GOG and MAGOG. — Symbol of the enemies of Israel (Ez. 38–39) and of the Church (Apec. 20:7–10). In cuneiform texts, G., the name of a deity (gaga, gugu: Enūma elī, III, etc.), becomes the name of a region (mura ga-ga-ia: J. A. Knudtzon, Die El-Amarna-Tafeln, I, Leipzig 1907, lines 37–39) and then of a person (gūgu: cylinder B. IV, 2 of Ashurbanipal, etc.). In I Par. 5:4 G. is a descendant of Reuben;
whereas M. in Gen. 10:2 is a northern population, among the descendants of Japheth. The pairing of G. and M. is proper to Ezekiel: M. is the kingdom of the symbolic G., who personifies the various leaders who, in the distant future (38:8, 16; cf. 39:11), will move against the theocracy reborn after the Exile, in a supreme attempt at annihilation (a prophecy fulfilled with Antiochus IV Epiphanes and his successors).
Therefore, every attempt to identify him with one or another king of the past (Gyges [Assyrian gugi]: Frd. Delitzach, E. Meyer; or Gagi, chief of the Scythians: Josephus, St. Jerome, the ancients, F. Lenormant, etc.) proves arbitrary and erroneous. It is only possible that the impression left by the Scythian invasion (632–632 B.C.), which touched Palestine (Herodotus, I, 104 ff.), influenced Ezekiel’s conception in certain details (38:9, 15; 39:3). St. John chose the two names G. and M. from Ezekiel, but without any connection with history or geography; he made them the emblem of all the bestial forces perpetually struggling against the kingdom of God in its earthly phase.