Revelation 20:8

{16} And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. (16) The work or act of Satan (which is the first part, as I distinguished in the verse before) to deceive the whole world, even to the uttermost nations of it: to arm them against the people of God, in this verse and to besiege and oppress the Church, with his whole strength, in the verse following.

8 . the nations which are &c.] It almost seems as though the kingdom of Christ and of His Saints had not been world-wide, but had been, like the Roman empire of St John’s day, or the Christendom of our own, a wide but limited region of light in the midst of a barbarous world. It is not therefore certain that the coming of the kingdom must be postponed till Christianity has gained its victory over the compact mass of nations which, from China to Guinea, still hold out against it: and we ought to remember the possibility, that they may prove as dangerous to the fabric of modern civilisation as the barbarians of Scythia, Germany, and Arabia proved to the ancient. But it is possible that this prediction refers, not to an incursion from outlying heathens, but to an apostasy of outlying Christians. If so, this may be illustrated by the way that the remoter provinces of Christendom fell into heresy in the fifth and following centuries, and were, in great measure as a consequence, absorbed in Islam afterwards. We may also think of the many wild and unchristian sects rising in our own time in America and in Russia—the countries of Christendom remotest from its centres of intellectual life. quarters ] Better, corners . Gog and Magog ] See Ezekiel 38, 39—a prophecy which may , for aught we know, have had some nearly contemporary fulfilment, but which the Jewish traditions interpret of a war in the days of the Messiah, nearly as here.

Magog is given in Genesis 10:2 as the name of a son of Japhet, the eponymus, there is no doubt, of one of the nations lying near the Black Sea, and called by Europeans Scythian in the wide sense. Gog appears in Ezek. l.c. to be not a national name, but the name, whether personal or dynastic, of the king of Magog and the neighbouring or kindred tribes of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. The resemblance of two of these names to the modern Russia and Muscovy is merely accidental: but it would be rash to deny the possibility, that the geographical or ethnological suggestion is to be taken literally, and that St John does foretell an invasion, something like that of the Huns, or Tartars, and falling on Christendom from the same quarter. to gather them &c.] Nearly a repetition of Revelation 16:14 , Revelation 17:12 ; Revelation 17:14 , Revelation 19:19 . Yet it can hardly describe the same event: it seems plain that, whatever be the meaning of the first resurrection and the thousand years’ reign, they intervene between that war and this. Moreover, the former war was on the part of the rulers of the civilised world, this on the part of the outer barbarians.

And shall go out to deceive the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth; that is, the devil, being got from under the restraint of Divine Providence, shall fall upon his old work, going about to deceive men over all the world, either tempting them to idolatry, or heresy, or lewdness of life, or (which seemeth most probable) stirring them up to one attempt more to ruin the church. These people are called Gog and Magog, about the meaning of which there are various opinions. We read of Magog, Genesis 10:2 ; he was one of the sons of Japheth; see also 1 Chronicles 1:5 ; he inhabited that country called Syria, and from thence, his posterity being multiplied, (as some think), transplanted some colonies into America. We read of Gog no where in Scripture but in Ezekiel, Ezekiel 38:1-39:29 , where both Gog and Magog are mentioned as the great enemies of God’s ancient Israel. Gog there, Ezekiel 38:2 , is named as the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. There are disputes who are meant by Gog and Magog in those two chapters. The Jewish rabbies apply the terms to some nations whom the Messiah (expected by them) shall encounter and overcome; but if we consider that prophecy as made in Babylon, and to comfort the people in that captivity, we can hardly think the enemies there intended were to appear at such a distance of time as more than two thousand years, for so many, and more, are elapsed already since Ezekiel’s prophecy.

The best interpreters therefore rather think, that Antiochus, and the race of Seleucus, (a king of Syria, who in those quarters of the world succeeded Alexander, of whom we read in the book of Maccabees), is there intended, whose ruin is there foretold, as being a great enemy to the Jews after their return from Babylon; yet some think, that in both these chapters Ezekiel prophesied of the same Gog and Magog here intended, which should be the last enemies of the church. The papists, who (according to their interest) contend for antichrist as yet to come, make Gog and Magog here to signify some king or kings that shall join with antichrist when he appeareth. Others think that Gog and Magog, in this place, signifies more generally, a colluvies, or mixed company of all wicked men, a very great multitude, who shall come from all parts, only typified by the Gog and Magog in Ezekiel, as being like them, 1. For number; 2. In their design to ruin the church, upon its restoration to a more quiet, peaceable state; 3. And who shall be ruined like them, by the more than ordinary providence of God; for the Gog and Magog mentioned in Ezekiel, are described in three texts of that prophecy as coming from the north, but these are described as coming from the four quarters of the world: this seemeth a much more probable opinion than theirs, who will have them some particular nations, whether Americans, Turks, or Indians.

