Yekhezq’el (Ezekiel) 38:1-8

AND the Word of YAHUAH came unto me, saying, 2 son of Adam, set your face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshek and Tubal, and prophesy against him, 3 And say, Thus says ADONAI YAHUAH; Behold, I am against you, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshek and Tubal: 4 And I will turn you back, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you forth, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords: 5 Persia, Kush, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: 6 Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with you. 7 Be prepared, and prepare for yourself, you, and all your company that are assembled unto you, and be you a guard unto them.

As we have mentioned before, Gog here means in the tedushah understanding of the word, he who is coming and going.  Or, more literally, the camel (ג gimmel) coming to the nail (ו vav), and going from the nail, in both directions.  If we construe the nail (ו vav) as the faith centered on HAMASHIACH, whose death and resurrection is defined by the nail, then Gog means he has come to the truth faith, and then fallen away from it, whether from east to west, or from west to east.  But, let’s consider where else in scripture the name can be found.

This study is about to get a little interesting however.  Let’s go back and consider the opening passages in Dvrei Hayamiym Rishon 5:

Dvrei Hayamiym Rishon (1 Chronicles) 5:1-4

NOW the sons of Re’uven the firstborn of Yisra’el, (for he was the firstborn; but, forasmuch as he defiled his father's bed, his birthright was given unto the sons of Yoceph the son of Yisra’el: and the genealogy is not to be reckoned after the birthright. 2 For Yahudah prevailed above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler; but the birthright was Yoceph’s:) 3 The sons, I say, of Re’uven the firstborn of Yisra’el were, Chanoch, and Pallu, Chetsron, and Karmiy. 4 The sons of Yo’el; Shema`yahu his son, Gog his son, Shim`iy his son, 5 Micah his son, Reaia his son, Baal his son, 6 Beerah his son, whom Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria carried away captive: he was prince of the Reubenites. 7 And his brethren by their families, when the genealogy of their generations was reckoned, were the chief, Jeiel, and Zechariah, 8 And Bela the son of Azaz, the son of Shema, the son of Joel, who dwelt in Aroer, even unto Nebo and Baalmeon:

So, we can see in this passage that at one point Gog, the son of Shema’yahu (Shema), the son of Yo’el, was prince of the Re’uveniym (Reubenites). The carrying away into captivity of those tribes to the east of the Yarden occurred in approximately 740 B.C., and it was the common practice of Tilgathpilneser to deport people groups from one part of the Assyrian Empire to the other. So you have Yo’el and his sons living in the land of the Re’uveniym, south of the Eastern land of Menashsheh, and living as far south as Mount Nebo, which is due east of Yerushalayim.  So the birthright name of Gog appears and arises among the Re’uvenites who have been evacuated to the east of Assyria.  Now compare what is found in the Septuagint:

Amoc 7:1 (Septuagint)

So YAHUAH ELOHIYM pointed out to me, and lo! An eastern swarm of locusts was coming and behold, a palmer worm, one Gog, was their king.

The English word palmer worm (or palmerworm), according to Easton's Bible Dictionary,

may denote either a caterpillar (as rendered by the LXX.), which wanders like a palmer or pilgrim, or which travels like pilgrims in bands (Joel 1:4; 2:25), the wingless locusts, or the migratory locust in its larva state.

The Hebrew word for palmerworm once again evokes a bit of interest.  The word is גָּזָם gazam (Strong's 1501), but which possibly could be pronounced gaziym, should the dots appear beneath the tzadi, meaning, those from Gaza.  Gog then, could be one who came to the one true faith, who then went away from the faith, and hails in origin from Gaza.

Therefore, this prophecy of Yekhezq’el predicts that a Gazan, possibly from the house of Re’uven, will come to be the chief prince of house of Magog in the land of Magog – Magog being a tribe of Yapheth, i.e., a Greek tribe in central Asia.

Yekhezq’el (Ezekiel) 38:8-9

After many days you shall be visited: in the latter years you shall come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Yisra’el, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them. 9 You shall ascend and come like a storm, you shall be like a cloud to cover the land, you, and all your bands, and many people with you.

And so the prophecy goes concerning the war of Gog (gogue) and Magog (mah-gogue).