The War of Gog and Magog is set between a massive coalition of nations descended from Noah’s sons Japheth and Ham against Israel (Genesis 10:2-7). The nations are from the territories of ancient Rosh, Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Persia, Cush, Gomer, and Beth-Togarmah (Ezekiel 38:2-6). Their leader is called “Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal” (Ezekiel 38:2-3). The battlefield is on “the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate” (Ezekiel 38:8). The purpose of the invasion is to “plunder and to take booty” and attack the people of Israel (Ezekiel 38:12-16 NKJV).
Let’s now explore what the modern-day equivalents are for these ancient peoples.Magog
We find Afghanistan within the following list of nations that will comprise Magog.
Some historians point to the former Soviet nations of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, as well as including Afghanistan, as encompassing the land of Magog. Historian Edwin Yamauchi explains that Magog was the “ancient Scythian northern nomadic tribes who inhabited the territory from Central Asia across the southern steppes of modern Russia.” These nations, today consisting of a population of 60 million, are united by one commonality — Islam.
Rosh
The word “Rosh” or “Ros” appears in Ezekiel’s list of nations in the New King James Version and other translations based on the Greek Septuagint, which other translations translate as the adjective “chief or prince.”
Tenth Century Byzantine writers, such as Ibn-Fosslan, identified a group of Scythians dwelling in the northern parts of Taurus upon the river Volga as the Ros. The early Byzantine Church claimed that the Ros were the people who lived far north of Greece in the area today known as Russia. Rosh is supposed to be “from the remotest parts of the north” (Ezekiel 39:1-2). No other nation exists more directly north of Israel and is more remote than modern-day Russia.
Meshech
The ancient Moschoi or Muschki or Musku tribe settled in Cilicia and Cappadocia, which is now part of modern-day Turkey. Ezekiel 27:13 notes these people traded in slaves to Tyre and Ezekiel 32:26 refers to them as an ancient bandit nation.
Tubal
The people of Tubal would have hailed from the ancient Tibarenoi tribe. This land also resides in modern-day Turkey.
Gomer
The Jewish historian Josephus identified Gomer who “founded those whom the Greeks now call Galatians [Galls], but were then called Gomerites.” Gomer most popularly looks to reference the Gimirrai of the Assyrians, or Cimmerians, who lived in the Black Sea area adjacent to Turkey.
Beth-Togarmah
Togarmah, or Beth-Togarmah, which means the “house of Togarmah,” contains an etymological connection between the name Togarmah and the names Turkey and Turkestan. The Tilgaimmu resided between ancient Carchemish and Haran, which is modern-day Turkey and possibly the lands of Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Persia
The land of Persia is ancient and long-running and the easiest to identify, only having changed its name to Iran during the last century in 1935.
Cush
Cush is another area easy to identify, having split into Ethiopia and the Sudan in more recent history.
Put
Scholars claim that Put is Libya with the possibility that the land also includes Algeria and Tunisia.
Aftermath
The end result of such a massive invasion by a seemingly invincible army on an unprotected Israel ends up surprising the invaders and shocking the world. The invading nations are, in truth, being manipulated by God, pulled out of their lands as with “hooks in your jaws,” so that those nations feel the Sovereign Lord’s fury (Ezekiel 38:4,18). God drags these specific nations to the “mountains of Israel” to “bring him to judgment with pestilence and bloodshed… flooding rain, great hailstones, fire, and brimstone” (Ezekiel 38:21-22).
God’s ultimate purpose for supernaturally obliterating the invading coalition is so: “Thus, I [God], will magnify Myself and sanctify Myself, and I will be known in the eyes of many nations. Then they shall know that I am the LORD” (Ezekiel 38:23).
God’s supernatural victory over the Gog-Magog invaders allows Him to reintroduce Himself to the world and declare in no uncertain terms that Yahweh is personally defending Israel. Should the people of the world doubt, they only have to look on Israel who “will go out and set on fire and burn the weapons… and they will make fires with them for seven years” (Ezekiel 39:9). As for the invaders’ corpses, “for seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land” in the newly named “Valley of Hamon Gog” by a newly built “town called Hamonah” (Ezek. 39:11-12,16).
Timing
Explore exactly what nations are involved in the coming massive Gog-Magog attack on Israel, when this war will likely take place, and how dramatically different the world will look after God steps directly into the fray in an academic presentation made by Nathan Jones titled Timing Gog and Magog.
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