Ezekiel 38:2 - Exposition

Set thy face against (or, toward) God . Although occurring in 1 Chronicles 5:4 as the name of a Reubenite, Gog was probably a title formed by Ezekiel himself from the word Magog , the syllable ma being treated as equivalent to "land." A similar freedom appears to have been exercised by the author of the Apocalypse, who out of Magog, here a territorial designation, makes a military power co-ordinate with Gog ( Revelation 20:8 ). That Gog was not an actual person—though the name reminds one of that of the Lydian king Gyges, as it appears on the monuments, Gu-gu , Gu-ug-gu , aud of that of one Sa-gi , or Sa-agi , the ruler of another Eastern territory not yet identified—but an ideal character, must be held as proved by the composite structure of his army, which was drawn from the four comers of the globe, as well as by the highly imaginative texture of the whole prophecy, which, as Hengstenberg properly remarks, has a thoroughly "utopian [perhaps better, 'ideal'] character," showing that it moves "in the region of holy fancy." The words, the land of Magog , are not, with Havernick, Ewald, and Smend, to be interpreted as the local or geographical terminus of the prediction, as if the word of God had said, "Set thy face toward Gog, toward the laud of Magog;" but, with the majority of expositors, as a territorial designation signifying that Gog was in or of the laud of Magog, which is here marked with the article, probably to identify it with the well-known Magog mentioned in Genesis 10:2 , along with Tubal and Mesech as among the descendants of Japheth. From the circumstance that in the table of nations Magog stands between Gomer (the Cimmerians) and Madai (the Medians), and that Gomer appears in Gog's army, it has been not unreasonably concluded that to Ezekiel Magog represented a fierce Northern tribe, most likely, as Josephus ('Ant.,' 1.6. 1) asserts, the Scythians, whose territories lay upon the borders Of the sea of Azov and in the Caucasus. Plumptre even thinks that, "placed as Ezekiel was, he may well have come into contact with these Scythian tribes, either as part of Nebuchadnezzar's army or by a journey on his part into the regions north of Ararat". Yet, could both of these hypotheses be established, it would not follow that Ezekiel was thinking merely, as Knobel and Gesenius suppose, of a future struggle which Israel should have to maintain against these genres Scythicas immanes et innumerabiles , as Jerome in his day described them. In addition to being named from his land, Gog is further distinguished by the peoples over whom he rules, Ezekiel styling him the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal —a translation adhered to by Hengstenberg, Ewald, and Smend; or, according to the LXX ; which most expositors and the Revised Version follow, the prince of Rosh , Meshech , and Tubal . The former rendering is obtained by interpreting נְשִׂיא ראֹשׁ after the analogy of הַכֹּהֵן ראֹשׁ , "chief priest," or "minister," in 1 Chronicles 27:5 ; and is supported by a similar use of the word rosh on coins under the government of the Persian satraps; yet the second rendering is not devoid of considerations that may be urged in its favor. Besides being grammatically possible, it yields a souse which is not improbable. Byzantine and Arabian writers of the tenth century were acquainted with a people called οἱ ρῶς , who were Scythian mountaineers, dwelling north of the Taurus, on the shores of the Black Sea and on the banks of the Volga. The Koran speaks of a land of Ras not far from the Araxes. Whether either of these can be connected with present-day Russians, as Gesenius suggests—an hypothesis which Hengstenberg protests deals hardly with the poor Russians—must be left undecided. So must the question whether the people inquired after can be identified, as Delitzsch suggests, with the inhabitants of the land of Raseh ( mat Ra-a-si ) of the Inscriptions, which was Situated on the confines of Elam on the Tigris. At the same time, Jerome's objection will scarcely hold good against understanding Resh as the name of a people, viz. that the Bible elsewhere has no knowledge of any such people, since, as Havernick observes, "one cannot know beforehand whether to Ezekiel, in his then place of abode, the knowledge of such a people was not likely sooner to come than to any Old Testament writer," and it is certain that the Book of Ezekiel is not wanting in names that occur only once, as e.g. Chilmad ( Ezekiel 27:23 ) and Chub ( Ezekiel 30:5 ). Hitzig points out that in Genesis 10:1-32 , along with Mesech and Tubal, is mentioned a third nation, Tiras , which Yon Hammer has attempted to connect with Rosh; while Schroder sees in Rosh (allied to Ross, "horse") an indication that the people were equestrian in their habits, like the Scythians. The other peoples, Meshech and Tubal, were undoubtedly the Mosohians and Tibarenes, who , according to Herodotus (3.94; 7.78), dwelt south of the Black Sea.