The enemies within : Gog of Magog in Ezekiel 38 – 39

The enigmatic figure Gog from the land of Magog makes his flamboyant appearance in Ezekiel 38–39, being accompanied by the other foreign nations such as Persia, Cush, Lud, Meshech and Tubal (38:1–5; 39:1). All of them rise up to invade the land of Israel (38:8–9, 16). They are all subsequently defeated (38:18–23). In the end, they are either left on the ground to be devoured by the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field (39:3–5, 17–20), or they are plundered and buried (39:8–10, 11–16). The identity of this Gog from the land of Magog has garnered much contemporary attention. The US politicians Reagan and Bush have associated Gog with their country’s bêtes noires, either the ‘communistic and atheistic’ Russia or the ‘evil’ Iraq. On the other hand, biblical scholars such as Galambush and Klein associated Gog of Magog with the foreign enemies of the ancient Israelites. Following a brief discussion of the political and scholarly identifications of Gog, this article argues that the semantic allusions embedded in Ezekiel 38–39, the literary position of the Gog oracles within the book of Ezekiel and the early receptions of the two chapters suggest that Gog and his entourage in Ezekiel 38–39 embody primarily Israel’s previous allies.


Introduction
The enigmatic figure Gog from the land of Magog makes his flamboyant appearance in Ezekiel 38-39, being accompanied by the other foreign nations such as Persia, Cush, Lud, Meshech and Tubal (38:1-5; 39:1). All of them rise up to invade the land of 16). They are all subsequently defeated (38:18-23). In the end, they are either left on the ground to be devoured by the birds of the sky and the beasts of the field (39: [3][4][5][17][18][19][20], or they are plundered and buried (39:8-10, 11-16). The identity of this Gog from the land of Magog has garnered much contemporary attention. The US politicians Reagan and Bush have associated Gog with their country's bêtes noires, either the 'communistic and atheistic' Russia or the 'evil' Iraq. On the other hand, biblical scholars such as Galambush and Klein associated Gog of Magog with the foreign enemies of the ancient Israelites. Following a brief discussion of the political and scholarly identifications of Gog, this article argues that the semantic allusions embedded in Ezekiel 38-39, the literary position of the Gog oracles within the book of Ezekiel and the early receptions of the two chapters suggest that Gog and his entourage in Ezekiel 38-39 embody primarily Israel's previous allies.

Modern political identifications of Gog
Over the past decades, the biblical figure Gog epitomises the foreign enemies of the USA. Ronald Reagan, who acted as California's Governor between 1967 and 1975 during the Cold War, is reported to have unambiguously cited Ezekiel's prophecy to justify his identification of Gog as Russia. As he reasons: Ezekiel says that fire and brimstone will be rained upon the enemies of God's people. That must mean that they'll be destroyed by nuclear weapons. They exist now, and they never did in the past. Ezekiel tells us that Gog, the nation that will lead all of the other powers of darkness against Israel, will come out of the north. Biblical scholars have been saying for generations that Gog must be Russia. What other powerful nation is to the north of Israel? None. But it didn't seem to make sense before the Russian revolution, when Russia was a Christian country. Now it does, now that Russia has become communistic and atheistic, now that Russia has set itself against God. Now it fits the description of Gog perfectly. (cited in O'Leary 1994:273, n. 23, which quotes Mills 1985cf. Bøe 2001:1;Boyer 1992:162, [author's own emphasis]) Reagan was far from alone in his belief of the Russian-Gog's invasion in Israel or the USA. Mein (2013:136) notes that the attempt to associate Gog with Russia had already begun in 19th-century Britain, as a result of the 'competing interests' between Britain and Russia in Central Asia. This Russophobia was compounded by an exegetical 'preference for the Septuagint version of 38:1', which treats the Hebrew ‫ראׁש‬ not as a common noun, that is 'head' or 'chief', but as the proper name 'Rhos' that was then connected with 'Rus' and Russia (Mein 2013:137). Boyer (1992:162) further contextualises Reagan's identification of Gog as Russia in 'the stream of apocalyptic teaching about Russia that had coursed through American popular religion for well over a century'. The Bolshevik Revolution in October 1917 deepened the fear of the contemporary prophecy writers about the spread of communism in the USA (Boyer 1992:156). This public fear did not falter but it was heightened in the period between 1945 and the early 1990s, when current political events such as Russia's ties with East Germany and China were continuously woven into the biblical prophecies (Boyer 1992:159). As O'Leary (1994:180-183) argues, the apocalyptic colouring of Reagan's political discourse was symptomatic of the New Christian Right's belief in his time.
Gog takes on a new identity in the wake of the 11 September 2001 terrorist attacks in the USA. According to the French report entitled 'George W. Bush et le Code Ezéchiel', the then US president George W. Bush called the then French president Jacques Chirac and rationalised his intention to invade Iraq by citing the biblical prophecies of Gog and Magog (Rochat 2007:34-41 The American journalist Kurt Eichenwald (2012:459) further wove this Gog and Magog incident into his gripping nonfiction entitled 500 Days: Secrets and Lies in the Terror Wars. Spector (2014:546) cautions that the reports about Gog and Magog bear only 'some resemblance to what Bush actually said'. Still, on the basis of other first-hand reports on Bush's foreign policy, Spector (2014:552) concludes: 'Bush evidently believed that he was advancing God's providence when he led the USA into war in Afghanistan and Iraq'. The president clearly adopted a Manichean viewpoint in his foreign policy, breaking everything down rigidly into either good or evil and declaring: 'You are either with us or against us in the fight against terror' (cited in Dashke 2010:158

