Gog

Biblical Record

Gog appears chiefly in Ezekiel 38–39, where he is portrayed as the leader of a northern army that comes against Israel. In the New Korean Revised Version, Ezekiel 38:2 calls him "Gog of the land of Magog, king of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal."

According to the prophecy, Gog comes "in the latter years" (Ezekiel 38:8), leading many peoples, including Persia, Cush, Put, Gomer, and Togarmah (Ezekiel 38:5–6). His target is Israel, which has returned from captivity and is dwelling in safety. God, however, strikes him with a great earthquake, pestilence, great hailstones, and fire and brimstone (Ezekiel 38:19–22). Israel uses the weapons left behind as firewood for seven years. The dead are buried over seven months, and the burial site is called "the valley of Hamon-gog" (Ezekiel 39:9–12).

The name Gog also appears once in 1 Chronicles 5:4, in the genealogy of the descendants of Reuben, but this is a different person from the Gog of Ezekiel.

Meaning Within Scripture

In Ezekiel, Gog's defeat is presented as the event through which the nations come to know God's holiness and to recognize that it is the LORD who has restored Israel (Ezekiel 38:23; 39:7). In the New Testament the name reappears in Revelation 20:7–15. When the thousand years are expired, Satan is loosed and deceives "the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog," gathering them together to battle (Revelation 20:8). Here Gog and Magog refer not to a single king and his land but to the nations as a whole that stand against God.

Interpretations and Debates

• Identity: Some have proposed Gyges, the seventh-century BC king of Lydia, but no identification has gained consensus. Many scholars regard Gog as a symbolic figure of apocalyptic literature.
• Translation of "Rosh": Opinions differ on whether the Hebrew rosh should be read as a place name or as a common noun meaning "chief." The New Korean Revised Version renders it as a place name, while some translations render it in the sense of "chief."
• The Russia theory: Some twentieth-century dispensationalist interpreters linked Rosh with Russia and Meshech with Moscow, identifying Gog as a Russian leader. Critics argue that this interpretation has little linguistic basis beyond a similarity of sound.
• Timing of the battle: Many premillennialists distinguish the battle in Ezekiel from the battle in Revelation 20 as events occurring at different times. By contrast, Augustine, in The City of God, read Gog and Magog not as particular nations but as the forces throughout the world that oppose the church. This interpretation is widely accepted among amillennialists. For further discussion, see Millennium.
• Traditions outside the text: The Septuagint is reported to render "Agag" in the Hebrew text of Numbers 24:7 as "Gog." There are also a medieval legend that Alexander the Great shut Gog and Magog behind gates and the British tale of the giants "Gog and Magog," but these stories are not found in the biblical text.

In the Korean Church

Gog is rarely treated as a separate topic in Sunday school. He is mentioned mainly in sermons on eschatology, in expository preaching on Ezekiel and Revelation, and in Bible studies. Eschatological books and sermons influenced by dispensationalism have at times presented interpretations linking Gog to particular nations such as Russia or to the international situation of the day. At the same time, some voices caution against readings that force prophecy to fit current events.