Ezekiel 38:10
‘Thus says the Lord God: “On that day it shall come to pass that thoughts will arise in your mind, and you will make an evil plan:
11 You will say, ‘I will go up against a land of unwalled villages; I will go to a peaceful people, who dwell [d]safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates’—
12 to take plunder and to take booty, to stretch out your hand against the waste places that are again inhabited, and against a people gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, who dwell in the midst of the land.
Then God declares that He will drive Gog into the mountains of Israel. So, Gog is the leader of the land of Magog. When Gog moves against Israel, God will destroy him and his army (Daniel 11:44-45)
Magog Includes Russia and Other Nations
So, which nation or nations today occupy the ancient lands of Magog?
Genesis 10:2 tells us that Magog was a son of Japheth.
The sons of Japheth were Gomer and Magog and Madai and Javan and Tubal and Meshech and Tiras. Genesis 10:2 (NASB)
The descendants of Magog were scattered away from the Tower of Babel in Genesis 11.
So, where did they go? Ancient historical records reveal the descendants of Magog scattered into various regions of the world.
Flavius Josephus tells us the Scythians were descendants of Magog.
1 The Scythians had a reputation for being anti-religion.
2 That agrees with Russia’s reputation today. In addition, the church father Jerome writes,
“Scythian nations, fierce and innumerable, who live beyond the Caucasus and the lake Maeotis, and near the Caspian Sea, and spread out even onward to India.”
3
Some historians indicate the descendants of Magog include the Goths.
4 Bill Copper provides evidence that the descendants of Magog also include the Russians, Ukrainians, Hungarians, Finns, Siberians, Yugoslavians, Croatians, Bosnians, Serbians, Slovenians, Slovakians, Bulgarians, Poles, Czechs.
5 Bodie Hodge writes that the descendants of Magog also arrived in Sweden, Finland, Germany, Ireland and Scotland.
6 Additionally, the descendants of Magog intermarried with the people in Turkey.
7 After intermarrying with people in Russia, they may have moved into Siberia and then North America.
8 Some conjecture the Magogites intermingled with people in China.
9 The picture is that the descendants of Magog spread to modern day Turkey, and ancient Scythia. They also migrated northwest into Europe, north into Russia, and eastward across Asia.
This historical information fits biblical prophecy which indicates that the king of the north in Daniel 11:36-45 will invade Israel at the end of the great tribulation.
The ancient king of the north occupied the territory known as the Seleucid Empire.
It was part of Alexander the Great’s territory that extended into India and pushed up into the territory surrounding the Caspian Sea.
All of the descendants from that territory traveled into the nations mentioned above. In summary, Russia and the Arab nations will be the primary invaders at the battle of Armageddon.
Persia – Iran, Ethiopia – a country in Africa, Libya – north Africa,
Gomar is the grandson of Noah
Gomar – Turkey
Gomer: the Cimmerians north Irianians Gomer and the Cimmerians
Gomer is said to be the father of ancient Cimmerians.
Kimmerians or Cimmerians were warlike tribes of Aryans that fought against the nations in the northwest Asia during 670 to 570 BC.
They left their home found at the north of the
Black Sea, the present day Ukraine of southern Russia, in the 7th century BC when they were expelled by the Scythians.
Manufactured peace? Peace derived of treatyssuch as Solomons peace
Devine protection ? Goshen factor! Ezekiel 38:14 “Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog, ‘Thus says the Lord God:
“On that day when My people Israel dwell safely, will you not know it?
Where Is Babylon?
The city of Babylon was located about 50 miles south of Baghdad along the Euphrates River in present-day Iraq.
It was founded around 2300 B.C. by the ancient Akkadian-speaking people of southern Mesopotamia.
Babylon became a major military power under Amorite king Hammurabi, who ruled from 1792 to 1750 B.C.
After Hammurabi conquered neighboring city-states, he brought much of southern and central Mesopotamia under unified Babylonian rule, creating an empire called Babylonia.
Hammurabi turned Babylon into a rich, powerful and influential city.
