“Gog of the Land of Magog” is Russia: Its Evidence

Commentary on the Prophecy of Ezekiel
Arimasa Kubo

The Land of Magog is Russia

The Bible prophesizes that Russia in the latter days will be an invasive country. The Book of Ezekiel mentions:

“Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal… You will come from your place out of the far north, you and many peoples with you… a great company and a mighty army.” (38:2–15)

The one called “Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal” and that “You will come from your place out of the far north” is Russia. If you stretch the longitude line from Israel, the line will pass over Moscow. Russia is the country “far north” of Israel.

Then, what do the ancient names, Gog, Magog, Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal each mean? As you know, the sons of Noah were Shem, Ham and Japheth. The Bible mentions that “Meshech”, “Tubal” and “Magog” were descendants of Noah’s son Japheth.

“The sons of Japheth were Gomer, Magog, Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshech, and Tiras.” (Genesis 10:2)

Japheth’s sons became the Caucasoid (white people). They immigrated to the north. Among them, Meshech and Tubal lived together for a while, and they became the nations who traded with Phoenicians (east coast of the Mediterranean Sea, Ezekiel 27:13). The people of Meshech and Tubal acted as strong enemies against Assyria in around 12th century BCE. They appear as Mushki an Tabali in the annals of Assyria.

Among them were also those who immigrated to further north. They lived in today’s Russian area. The Kievan Synopsis (17th century, Ukraine) mentions that Meshech became the origin of the name Moscow, the capital of Russia.

Concerning the descendants of Tubal, it is said that some went to today’s Spain and Georgia, but according to the Taj al-Arus (Arabic dictionary, 1790), Slavs who configure most of the Russians are descendants of Tubal. The names of Tobol river and Tobolsk city in Russia came from Tubal.

Then, where is “the land of Magog”? Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian in the 1st century CE, mentions the land of Magog was where Scythians lived, that is, the area north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea (Antiquities of the Jews 1–123[vi,1]), or south-western Russia and Ukraine. However, the name Scythians in those days were often used to refer to general nomadic tribes of those areas. So, the Magog people were not necessarily the Scythians. Anyway, the land of Magog should be the vicinity of south-western Russia.

Another theory says that “the land of Magog” is not Russia, but the kingdom of Lydia (7th-6th century BCE), which existed in the times of prophet Ezekiel and was located in today’s western Turkey. It also says that “Gog” might be Lydian king Gyges, for the two sound alike. However, according to archaeologists, Lydia was a kingdom of Akkadians who spoke Semitic language. Since Akkadians were Semitic, it was not the land of Magog, Japheth’s descendants.

The theory that the land of Magog is Turkey is thus wrong. It is proper to think, as Josephus says, that the land of Magog is the area north of the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea (where the Scythians lived), that is, the vicinity of south-western Russia.

Rus’ People and Gog

Since these northern peoples, Meshech, Tubal and Magog, lived mixing together in a close relationship each other, they were called the people of “Rus” in a general sense (The Tale of Bygone Years, chronicles of the Kiev Rus). The Rus’ people later became Russians, Ukrainians and Belarusians. The “prince of Rosh”, mentioned in above-mentioned prophecy of Ezekiel, means this Rus’ people.

In fact, the name Russia came from this Rus (its Greek form is Russia). In the 10th century CE, the emperor of the Byzantine Empire called Russia Rus. And the name Rus remains in Kiev Rus, the old name for Ukraine, and also in Belarus (Bela-Rus). In western Russia, there are many names which originated from Rus. This Rus’ people are so-called East Slavs.

In addition, the word Rus was used not only as a nation name, but also as a ruling class. The grand duke Mikhail Yaroslavich, who was the ruler of Moscow area in the 14th century CE, called himself the Grand Duke of all the Rus. In the times of Imperial Russia, Russians had self-consciousness that Russia is the orthodox heir of the Rus. Even today, the Rus is considered to be the roots of Russians and their identity. Thus, “Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh (Rus), Meshech, and Tubal” is apparently Russia.

Then, what does “Gog” stand for? In Hebrew it means “roof”. It is said that Gog is a title expressing a prince or a ruler who stands above, like the title Pharaoh stands for king of Egypt. Gog means the ruler of the Rus’ people.

As a matter of fact, recent Russians use the word “krysha” which means roof in Russian with additional special meaning. They use krysha (roof) to mean a protecting ruler. It often means mafia who protect people and take protection money from them. It also means government, president, Moscow or Kremlin. They say they can’t talk about modern Russia without that word. The Russian word krysha (roof) is thus used in the same meaning as Hebrew Gog. Moscow and its government are the krysha, or Gog (roof) of Russia, the country of the far north.

Since ancient times, there is the legend that Alexander the Great of Greece (4th century BCE) built a great barrier, called the Gates of Alexander, at the Caucasus (areas between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea) to keep Gog’s army of the land of Magog north of the Caucasus from invading the southern lands. This legend is even told in the Koran. People in those days realized the land of Magog to be north of the Caucasus. Moscow is there.

In old times, Russia was a small country. In the 15–16th century CE, there were many devided principalities fighting each other. Later, Grand Principality of Moscow won the fighting and unified the areas of the Russians. Russia thus began in Moscow. And in the times of Imperial Russia, the territories rapidly became wide. Russia became the country with the widest territory in the world. Gog would thus be the ruler of Moscow.

The prophecy of Ezekiel mentions that in the latter days, Russia will become an invasive country with a strong military power. Russia’s invasion to Ukraine, which began in February 2022, is the one showing the end times have become close. Ezekiel prophesizes that Russia will one day try to invade Israel along with its allies. But the invasion will end because their military forces perish under the wrath of God.

It seems that Russian president Putin does not want to let Russians know this Bible prophecy. In 2016, he made a new law that allows talks about the Bible only inside churches, and prohibited any talks about the Bible outside churches. The Bible is the way for people to know the truth. But he kept it away from Russians.