Modern scholarly identifications of Gog
In contrast to the politicians and other public figures, biblical scholars generally steer away from contemporary identifications of Gog and seek instead to contextualise Gog of Magog in the historical literary setting of the ancient Israelites. Despite their differences in detail, biblical scholars such as Galambush and Klein share a dualistic mind-set that similarly typifies Reagan's and Bush's aforementioned statements, considering Gog as an embodiment of only Israel's historical enemies. Galambush (2006:255), for instance, identifies Gog in Ezekiel as 'a cipher for Nebuchadnezzar', the Babylonian king who acted as the destroyer of Judah's land, temple and people in the 6th century BCE. Given her consideration that YHWH's vindication of his honour is the single most important theme in the book of Ezekiel, and that Nebuchadnezzar's ravage of Jerusalem poses the most direct threat to YHWH's honour, Galambush (2006:256-258) concludes that Ezekiel 38-39 must be presenting a 'hidden polemic' against the Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar. Central to her argument are the lexical connections between the portrayals of Gog in Ezekiel 38-39 and Nebuchadnezzar in the rest of Ezekiel (Galambush 2006:259 -32, esp. vv. 22-26). The discovery of all these lexical links is not entirely ground-breaking because they have long been noted by different commentators (Batto 1992:157;Biberger 2010:67-68;Fitzpatrick 2004:154;Klein 2008:128-132;Tooman 2011:132-133, 137-195).
What makes this article different in comparison with the aforementioned studies is the thesis that the foregoing lexical allusions form a specific pattern that points to a reformulation of the identity of Israel's former allies (cf. Lee 2016:209-216 (Tooman 2011:35, 37, 133). On the other hand, this thesis refines the textual analyses of Galambush and Klein, which view Gog monolithically as either a specific enemy or a conglomeration of Israel's historical enemies. All in all, my analysis shows that the Gog oracles purposefully allude to the other passages, which present the foreign nations as Judah's political or idolatrous allies, so as to transform these allies into a metahistorical evil power that stands in opposition to YHWH and the restored Israel in the eschatological era.

Literary position of Ezekiel 38-39
That Gog embodies primarily Judah's allies becomes more apparent when the literary position of chapters 38 and 39 in the book of Ezekiel is taken into account. Klein (Lust 1981:518). Scholars including, inter alia, Lust, Crane and Schwagmeier suggest that the chapter order in P967 Ezekiel reflects the Hebrew Urtext (Crane 2008:236-250, 257-263;Lust 1981:517-533, esp. 521-525;2003:83-92;Schwagmeier 2004:313-317, 366-368). On the other hand, the discovery of the Masada Ezekiel manuscript, which dates earlier than P967 but bears close resemblances with the MT, prompts Patmore (2007:231-242, esp. 241;cf. Lilly 2012:22-25) to take a more critical stance on the chronological priority of the Vorlage of P967. While the textual relationship between P967 and MT Ezekiel remains a contentious issue, Tooman (2011:77-82) insightfully remarks that the fluid position of Ezekiel 38-39 in the manuscripts constitutes one of the main evidence for the addition of the Gog oracles to the book of Ezekiel towards the end of its literary evolution.
Granted that the Gog oracles were added later into the book of Ezekiel, the more pertinent question is: Why should the Gog pericopes be constructed and inserted later, when the book of Ezekiel has already incorporated the prophecies against Mount Seir in chapter 35? For Klein (2008:126), the insertion of the Gog oracles between Ezekiel 36:16-23abα and 39:23-29 shows a reinterpretation of YHWH's way to honour his name: YHWH will vindicate his name not simply through the gathering and returning of God's people (39:23-29), but in the first place through the destruction of Gog on the Mountains of Israel. However, such an assessment can equally be applied to the prophecies against Mount Seir in Ezekiel 35. The first oracle against Mount Seir (35:3-4) begins with a messenger formula 'Thus has the Lord YHWH declared', continues with YHWH's vow to annihilate Mount Seir and culminates with the recognition formula 'Then you will know that I am YHWH'. The repetitions of the recognition formula in verses 9 and 15 further highlight YHWH's determination to vindicate his name through the destruction of Mount Seir. Many other parallels exist between the two groups of oracles. Both of them are directed against nations other than Israel and begin their oracles with the prophetic word formula 'the word of YHWH came to me saying'. This question can be addressed when we compare the semantic allusions embedded in Ezekiel 35 with those found in Ezekiel 38-39. As argued by Lee (2016:198-207) (Lee 2016:203). In comparison with the foregoing analysis of the semantic allusions of the Gog oracles, it can be deduced that whoever composed the Gog oracles felt that it is not sufficient for YHWH to vindicate his name only in front of Judah's enemies embodied by Mount Seir. His total sovereignty over the restored Israel must be escalated to such an extent that even Israel's former allies are judged. Therefore, Gog is constructed in such a way to embody the characteristics of mighty powers, such as Babylon, Assyria and Egypt, who have formerly engaged in political 'harlotry' with and served as the patrons of Judah. Thus, the distinguishing rhetorical function of Gog in Ezekiel 38-39 is that it primarily embodies the characteristics of Judah's allies. The full restoration of Israel can only be achieved when all foreign nations, whether friends or foes, standing in the way between YHWH and his people are eliminated.

