Ma′gog (Heb. Magog′, ‫מָ גֹוג‬, region of Gog [see below]; Sept. Μαγώγ, Vulg.

Magog), the second son of

Japhet (Gen. 10:2; 1 Chron. 1:5). B.C. post 2514. “Various etymologies of the name have been
suggested. Knobel (Völkert. p. 63) proposes the Sanscrit mah or maha, ‘great,’ and a Persian word
signifying ‘mountain,’ in which case the reference would be to the Caucasian range. The terms ghogh
and moghef are still applied to some of the heights of that range. This etymology is supported by Von
Bohlen (Introd. to Gen. ii, 211). On the other hand, Hitzig (Comm. in Ez.) connects the first syllable with
the Coptic ma, ‘place,’ or the Sanscrit maha, ‘land,’ and the second with a Persian root, koka, ‘the
moon,’ as though the term had reference to moon-worshippers” (Smith). In Ezekiel (38:2; 39:6) it occurs
as the name of a nation, and, from the associated names in all the passages where it occurs, it is
supposed to represent certain Scythian or Tartar tribes descended from the son of Japhet. See
Ethnology. Thus, in Genesis, it is coupled with Gomer (the Cimmerians) and Madai (the Medes), among
the Japhetites, while Ezekiel joins it with Meshech and Jubal (‫נ ִָׂשיא ר ֹאׁש‬, “chief prince,” should be prince
of Rosh), as the name of a great and powerful people, dwelling in the extreme recesses of the north,
who are to invade the Holy Land at a future time. Their king is there called Gog. The people of Magog
further appear as having a force of cavalry (38:15), and as armed with the bow (39:3). The oldest
versions give the word unchanged; but Josephus (Ant. i, 6, 3) interprets it by Scythians (Σκύθαι), and so
Jerome; but Suidas renders it Persians. “Michaelis (Suppl. ad Lex. Heb. 1471), Rosenmüller (Scholia in
Gen. x, 2), and Gesenius (Thesaurus, s. v.) adopt the view that the Scythians generally are intended.
Bochart (Phaleg, iii, 19) suggests that the name Gog appears in Γωγαρηνή, the name of a district near to
that through which the Araxes flows (Strabo, p. 528); and this falls in with the supposition that the
Magogites were Scythians, for the traditions of the latter represent their nation as coming originally
from the vicinity of the Araxes (Diod. Sic. ii, 43). Since Bochart’s time the general consent of scholars has
been in favor of regarding the eastern Scythians as the Magog of Genesis; but Kiepert ‘associates the
name with Macija, or Maka, and applies it to Scythian nomad tribes which forced themselves in
between the Arian or Arianized Medes, Kurds, and Armenians’ (Keil and Delitzsch, Bibl. Comment. on the
O. T. [Clark], i, 163); while Bunsen places Magog in Armenia; though in the map accompanying his
Bibelwerk it is placed to the north of the Euxine. Knobel also places Magog there, and connects the
Scythian tribes thus named with those which spread into Europe, and were allied to the Sarmatians,
who gave their name ultimately to the whole north-east of Europe, and are the ancestors of the Slavic
nations now existing” (Kitto). It is certain that the term Scythian was a collective title of the remote
savage tribes of the north in a similar manner to the use of Magog (Cellarii Notit. ii. 753 sq.). See
Scythian. There appears to have been from the earliest times a legend that the enemies of religion and
civilization lived in that quarter (Haxthausen’s Tribes of the Caucasus, p. 55). From the accounts found
among the Arabians, Persians, and Syrians, some of which are embellished with various fables, we learn
that they comprehended under the designation Yajuj and Majuj all the less known barbarous people of
the north-east and north-west of Asia. (See the Koran, xviii, 94–99; xxi, 96; Assemani, Bibl. Orient. III. ii,
16, 17, 20; Hylander, Spec. op. cosmog. pt. 20–22 [Lond. 1803]; Klaproth, Asiat. Magaz. i, 138 sq.;
Herbelot, Biblioth. Orient. ii, 281 sq.; Flügel, in the Halle Encycl. II, xiv, 78 sq.) Yet, though the Gog and
Magog of the Hebrews may have had an equally vague acceptation, it nevertheless seems to have
pointed more precisely to the northern tribes of the Caucasus, between the Euxine and the Caspian
Seas. The people of that region, it seems, were a terror to middle Asia; and they have often been named
the Scythians of the East. Jerome says of Magog that it means “Scythian nations, fierce and
innumerable, who live beyond the Caucasus and the lake Mæotis, and near the Caspian Sea, and spread
out even onward to India.” The people dwelling among the Caucasian Mountains have preserved their
original character down to the present hour, as is evident from their recent long-continued contests
with the Russians. The famous Caucasian wall, probably erected by some of the successors of Alexander
the Great, as a defence against the incursions of the northern barbarians, and which extended from
Derbend, on the western shore of the Caspian, to near the Euxine or Black Sea, is still called “the wall of
Gog and Magog.” (See Reinegg, Beschr. d. Caucasus, ii, 79.) The traveller Gmelin visited this wall in 1770,
in the course of the scientific mission upon which he was sent by the Russian government. From
Derbend, on the Caspian Sea, the head-quarters of the Russian military guard in that country, Gmelin
directed his course westward, towards the Euxine, and he soon met with some ruins of the ancient wall,
which he describes as in some places thirty feet high, and for large distances nearly entire, and in other
places partially or wholly fallen down. There are watch-towers along the wall at signal distances; two of
these he ascended, and from their tops he could desery the snowy ridges of Caucasus. This wall seems
to have been built in almost a straight line from the Caspian to the Euxine, and the watch-towers and
fortresses were probably erected as a means of keeping up communication between Derbend, the
garrison at the eastern extremity, and the fastnesses in the mountains. (See Bayer, De Muro Caucasio, in
Acta Acad. Scientiar. Petropol. i, 425; Ker Porter, Travels, ii, 520; Ritter, Erdk. ii, 834 sq.) In Rev. 20:7, 9,
the terms Gog and Magog are evidently used tropically, as names of the enemies of Christianity, who
will endeavor to extirpate it from the earth, but will thereby bring upon themselves signal destruction.
But that Ezekiel, in his prophecy, meant to be understood as predicting the invasion of Palestine by Gog
and Magog in the literal sense, is hardly credible. He uses these names to designate distant and savage
nations; and in the same way John employs them. Just in the same manner we now employ the word
barbarians. That both writers should employ these two names in a tropical way is no more strange than
that we should employ the words Scythian, Tartar, Indian, etc., in the same manner. Nothing could be
more natural than for Ezekiel, who lived in Mesopotamia, to speak of Gog and Magog, since they were
the formidable enemies of all that region; and that John, writing on the same subject, should retain the
same names, was equally natural. (See Stuart’s Comment. on the Apoc. ad loc.) See Gog.1

1
M’Clintock, J., & Strong, J. (1882). Ma′gog. In Cyclopædia of Biblical, Theological, and Ecclesiastical
Literature (Vol. 5, p. 653). New York: Harper & Brothers, Publishers.