The Time When Gog of Magog Will Be Dragged Like a Beast
The prophecy in the Book of Ezekiel, Chapters 38 and 39, address the End of Days and describes a large-scale war a coalition of international armies will wage against Israel. The head of this massive army is obscurely identified in Ezekiel as “Gog of the land of Magog”. But who is he? We are asking the reader to consider what we intend to say in this study. Considering the unique standing of this figure, the reader has therefore to expect that the subject mentioned in this introduction is a matter of private interpretation to the best knowledge of the present author. For the purpose of this study, we will focus on Chapters 38 and 39 which describe the war of Gog of the land Magog. It will be beneficial for the studious reader to refer to the other articles on the subject and to the chapters in the present author’s book The Reckoning of Time dedicated to the last war in this world.
Magog is the name of a nation, as Scripture states in Gen 10:2 speaking of Gomer and Magog. The name גּוֹג Gog, the leader of that nation, is of uncertain derivation. In 1Ch 5:4, Gog is the name of an Israelite, but here in the prophecy in Ezekiel, it is also a name of some northern nation. Rav Hirsch notes the linguistic similarity between the name Gog and the noun גָּג gag (roof), from גָּאָה ga’ah, to mount up, to rise, and suggests that Gog represents the “roof principle”, i.e., the principle of a dictator, the concentration of all leadership and power in one supreme leader, who mounts up this power and rises as the head of Magog. But in our opinion, Gog could also be understood to represent the “roof of the earth”, i.e., the leader of a nation that is the “roof of the earth”, or close to our reality a nation that holds the ice cap (the North Pole, as the roof) of the earth. Concerning this dictator and his country, the following curse has been said commencing with these words and on,
Thus said the Master YHVH, “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tuval. And I shall turn you around, and I shall put hooks into your jaws, and shall bring you forth with all your army, horses and horsemen, clad perfectly, a great assembly with armor and shields, all of them handling swords. (Eze 38:4)
“When you judge the future through the eyes of the present, you lose hope in the future”. (Jewish saying)
Gog will be dragged like an ox to the Land by the hooks into his jaws, him and all his army and proxies to the Land of Israel. It is customary to lead out an ox with the hooks in its jaws or nose because it does not want to go voluntarily. What is implied here with this metaphorical illustration? I will put thoughts into your heart and an urge that will draw you from your land to come upon Israel. This will take place after many days; in the latter years of the world he will be dragged against his will to fight against Israel who have been brought back into the land to dwell safely (Eze 38:8). From the many days in the past when Gog sinned against the Eternal, he will now be remembered, his iniquities will be remembered to pay him his recompense. And Gog will be enticed at the end of ears into coming to the land of Israel. which had been abandoned these many years and laid desolate. But only shortly before Gog’s coming upon the land, the people of the Covenant will return.
And despite his initial unwillingness to come up against Israel, Gog will say in his proud heart,
I will go up against a land of unwalled villages. I will come upon those that at rest who dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates, to take plunder and to take booty, to turn your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the peoples, that have gotten livestock and goods, who dwell in the middle of the land. (Eze 38:11-12)
Gog will come to destroy a second time the land and the cities that were once in ruins but now have been resettled by the people who are lawful residents of the land. It appears now that Gog will see the conquest of the Land of Israel as a strategic and economic asset, expressed in “to take plunder and to take booty … to bear away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to take great plunder” (Eze 38:13), in his military campaign. This campaign has been prophesied years before those days,
Are you the one I spoke of in former days by My servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied for years in those days, to bring you against them? (Eze 38:17)
In his comments on Eze 38:17, Rashi says: “Do not read שָּׁנִים, “years”, but שְּׁנַיִם, “two”. For indeed, two שְּׁנַיִם prophets prophesied one prophecy. This war against Israel was spoken of by the prophets (Isaiah 29:1-18 and Joel 2:1-20) and of the man who will wage it. Two more prophets would speak of the final war: Zechariah prophesied about the war of Gog and Magog in Zec 2:6-8, Zec 9, 10, and 11, and Zec 14:2, saying, “And I shall gather all the nations, …” and Obadiah, who was chosen to pronounce the downfall of the Edomite kingdom in this war. The Sages explain that Obadiah speaks of the end of days, of the war of Gog and Magog (Malbim). But while Ezekiel and Zechariah address the evil Gog himself, Obadiah addresses the Edomites who will support Gog to invade Israel.
And the curse is reiterated at the opening of Chapter 39, wherein it was spoken,
And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and you shall say, Thus said the Master YHVH, “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tuval, and shall turn you around and lead you on*, and bring you up from the uttermost parts of the north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel, … (Eze 39:1-2) *Revised JPS: “drive you on” meaning of Hebrew uncertain.
