh],” TDOT 2:419-25.

Julie Galambush

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

GOG

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)