In the first seven verses of Ezekiel 38, the LORD addresses the Gog -- of Ezekiel's day -- and warns it to "be prepared" (v 7). But in verse 8 we learn why: because "after many days...in the latter years," the Lord will come pay Gog an important visit. Thus, as Gog cannot exist in ancient times as well as in the latter years if "he" were a man, the term appears to refer to a nation.

However, some would view "Gog" as a synonym for Satan, which I find acceptable because I view Gog as the anti-Christ, noting moreover in other prophecies (e.g. Daniel 9:26-27; Revelation 12-13) that the anti-Christ is likened to Satan living in both ancient and end times.

Some prophecy students are beginning to identify Magog with Arab regions in the northern parts of the Middle East...modern Syria in some cases, northern Iraq in others, Turkey, or even Chechnya and other Caucasian regions by the Caspian sea. Thus, Gog the person is painted as a future Muslim ruler. Moreover, among those who take that perspective while also viewing Gog as the anti-Christ, as I do, the anti-Christ himself is portrayed as a Muslim. Aside from prophecy groups teaching that the Dome of the Rock is the Abomination of Desolation, etc., etc., there are some who stress the recent violent uprisings of Islamic Fundamentalism, claiming by this "evidence" that Gog/anti-Christ will be an Arab/Muslim. I happen to disagree even while acknowledging that some Turks are in fact from Gogi blood.

The Muslim vs. Russian dispute requires serious investigation for those who want to identify the anti-Christ long before the arrival of the final Week's mid-point. On three occasions, Ezekiel uses this phrase: "from the recesses of the north." That's how Jay P. Green Sr. puts it, anyway, in his Hebrew-interlinear translation. The King James Version uses, "north quarters" in 38:6 and "north parts" in 38:15 and 39:2, merely suggesting a northerly direction, while Green's phrase indicates more specifically the "far north." Is Green correct?

I have found that Strong's dictionary defines the Hebrew word, YEREKAH, thus: "flank; but used only figuratively, the rear or recess." Funk and Wagnall's dictionary defines "flank" as "3. The extreme right or left part of something; side." I emphasize "extreme" in that dictionary definition. YEREKAH is the feminine of YAREK which is itself defined by Strong like so: "to be soft; the thigh (from its fleshy softness)." The butt!

The Hebrew language has a few words that can be translated, "side." One of them is TSALAH, meaning "rib." I found that this word is used in the Bible to indicate the side of something tangible, such as the side of a man, ship, house, tabernacle, or ark. It is not used in the Bible to indicate the side of a geographical area. So, for example, the south side of the tabernacle itself is written as the south TSALAH, but the southern grounds beyond the tabernacle is written as the south YAREK. In this, too, we can see that YAREK/YEREKAH is used to indicate the far side.

Where Isaiah 14:15 says "YEREKAH of the pit," the KJV translates this quite poorly: "sides of the pit." The KJV also uses "sides of the earth" and "coasts of the earth," where in both cases the Hebrew word is YEREKAH. The translators made the same poor choice in 1 Samuel 24:3, where it reads, "the men remained in the sides of the cave." Is it not obvious that it should read, "the men remained in the far ends (= rear) of the cave"? After all, David's men were hiding from a murderer. In the same way, the Isaiah quote should read, "far end of Sheol."

So, the Hebrew phrase used three times by Ezekiel 38-39 means, just as Green has it, "recesses of the north." The NIV translates it "far north" on all three instances. Because YAREK means a fleshy part of the body, one could very well use the street language: "butt-end of the north"!!

On the third instance (39:2), it's specifically modern Gog that the LORD brings to Israel from the far north. Caucasia is the land between the Black and Caspian seas, but not north of the seas; there are those who insist that we ought to form a box around Caucasia and choose a people now living in that box as the people from whom end-time Gog will originate. On the other hand, it can be shown that the far north in Ezekiel's day was nearly as far north as one can attain to this day, inhabited by Scythians, Greek-related Hyperboreans, Alans, Tocharians, and Ugrics. As I've think I've shown satisfactorily, the Hyperboreans, at least, were a Gogi peoples, but others of the far north are suspect as well ("Hyperborean" means "extreme-northerner").