Compare “And I shall turn you around, and I shall put hooks into …” in the beginning of the prophecy and “I shall turn you around and lead you on, and …” here. Why was there necessity to say first “I shall turn you around” and then “I shall lead you on … and I shall bring you upon …”? Is it not obvious that if one is turned around, he will be brought into? Why “I shall lead you on”, i.e., “entice you”? Have we not already been told that Gog will be dragged by the nose with hooks like a beast place and placed under the control of his evil inclination to do evil?
Grammar notes: The change in syntax in Eze 39:2 may be irrelevant. When the text repeats the same theme with different words, the reason may not to alert the reader to an additional dimension of the message, but only to stress the message and draw the attention to its importance. In such a case, the two statements constitute in reality one. But here we may discover an additional dimension of the prophecy. We now return to the text.
The word in question behind “I shall lead you on” is וְשִׁשֵּׁאתִיךָ veshisheticha. The base word is שִׁשֵּׁא shishei, which assumed to mean to lead on as it is rendered in JPS. Eze 39:2 is the only instance of this term in the Bible and probably indicates confusion, tumult, or temptation, apparently to annihilate. The ambiguity in this verse comes from the expression in the statement whose meaning cannot be determined from its context, and its unclearness comes by virtue of having been used only once in the Scripture. When a word has been used in only one place, it is difficult to derive its meaning from a single use of it, as opposed to when a word is used in many different contexts. The use of dictionaries does not help much, since we would face the same problem. In such a case, its rendering is a pure speculation and a matter of the translator’s personal opinion. And there is not much to do about it especially when the word’s meaning has been lost. The present author is not an exception, as he also faces the same challenge to find the meaning of a word from the immediate context and when this is hard for him: from the broader one.
With that said, we are in opinion that there is another rendering of the word וְשִׁשֵּׁאתִיךָ veshisheticha to which we now turn. “I shall lead you on”, וְשִׁשֵּׁאתִיךָ veshisheticha (one word in Hebrew) comes from the unused root שָׁשָׁא shasha, which is accepted to mean to leave on or to divide into sixths, give the sixth part of, as it relates to שָׁשָׁה shashah. Derivatives of שָׁשָׁה shashah are the masculine form: שֵׁשׁ shesh, which means “six”, “sixth”, used in combination with other words to form compound words such as sixteen, six hundred, etc., and the feminine form שִׁשָּׁה shishshah. Another derivative is the noun שִׁשִּׁי shishiy, “six”, as found in Genesis 1:31 used to denote the sixth day of creation.
This possible rendering of our word appears in the traditional Jewish commentaries and also in KJV which has: “I will leave but the sixth part of you”. But such a rendering in KJV makes uncertain why there will only remain a sixth part of Gog, presumably after the war.
But the proper rendering appears to us to be that Gog will be judged with six judgements, as it is said, “And I shall judge him with (1) pestilence and (2) blood, and (3) rain down flooding rain and (4) hailstones, (5) fire and (6) sulphur, on him and on his bands and on the many peoples who are with him” (Eze 38:22). This is derived from the use of the Hebrew term וְשִׁשֵּׁאתִיךָ veshisheticha that has six (shesh) as part of it.
Alternatively, there is another interpretation of the verse based again on six (shesh). According to it, Ezekiel 39:1-2 can be understood to mean, “And I shall turn you around from the ends of the North as the head of a large group of nations for widespread conquests, and I will bring you to the mountains of Israel, which you intended to capture anyway”. See also Eze 38:4 for the same expression. Therefore, in our opinion these two verse can be translated as follows,
And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and you shall say, ‘Thus said the Master YHVH, “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tuval, and shall turn you around and divide you into sixths*, and bring you up from the uttermost parts of the north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel, … (Eze 39:1-2) *Alternative rendition would be “I shall count you six [nations]”.
“I shall divide you into sixths” or “I shall count you six”—what does that mean?
On the 7th day of October 2023, when Israel was celebrating Simchat Torah (the eighth day after the first day of the festival of Sukkot), until now Israel was forced to fight six enemies that have surrounded the Land on six fronts; and they are: the proxies of Iran (1) Hamas (Gaza), (2) Hezbollah (Lebanon), (3) Houthis (Yemen), (4) terrorist groups of Palestinian Authority in Judea and Samaria, (5) Syria, and (6) the head of the octopus, Iran. Gog of the land of Magog, who received this gift on his birthday, the 7th of October, is not yet ready to get directly involved into the war for he is waging another war. But when the time comes, the hooks will be put into his jaws and dragged to the Land as a beast for judgement.
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