Ezekiel 38

Aside from this, Gog doesn’t show up anywhere else in or outside of the Bible. So, scholars can only guess who he was. Some link him to a ruler in what is now central Turkey, a man called Gyges of Lydia. But “Gog” is not “Gyges.” And Gyges (early 600s BC) lived a century before Ezekiel (early 500s BC).

Location is guesswork. First-century Jewish historian, Josephus, writing 600 years after Ezekiel linked Magog to land north of the Black Sea, now Ukraine and Russia. Most Bible scholars today say Magog was more likely south of the Black Sea, in central Turkey. The territory in Bible times was Lydia. They base this educated guess partly on the fact that Gog controlled Magog and two neighboring regions whose locations are well established. Meshech was east of Lydia. And Tubal was east of Meshech. Both neighbors were in east Turkey.

Winners in a war often marched their captives into slavery with hooks in the nose or mouth. The images here suggest captivity for Gog and a chaotic retreat for his army.

Gomer was a tribe north of the Black Sea in an area known for its fog. Some speculate it was the Russian-occupied Crimean Peninsula of Ukraine.

Beth-togarmah was in central Turkey, many scholars speculate. Some link it to the town of Gurun, in central Turkey.

No one seems to know where the land of Sheba was. A popular guess is Yemen, in southern Arabia, parked at the corner of the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. Another common guess is across the Red Sea, somewhere on the Horn of Africa, in Somalia, Ethiopia, or another neighboring nation.

Dedan was an oasis town in northwestern Saudi Arabia. Dedan, now the city of Al Ula, is in the Saudi Arabian desert boonies, where the sand meets the rock foothills east of the Red Sea. As the raven flies, it’s close to 400 miles (over 600 km) southeast of Jerusalem. It was an important stop for merchants traveling through the desert to take products like frankincense and spices to trading centers. It’s named after Esau’s grandson. One of Job’s visitors came from there (Job 2:11).

“Spain” seems the most common guess about where to find Tarshish. Location of Tarshish is uncertain. But wherever it was, it was west of the Jewish homeland of Israel. Scholars often guess that it was a city in Spain or somewhere else at the opposite end of the Mediterranean Sea from the Jewish homeland. Some say it was a Phoenician colony called Tartessus, in Spain. Phoenicians were native to what is now Lebanon, but their merchant ships sailed through the Mediterranean Sea.

Ezekiel predicted Gog’s invasion some 2,500 years ago. Far as we know, Gog, probably from Turkey, never invaded Israel. That’s one reason some Christians say this is a prediction yet to come true. Ezekiel 39 fills in some horrifying details. Yet many scholars say that Ezekiel’s prophecy, like most or all of his others, dealt with his time in history. Prophecy, like a sermon today, was usually about the contemporary times of the speaker or the writer. Not about life 2,000 years from now.

The Hebrew word we render as “one and only” is usually translated “holy” in other Bibles. Certainly, Bible writers describe God as holy. But in the context of God killing perhaps tens of thousands of people, “holy,” as we often misunderstand it, might not be what Ezekiel had in mind. The Hebrew word is qadas, and it has a variety of meanings: innocent, unique, set apart from others, free from sin. In this context, “one of a kind” seems to fit better than “innocent” or “holy.” Though Bible writers would argue God is both of those—even in the middle of a slaughter—most would be hard-pressed to explain that in a convincing way.

Armies used fire in warfare, sometimes perhaps with sulfur. But the word-picture of “fire and sulfur” (aka “brimstone”) is a metaphor about condemnation, judgment, and punishment. Fire and sulfur torched the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 19:24-25). When people in Bible times heard those words together, they likely thought of those cities on the southern plain that got wiped off the map.