MAGOG Sept. Ma-yEtry), the second son of Japheth (Gen. x. 2; I Chron. i. 5), from whom the name was extended to the people descended from him. In the list Magog stands between Gomer and Madai, the Cimmerians or Cimbri [GomER], and the Medes [MA0A1] ; and we are thereby directed to look for the people thus desig nated towards the quarter in which these peoples had their sites. Now, to the north of them were the nations bearing the general name of Scythians, and with them Magog has been from an early period identified (comp. Joseph. Anti7. i. 6. 1; Hieron. in Ezek. xxxviii. 2; Assemani, Biblioth. Orient. iii. 2, pp. 16, 17, 2o). Jewish tradition, as preserved by Josephus and Jerome, extended the name to all the nomad tribes beyond the Caucasus and the Pains Mmotis, and from the Caspian Sea to India, thus including the Tartar and Mongolian tribes, as well as those more pro perly belonging to the Scythians. In the same general and vague way the name is used by the Syrian and Arabic geographers, as cited by Asse mani (/. c.) ; D'Herbelot (Bibl. Orient., s. v. yagi ouge); Hasse (Entdeckungen im felde der attest. Era'. mid Menschengesch. pt. i. p. 18 ; Rosen Bibl. Geogr., i. 123). Michaelis (Stipp/. ad Lexx. Hebb., 1471); Rosenmiiller (Scholia, in Gen. x. 2); and Gesenius (Thes., s.v.), adopt the view that the Scythians generally are intended. Bochart (Phaleg, iii. 19) suggests that the name Gag ap pears in PoryapnH, the name of a district near to that through which the Araxes flows (Strabo, p. 528) ; and this falls in with the supposition that the Magogites were Scythians, for the traditions of the latter represent their nation as coming originally from the vicinity of the Araxes (Diod. Sic., Since Bochart's time the general consent of scholars has been in favour of regarding the eastern Scythi ans as the Magog of Genesis ; but Kiepert 'asso ciates the name with .11!acija, or Maka, and applies it to Scythian nomad tribes which forced themselves in between the Arian or Arianized Medes, Kurds, and Armenians' (Keil and Delitzsch, Bibl. Com ment. on the O. T. [Clark], i. p. 163) ; while Bun sen places Magog in Armenia ; though in the map accompanying his Bibelwerk it is placed to the north of the Euxine. Knobel alSo places Magog here, and connects the Scythian tribes thus named with those which spread into Europe, and were allied to the Sarmatians, who gave their name ulti mately to the whole north-east of Europe, and are the ancestors of the Slavic nations now existing. He also finds in the word nan, which he translates great mountain, an allusion to the Caucasus ; but this translation rests on a very dubious etymology.
Later Jewish tradition also identifies Magog with the Sarmatian tribes (Fiirst, Net.-Chald. WB., s.v.) The name Magog does not again occur in Scrip ture till it appears in Ezek, xxxviii. 2, ff., where the prophet is commanded to set his face against Gog of the land of Magog [or against Gog, the land of Magog], prince of Rosh [or chief prince of] Me shech and Tubal.' Scholars are divided as to whether Cit4i, rash, in this passage, is to be taken as a common noun in the sense of head or chief; or as the proper name of a people. The Targ., Aq., Syr., and Vulg., adopt the former, and are followed by Ewald (in loc.) and Hengstenberg (on Rev. xx. 8) ; the LXX., Sym., Theodot., take the latter, followed by the majority of modern scholars. As concerns our present purpose, it is of little moment which of these be preferred ; but the latter seems on the whole to have most in its favour. There is also a difference of opinion as to whether Gog is to be viewed as the name of the king of the land of Magog, or as a name bestowed by the prophet on the land of the Magogites ; the construction favours the latter view (see Havernick, in loc.), but as it is hardly possible on this view to discover to what N'T.n refers, the former is generally adopted. On either supposition, Gog is to be regarded as a word formed by the prophet from Magog, possibly, as Ewald suggests (In Apocal., p. 304), because the later Hebrews took the in .111D as the mem locale, and, understanding by the word the place of Gag, thought of Gog as the chief or ruler of the place. The specification of the sub-tribes Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal, is in harmony with the opinion that Magog is the Caucasian and European Scy thians ; for, as is generally conceded, Rosh is the branch of the Scythians known to the Arabs under the name R4s (Fraehn, Tin Foszlan's Be richt liter die Russel: d. dlterer zeit, p. 28, ff.), and to the Greeks as of `Pies, and described by Tzetzes as 7evos /Ka/mop who were also called TaOpoi, from whom the modern Russ have taken their name (Von Hammer, Origines Busses; Gesen., Thee., s. v.); and Meshech and Tubal are the Mos chi and Tibereni who occupied territories near the Caucasus in the neighbourhood of the Araxes. That the description by Ezekiel is to be taken symbolically and not literally, has been clearly shown by Havernick (Comment., p. 596, ff.) and Fairbaim (Exposition, p. 375, ff.) ; but the descrip tions and allusions of the prophet all go to identify the nations included under the command of Gog with the Scythians.