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Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

MAGOG

Term found only five times in the Bible but significant because of its use in the well-known prophetic passages of Ezekiel 38–39 and Revelation 20. In the register of nations in Genesis 10:2 (see also 1 Chr 1:5), Magog was listed among the sons of Japheth, identifying both an individual and the nation that came forth from him. In Ezekiel and Revelation, Magog came to refer either to a land, a people, or both.

Magog is not mentioned in the contemporary literature of biblical times. Therefore, a definition must come primarily from the witness of Scripture, though writers from later times have given additional clues for the identification of the word. Magog was first identified biblically as a son of Japheth (Gn 10:2; 1 Chr 1:5), along with Tubal and Meshech (cf. Ez 38:2). Ezekiel 38:2 associates Magog with the person Gog, indicating that Magog was the land (along with Tubal and Meshech) over which Gog ruled. Ezekiel 39:6 uses the term Magog to speak of the people from the land of Magog. Together, Ezekiel 38 and 39 present an invasion of Israel in the latter days (cf. Ez 38:8-16) by Gog and his people from the land of Magog, along with peoples from every corner of the known world (cf. vv 5-6).

Revelation 20:8 depicts Gog and Magog as invading the land of Israel with a great company of nations from every part of the world. It certainly appears that Ezekiel and Revelation had the same event of the latter days in mind. Revelation 20:8 can be understood to identify Gog as Satan and to see Magog as invading peoples who come with Satan. Some see “Gog and Magog” in Revelation 20:8 as a symbol of a future great battle at the end of the millennium that is similar to the invasion in Ezekiel 38–39, but the terms themselves are not identified specifically. Some see Magog in Revelation 20 as another person along with Gog.

Extrabiblical writings give additional clues. Josephus’s Antiquities 1.6.1 equates Magog with the Scythians of the north who lived in the area of present-day Turkey and south-central Russia. Jubilees 7:19 and 9:8 refer to Magog as the “northern barbarians.” In the OT, Magog is associated with Tubal and Meshech, geographical areas normally believed to lie in the mountainous region between, and south of, the Caspian and Black Seas.

The available data argue for the identification of Magog in Ezekiel and Revelation with the northern barbarian hordes (perhaps the area of the Scythians) from the modern geographical region of Turkey and south-central Russia who will invade Israel under the leadership of Gog in the latter days. However, there is no warrant in the Scripture or elsewhere to conjecture that these modern nations are the identification of these terms.