Togarmah, according to Ezekiel 38:6, was a part of the far north. Please note that to identify Togarmah as geographical Turkey alone is too shallow. The Turks were not an entity by that name until Christian centuries; the first of them to form a world power-house, the Kok-Turks (or Gok Turks), were no doubt a Gogi peoples from Khazaria (on the north shores of the Caspian sea), and prior to that they were Huns further yet to the east, on the borders of China.

Although the "armah" in "Togarmah" evokes Armenia, and knowing also from historical records that Ashkenaz (brother of Togarmah) lived in Armenia, the connection is not in my mind conclusive, for Armenia in Ezekiel's day was "Minni" or "Mannae," neither of which evoke "Togarmah." Identifying Togarmah is very important because the land of Gog was in its vicinity; again, both are said to have been in the far north, while the other peoples listed were not so described:

"...Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah from the recesses of the north..." (38:6).

The problem has been that historians haven't conclusively located ancient Togarmah, but historians didn't know about Tocharians until the 20th century (God's late clue to us?). They were living far to the north of both Armenia and Turkey in Ezekiel's day, north even of the Black and Caspian seas, some of them moving east toward China to become the red Chinese dragon there!

Ezekiel 38:6 (above) makes it plain that, not Gomer, but Togarmah, was at the far north, wherefore Gomer must have been to Togarmah's south when chapter 38 was Given. Assuming what most believe to be true, that Gomer represented the historical Cimmerians, we must locate Gomer no further south than Caucasia. The Cimmerians had lived in Armenia as well as the southern shores of the Black sea, just decades prior to Ezekiel's writing of his chapter 38. This supports a Togarmah to the north of Caucasia, wherefore we could seek the Gogi there as well.

It's true that Gog ruled over Meshech and Tubal during the writing of chapter 38, and while both Meshech and Tubal were located in southern Caucasia (modern Georgia), it doesn't mean that the Gogi were themselves in their homeland when ruling over the two peoples. For empire builders come from afar and must at times station themselves in conquered regions if they want to hold on to them.

According to the history report of Herodotus, written (440 BC) less than 150 years after Ezekiel penned chapter 38, "Royal Scythians" ruled over all other Scythians of Scythia. The geographer-historian went on to say that Royal Scythians themselves ruled from Crimea and just north of it, having their eastern boundary at the Don ("Tanais") river (which pours into the Sea of Azov). He said:

"North of the country of the Royal Scythians are the Melanchaeni (Black-Robes), a people of quite a different race from the Scythians. Beyond them lie marshes and a region without inhabitants, so far as our knowledge reaches. When one crosses the Tanais, one is no longer in Scythia; the first region on crossing is that of the Sauromatae..."

http://herodot.georgehinge.com/hdt4.html

Now Herodotus did not mean by that description that the Black Cloaks were the most northerly peoples of all, but that no peoples lived directly north of them. Herodotus goes on to discuss peoples that did live well north of the Black Cloaks, though to the east of them...that is, north of Azov, where the Sauromatae lived. He tells of the Sauromations (or Sarmations) living (in a tree-less land) as far as a 15-day journey to the north of Azov (see map of ancient Russia).

He tells that north still of the Sarmations lived the Boudini. Further north yet, apparently on the upper Tanais river, were the Thyssagetae and the Iyrcae, one or both of which became, more than a dozen centuries later, the Magyars migrating to, and becoming, the Hungarians. At least, an online dictionary says that the Iyrcae "were almost certainly the ancestors of the modern Magyars, also called Jugra."
(http://8.1911encyclopedia.org/I/IY/IYRCAE.htm)

Because the Magyars are classified by modern historians as "Ugrics," the Iyrcae can be viewed as Ugric ancestors. But because the Hungarian language is surprisingly similar to Siberian, one is apt to connect the Iyrcae to the Tocharians moving east to China/Mongolia, and with this Britannica agrees:

"It is possible that [the Tocharians] were a part of that folk migration from the west which, according to archaeological evidence, appears to have invaded northeast China some time before the middle of the 1st millennium BC. In their migration they had long contact with non-Indo-European speakers, especially the Finno-Ugric and Altaic."