Early receptions of Ezekiel 38-39
The literary process within Ezekiel 38-39 that has radically transformed all foreign elements, whether friends or foes, into one mythological symbol of evil or chaos is mirrored and further developed in the Septuagint.  (Bøe 2001:192;Levey 1987:107). Inflamed by the Jewish-Christian conflicts in medieval Europe, the Jewish exegete Rashi rendered Christianity, whom he designated 'Esau', as an ally of Gog and Magog, and even conflated them (Grossman 2012:54-56;Wechsler 2015:509). Ezekiel's prophecies also inspire the New Testament, where Gog appears alongside Magog and both comprise 'the nations in the four corners of the earth', which have fallen under the spell of Satan to join in a battle against 'the camp of the saints and the beloved city' after 1000 years of messianic reign and before the establishment of God's eternal reign (Rv 20:7-9). Based on this passage, the Greek and Latin Church Fathers reached various conclusions, so that Gog and Magog were personified by either the Romans, who persecuted the growing Christianity, the Huns, who incurred Europe, or the Goths, who brought the Western Roman Empire to an end (Lust 1995:375;van Donzel & Schmidt 2010:13-14). The Quran embellishes the Judeo-Christian traditions with elements similar to the 6th century CE 'Syrian Christian legend Concerning Alexander', such that Gog and Magog (Yajuj & Majuj) become the chaotic powers locked behind a barricade built by 'the two-horned', which probably refers to Alexander the Great (Sura 18:83-98; cf. Kaltner 1995:37, 43-44). The Quran also stresses the eschatological role of Gog and Magog, because in the last days they will swarm through the barricade, gain access into the land and inaugurate the ultimate divine judgement, during which the believers and unbelievers will be saved and damned, respectively (Sura 18:101-109; 21:95-105; cf. Kaltner 1995:42-43). These passages spurred the imaginations of later Islamic works, which correlated Gog and Magog with the Turks, who posed threats to Baghdad and northern Iran during the 10th and 11th centuries CE, and the Mongols, who devastated many important Islamic cities in 1220 CE (Filiu 2011:30;van Donzel & Schmidt 2010:82-84). Wieringa (2011:123-152) sheds light on a 19th-century Javanese narrative poem, which conflates the Quranic figures Yajuj and Majuj (Gog and Magog) into a single villain called Juja-Makjuja. According to cantos 9-12 of the poem, Juja-Makjuja, as the demonic grandson of Jesus Christ (designated Ngisa), aims to bring down the prophet Muhammad's authority in Asia. Wieringa argues that Juja-Makjuja in the poem represents the Christian Dutch colonial administration that intruded the central Javanese court of Surakarta in the 19th century.
All these interpretations of Gog (and Magog) do not differ much from the modern political identifications of Gog, in that they all are eager to associate the mythological figures(s) with their contemporary enemies. Irony arises when we compare these interpretations with the Gog figure portrayed in the Hebrew version of Ezekiel 38-39. The semantic allusions and literary position of the biblical prophecies suggest that Gog of Magog first and foremost embodies Israel's historical allies. When Bush identified Iraq as one of the biblical 'Gog and Magog', declared war on his political enemies, and threatened the other nations that 'you are either with us or against us', little did he know that the ancient Hebrew prophecies in Ezekiel 38-39 pronounce judgement on the symbolic collection of those nations who had formerly served as the allies of God's people.