Revelation 20:8 . Τὸν Γὼγ καὶ Μαγὼγ ) Magog , the son of Japhet, was the father of the northern nations towards the east. The prince of those nations is called Gog in Ezekiel ch. Ezekiel 38:2 , and in this passage. A prince and a people most hostile, perhaps less good than others, though themselves less wicked then than after the new πλάνη . The article τὸν [220] of itself shows the intimate connection between the prince and the people, as does the Paronomasia, Gog and Magog . Both words signify Lofty, Elevated , as Hiller teaches in his Onomasticon. Therefore Magog is used as a proper name: but Gog , the chief syllable, being left to it by Aphæresis, seems by Antonomasia to hold the place of a proper name, until that fierce leader of so many nations under Satan appears at length in his own name. Jerome on Ezekiel 38 would not have refused to take Ros as a proper name, if the name of such a nation (the Russians) had been known to him. Comp. Hist. Univ. vol. i. p. 257.— συναγαγεῖν , to gather together ) It is not said to deceive and gather together , but, to deceive for the purpose of gathering together . The gathering together is the end of the deceiving.— αὐτοὺς , them ) In other places the Apocalypse regards the leader in preference to the forces, ch.

Revelation 12:7 ; but respecting the Gog prince it recounts nothing apart from Magog, which constitutes his forces, partly because enough had been said respecting him by Ezekiel, and partly because Gog makes an unsuccessful attempt, and in his overthrow is mingled with the crowd itself, as the kings are, ch. Revelation 19:21 , note [220] Beng. and Lachm. rightly omit the second τὸν before Μαγὼγ , with A. The one article to both Gog and Magog marks their connection. Tisch., with B and Rec. Text, reads τὸν Μαγώγ .—E.

Satan’s return to encounter irretrievable defeat upon the scene of his former successes ( ἐπʼ ἐσχάτου ἐτῶν Ezekiel 38:8 ), is an obscure and curious feature, borrowed in part from earlier beliefs in Judaism (Gog and the Parthians both from the dreaded N. E., Ezekiel 38:4 ), but directly or indirectly from a legend common to Persian and Hellenic eschatology: in the former the evil spirit has a preliminary and a final defeat, while in the latter the Titans emerge from Tartarus only to be conclusively worsted (Rohde, Psyche , 410 f.). No explanation is given of how Satan gets free. In the Iranian eschatology (Brandt, 590 f.) the serpent breaks loose at the call of Angra Mainyô (God’s opponent), seduces a part of mankind and persecutes the rest, till he is overcome by the messiah, who then proceeds to raise the dead. But as John identifies the serpent with Satan, such a theory was plainly out of the question. At any rate, Satan wins adherents for this fresh attempt from those barbarian hordes who survived the downfall of the Roman empire ( Revelation 19:17-21 ). They are called “Gog and Magog,” after the traditional opponents who were to be defeated by the redeemed Israel of the latter days, according to the faith of Judaism (Ezekiel 38-39.).

Jerusalem, the navel and centre of the earth ( Ezekiel 38:12 ) as messiah’s residence, is besieged; but, like Gog of old, the invaders are consumed by the divine fire, whilst Satan is consigned for ever to the lake of fire, where he lies writhing among his worshippers, as a punishment for seducing men. This is at once a reminiscence of the Iranian eschatology (Hübschmann, 231), where the serpent is flung into molten metal as his final doom, in order to rid earth of his presence, and also a reflection of Enoch liv. (lxvii. 7) where the four angels grip the hosts of Azazel on the last day and “cast them into a burning furnace, that the Lord of Spirits may take vengeance on them for leading astray those who dwell on earth”.

(8) And shall go out to deceive the nations. —Perhaps better, shall come out, as the earth is the view-point. The nations deceived and led astray are designated as Gog and Magog. The names are derived from Ezekiel (Ezekiel 38, 39). In rabbinical books the names were used to describe the nations who would rise against the reign of the Messiah. The names are to be understood figuratively. No particular nation could be well spoken of as “the nations in the four corners of the earth.” The origin of the figure is not difficult. In Ezekiel, Gog is called the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal; or, adopting another rendering, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. Magog is mentioned in Genesis 10:2 as one of the sons of Japheth. The name is there associated with Gomer, Madai, and Meshech. Gomer is thought to correspond with the Cimmerians, Madai with the Medes, and Meshech with the Muscovites. Mr. Smith, in his history of Assurbanipal from cuneiform inscriptions, thinks that a certain chief of the Saka (Scythians), named Gaagi, is the same as Gog. The sons of this Gaagi are mentioned in connection with Birighudri, a chief of Madai (Medes). Josephus also identifies Magog with the Scythians.