(see "Tocharian Language").

"Ugric" is known to have been synonymous with "Ogur," the latter often said to be the root word of "Hungary." I feel that both "Ugri(c)" and "Ogur" are themselves rooted in "Gogar," known to have been the name for the Gogi of Caucasia. As you can see, "Gogar" looks like "Jugra," but as the Jugra were also called Magyars, one may conjecture that the latter term is to be understood as "Magog(ar)." Wikipedia shares the following quote that traces these to the Magi wizards: "Hungarian tradition also traces pre-European Magyar (Hungarian) ancestry back to the Magi."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medes

Herodotus claimed that, to the east of the Iyrcae, lived a branch of the Royal Scythians, and to the further east yet, on the foothills of the Ural mountains, there were the Scythian-like Argippeans, who were, both men and women, bald (does this connect with modern radical Aryans shaving their heads?). To the extreme east, crunched up against the mountains, I presume, lived the Issedonians. But Herodotus couldn't tell who lived in, or east of, the mountains. The Argippeans claimed that, in the mountains, there lived men with the feet of goats, while the Issedonians told that, east of the mountains, there lived one-eyed men and gold-guarding griffins...creatures with the heads and wings of eagles but with the bodies of lions.

Don't discount this as nonsense. It would appear that the peoples who made these claims, the Argippeans and the Issedonians, were not a little soft of mind, but rather secret-society peoples from Greece, for such creatures as they described belonged to Greek-mythology and therein depicted certain peoples considered sacred. It was the creatures called "Satyrs" which were portrayed with human torsos, pointed ears, and the legs of goats. These were of the Hermes/Pan bloodline. It should also be said that Herodotus was himself a secret-society member, and knew exactly who these "creatures" depicted.

The griffins were portrayed with special ferocity, wherefore the likely purpose of the Argippeans and Issedonians for telling these stories was to keep away intruders from their gold, for many intruders there were who would come to seek that gold. This speaks of the dragon bloodline, Satyrs and all, who invented metal smelting. They would continue east to Mongolia, where they would depict themselves with the red Chinese dragon, and then further east yet to Mexico where they would depict themselves with eagles wings and panther bodies just like the Mushussu dragon of Sumeria.

Britannica tells that Tocharians were associated with the Arsi, that term derived from the Sanskrit "Arya," meaning "Aryan." A "y" can convert to a "g" and/or a soft "c" so that: Arya > Argi > Arsi, explaining the hard "g" of "Argippean" inter-changing with a soft "c" so that Britannica can connect the Arsiype (meaning "Arsi-country") to the Argippeans. If the Argi(ppeans) were thus Tocharians, it would seem that the Greek city of Argos was named after Togarmites, who can be viewed as Gomerians insomuch as Togarmah was a son of Gomer.

The Argippeans were the Arsiype and therefore Aryans proper. And the Iyrcae, having a root that looks like "Argi," would likewise appear as Aryans (otherwise known as "Indo-Europeans"). In other words, the non-Indo-European Ugrics were at one time Indo-European, and it needs only to be discovered how they became non-Indo-European speakers. The finger points to the Orientals.

That the Boudini went west to name Buda in proto-Hungary seems reasonable. Buda was founded by the Halstatt Celts, otherwise known as the Illyrians, under the name "Ak Ink," which by chance may link back to Enki, the god of Eridu and father of the Great-Mother cult. The origin of the Boudini, as with the Hungarians, was in Media: "The fifth group [of Medes] were the "Budii" found also amongst the Black Sea Scythians as Budi-ni..." (http://users.cwnet.com/millenia/medescyth.html)

According to some, these are not to be confused with the Buzi Medes.

The one-eyed peoples of Russia were said, by the Issedonians, to live north of the Issedonians, and to have women equal to their men. Thus, the one-eyed peoples, called "Arimaspi" by Herodotus, were probably the Amazons whom were at war with the Griffins (Greek "Gryphons"). Of all the peoples that Herodotus mentioned, the most northerly were the Arimaspi. This squares with Ezekiel if my hypothesis is correct wherein the Cyclopes ("Kuklopes") are a depiction of the Gogi.