He created one of the world’s earliest and most complete written legal codes. Known as the Code of Hammurabi, it helped Babylon surpass other cities in the region.
Babylonia, however, was short-lived. The empire fell apart after Hammurabi’s death and reverted back to a small kingdom for several centuries.
Neo-Babylonian Empire
A new line of kings established the Neo-Babylonian Empire, which lasted from 626 B.C. to 539 B.C.
The Neo-Babylonian Empire became the most powerful state in the world after defeating the Assyrians at Nineveh in 612 B.C.
The Neo-Babylonian Empire enjoyed a period of cultural renaissance in the Near East.
The Babylonians built many beautiful and lavish buildings and preserved statues and artworks from the earlier Babylonian Empire during the reign of King Nebuchadnezzar II.
Fall of Babylon
The Neo-Babylonian Empire, like the earlier Babylonia, was short-lived.
In 539 B.C., less than a century after its founding, the legendary Persian king Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon.
The fall of Babylon was complete when the empire came under Persian control.
Babylon in Jewish History
After the Babylonian conquest of the Kingdom of Judah in the sixth century B.C., Nebuchadnezzar II took thousands of Jews from the city of Jerusalem and held them captive in Babylon for more than half a century.
Many Judeans returned to Jerusalem after the Neo-Babylonian Empire fell to Cyrus the Great’s Persian forces. Some stayed, and a Jewish community flourished there for more than 2,000 years.
Many relocated to the newly created Jewish state of Israel in the 1950s.
Tower of Babel
The city of Babylon appears in both Hebrew andBible, scripture portray Babylon as a wicked city.
Hebrew scriptures tell the story of the Babylonian exile, portraying Nebuchadnezzar as a captor.
Famous accounts of Babylon in the Genesis 11 include the story of the Tower of Babel. According to the Old Testament story, humans tried to build a tower to reach the heavens.
When God saw this, he destroyed the tower and scattered mankind across the Earth, making them speak many languages so they could no longer understand each other.
Some scholars believe the legendary Tower of Babel may have been inspired by a real-life ziggurat temple built to honor Marduk, the patron god of Babylon.
Walls of Babylon
Art and architecture flourished throughout the Babylonian Empire, especially in the capital city of Babylon, which is also famous for its impenetrable walls.
Hammurabi first encircled the city with walls. Nebuchadnezzar II further fortified the city with three rings of walls that were 40 feet tall.
The Greek historian Herodotus wrote that the walls of Babylon were so thick that chariot races were held on top of them.
The city inside the walls occupied an area of 200 square miles, roughly the size of Chicago today.
Nebuchadnezzar II built three major palaces, each lavishly decorated with blue and yellow glazed tiles.
He also built a number of shrines, the largest of which, called Esagil, was dedicated to Marduk.
The shrine stood 280 feet tall, nearly the size of a 26-story office building.
Hanging Gardens of Babylon
The Hanging Gardens of Babylon, a colossal maze of terraced trees, shrubs, flowers and manmade waterfalls, are one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
Yet archaeologists have turned up scant evidence of the gardens. It’s unclear where they were located or whether they ever existed at all?
Some researchers have uncovered evidence that suggests the hanging gardens existed, but not in Babylon—they may have actually been located in the city of Nineveh in upper Mesopotamia.
Ishtar Gate
The main entrance to the inner city of Babylon was called the Ishtar Gate.
The portal was decorated with bright blue glazed bricks adorned with pictures of bulls, dragons and lions.
The Ishtar Gate gave way to the city’s great Processional Way, a half-mile decorated corridor used in religious ritual to celebrate the New Year.
In ancient Babylon, the new year started with the spring equinox and marked the beginning of the agricultural season.
German archaeologists excavated the remains of the gate in the early twentieth century and reconstructed it in Berlin’s Pergamon Museumusing original bricks.
Babylon Today
Under Saddam Hussein, the Iraqi government excavated Babylonian ruins and attempted to reconstruct certain features of the ancient city, including one of Nebuchadnezzar’s palaces.