The Arimaspians were related to the Boudini if indeed one-eyed Odin is rooted in "Boudini." Herodotus said that "ari" means "one" while "maspi" means "eye." But I noted that Herodotus, in another work (Vol 1, Part 2), mentioned a Maspian tribe of Media, so that Arimaspa might be viewed better as the Maspi of Aria.

You will note that, just like the gold-hoarding Griphons, the first beast of Daniel 7 is a lion having the head and wings of an eagle. That beast is revealed by the Daniel-2 text to be the Babylonian head of gold. I would suggest that the Gryphons depicted the dragon, actually, for any four-legged beast having wings would qualify as such.

It is said that the American Indians came from the Siberia-to-Alaska passage, and the Chinese Tocharians certainly qualify. Behold this clay sculpture of an Aztec Eagle Warrior, having the wings of an eagle, just like the Gryphons!

Consider the Aztecs, as rich in gold as the Gryphons. Their land was called "Mexica," evoking the Meshech, while "Texas" evokes "Tochar." In fact, Mexico city was founded by the Meshica tribe of Aztecs. I wouldn't have stumbled on these similarities had I not gotten wind of similarities between some Trojan-Egyptian words and the Quechua language of the Incas, noting also that "Quec" evokes "Gog" while "Inca" reflects "Enki." The Indians of Peru were called "Moshe" and "Moshica," also evoking the Meshech. The Gogi are clearly the link between Egyptian and American pyramids.

The Aztecs, known alternatively as "Tenochca," lived at Texcoco, terms in which we see additional "Gog" possibilities. Consider also a Britannica article wherein we find that the proto-Aztecs came as a "group of Chichimecs." Britannica says that "Aztec" is derived from "Azlan," meaning "white land." Might that be better conveyed as "land of the whites"? And of course the Aztecs worshiped a blonde-feathered serpent...which the Mormons very moronically identify with Jesus Christ.

One who seeks the identity of Ezekiel's Gog is prone to investigate the Hyperboreans in that the term means "far-northerners." Herodotus placed the Hyperboreans east of the Adriatic sea, and told a story in which they were related very closely to the island of Apollo, Delos. If you remember from a previous chapter, there was a certain metal-inventor among the Daktyloi Trojans named "Delas," who, although he himself must have been an eponym for Delos, was given an alternative name, "Scythes." Thus, the third son of Hercules, the youngest, who was named "Scythes," must have represented the Hyperboreans. Or, put it this way, that "Hyperborean" was codeword to disguise the fact that they were Ezekiel's Gog.

It's very interesting that the peoples of both Delos and the Hyperboreans were associated with Apollo -- Greek "Apollon" -- while the Bible tells that a certain "Apolluon" will in the last days be an army at Armageddon, as per the 5th Trumpet of Revelation 9. I had a problem at first when I had identified Apolluon as Scythians, because I had previously identified him as pertaining to Revelation's Kings of the East, the enemies of the anti-Christ. But now that I see the migration of certain Scythians (i.e. Tocharians included) to the far-east, suddenly the picture is becoming focused.

It's a long shot, but might the Biblical alternative of Apolluon -- "Abaddon" -- refer to the portion of Budini peoples that migrated to the Orient? The same website that above equated the Budii tribe of Medes with the Budini of Russia had this to say on the same tribe:

"Budha was of the tribe 'Budha'., which was also eastern Scythian "sakiya". The name was possibly related to BUDIN = people in turkic/mongol...The root word may be the recently discussed terms BAD/BAT = beat, break, wreck, etc in Sumerian."

The Hebrew word "abad" (Strong's #6) means "to wander away," wherefore "Abaddon" could very well mean "wanderer." Certainly the Aryans who went as far as Mongolia and Mexico qualify as wanderers. I realize that many define "Abaddon" as "destroyer," but note in Strong's dictionary that "abad" (#7), while it means "destroy," is not a Hebrew word, but a Chaldean word (probably the same as "bad/bat" above that means "to break"). The problem is, the Revelation text says specifically, "...whose name in Hebrew is Abaddon" (Revelation 9:11).

If I'm correct, Apolluon should likewise denote a wanderer, and so it is that the Greek word for "wander" is "planao" (#4105). That's not a bad match. The Greek word "apoluo" (# 630) means "to free." One website says, "The name Apollo means to dispel" (i.e. to scatter/disperse); an online dictionary says, "to drive away." However, it is a difficult matter, for "apollumi" (#622) means "to destroy." I suppose the two go together, to destroy and drive away.

I have yet to track the Gogi/Tocharians/Meshech in detail into China, but I'll bet you my best golden skull mug that the Kings of the East turn out to be one or more of these peoples, so that the Lord of Heaven uses a Gogi people to destroy the Gogi anti-Christ, who in turn destroys the European Gogi as per Revelation 17:16. Isn't that what Ezekiel says, by the way, that Gog's armies will turn on one another?

[Update July 5 2006 -- I would now suggest tracing Apollo to an historical peoples that were also called something like "Abaddon" by Hebrews. I've encountered an "Avviy" (Biblical word) peoples who lived at Avith in Edom. Ptolemy further enlightens us by pointing out an "Avidia" city/region in Bactriana (east of Iran). Upon learning these things I developed the theory that Abaddon refers to the Avviy/Avvites. In coming chapters I trace these peoples to the Aryan Scythians of Afghanistan, and it may not be a difficult matter to trace them to Apollo since Apollo was the wolf-line peoples, as were the Avvites, while I have tentatively traced the Avvites to the Dahae (meaning "dog"), namers of Daghestan. The Biblical term for the Dahae is "Dehava" (Ezra 4:9).]

[Update September 2006 -- Evidence that the mythical wolf peoples stem from homogenous terms such as "Togarmah/Tigris/Dagon" is in the following quote on the flag of Gagauzia: "There also exists a wolf's-head banner, reflecting the [Gaugazian] region's Turkish ancestry."
http://members.optusnet.com.au/~dploy/stateless/gagauz.html

Other websites also root Gagauzia in Turks, and since the background of the wolf flag is azure blue, while "kok" means "blue," it would seem that the Gagauzi peoples were from Kok/Gok-Turks (I root the azure color in the lapis-azuli gems mined in Aryan Afghanistan, where Khyrgyz live to this day) The Gagauz lived in Thrace and may therefore have been the Lydian Gogi, as reflected by Gugu/Gyges king of Lydia, prior to becoming the Kok-Turks. Indeed, "The word Gagauz is in origin Gokoguz. The Turks of Turkey are descendants of a Turkic tribe called Oguz. The Gokoguz are another tribe of Turkic stock. The word "gok" means sky (i.e., sky blue, as used by the Crimean Tatars and Uygurs)" (brackets not mine).
http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/md-gagau.html

That statement suggests that Tators, in the far north and east of Russia to this day (i.e. exactly where the Tocharians lived), were a Gogi branch. A fundamental Togarmah-Gog alliance therefore existed, yet Ezekiel 38 distinguishes between the two. The following quote supports my theory that "Dacia" is also rooted in dog," and may therefore depict Togarmites:

"Near thebison's head [of the Moldova Arms] are situated, not a rose and a crescent. Why such strange design? Because, as I know, this is an astral symbol of the sun and the moon taken from Dacian coins (Daci were ancestors of the Moldovans and Romanians in ancient times). Also, the octagonal star above the bison's head is the Dacian symbol of wisdom. The three parts of the eagle's tail represent three part of the Republic of Moldova: Gagauzia (or Gagauz Eri as it calls itself) in the south..."

http://www.crwflags.com/fotw/flags/md.html#his

Two points: 1) Dacians were Getae Thracians, wherefore all their relatives -- Guti/Goths/Jutes/Edones/Germanics -- might be considered Togarmite-branch Gomerians/Cimmerians. 2) Moldova's bull symbol must ultimately connect to the Gorgon Taurus symbol, especially in the Taurus region of Cimmerian Azov. A Wikipedia article has a map showing Turkic-people distrubution across Russia, which we may assume includes Ezekiel's Togarmah (that allies itself with Gog's Israeli invasion); the article has this to say: "At present, there are six independent Turkic countries: Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan" ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkic_peoples ) End Updates]