Online Bible 1995 March/ROM-1025.iso/olb/gill/6_100.lzh/6_197.TXT

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return from the Babylonish captivity, and before the
coming of Christ, take Gog to be a common name of
the kings of the lesser Asia and Syria, or the Seleucida?,
who distressed the Jews in the times of the Maccabees;
the chief of whom was Antiochus Epiphanes, who is
supposed, to be more especia|ly designed, and was a
type of antichrist; and they are the more strengthened
in this opinion, because they lind, in Pliny °, that the
city of tiierapolis in Syria was called by the Syrians
Magog; and they fancy the name of Gog is the same
with Gyges a king of Lydia, whose country was called
from him Gygea, or Gog's land, who was grandfather
to Croesus; and which country came into the hands of
Cyrus, and from the Persians into the hands of the
Greeks, and so.to the Seleucidae; for which reason
they tnay bear this name in this !}ropbecy; but it is
certain that the prophecy refers to what should be in
latter years, and in the latter days, ver. 8, 16. phrases
which respect the times of the Messiah, the Gospel
dispensation, and oftentimes the latter part of that;
and even those times when the Jews shall return
to their own laud, and continue in it for ever, as
the preceding prophecy, with which this is connected,
shews; and so the Jews always understand it of an
e.nemy of theirs yet to come. Cocceius is of opi-
men, that the Romish antichrist is meant; and
that Gog signifying the covering or roof of a house,
fitly points him out; who puts .hitn.self between God
and man, as the roof is between heaven and earth;
and who keeps out the light of divine things, the heat
of love, and rain of spiritual blessings, from the church;
and compares with this the veil over all nations, Isa.
xxv. 7. and the covering cherub, Ezek. xxviii. 14, l6.
hut I rather think the Turk is here meant, the eastern
antichrist, in whose possession the land of Judea now
is; and which, when recovered by the Jews, will greatly
exasperate him, and he will gather all his forces toge-
ther to regain it, but in vain. The learned Vitringa{p},
though he is of opinion that this prophecy, according
to its first and proper sense, respects the kings of Syria,
the persecutors of the church, that should bring large
and we!l-disciplined armies into the land of the people
of God, gathered out of the northern nations, and
Scythians, and would be defeated in the land of Canaan;
yet mystically intends the Turks, the Scythian nation
and northern people, who, by a like attempt, will in-
fest the church of the people of God, and invade their
country; and this he makes no doubt of is the proper
aspect- of Gog and Magog: and Samuel Danderstat, a
Lutheran divine, has wrote a dissertation, De Anti-
christo Oriental|, concerning the eastern antichrist,
which he explains of Gog and Magog: and Michael
Buckenroder, another Lutheran, has written upon the
irruption to be made by Gog and Magog into the
mountains of Israel {q}. Osiander thus explains the se-
veral names mentioned; by Cog I think the Turk is
meant, by Magog the Tartar|an, by Meshec the Mus-
covites, and by Tubal the Wallschinas; and Starckius
on the place observes, that if this prophecy is y. et
to be fu!filled, we shatl easily find our Gog, and point
out his metropolis Constantinople; so that I am not
singular in my opinion. Gog signifies high{r} and emi-
nent, one in a very exalted station: it cotnes from the
same root, and has the same signification, as Agag, to
whose height and exaltation there is an allusion in
Numb. xxiv. 7. where the Samaritan and Septuagint
versions read Gog: it is the same with ***, Jagog,
by which name the Arabians called the Scythians that
lived far east, particularly those that we, e situated to.
the north of China beyond Imaus, as Golius{s} observes;
and Josephus{t} says that the posterity of Magog are
called Scythians, and these inhabited Tartary; and
there, aS PaulUs Venetus{u} affirms, are the countries
of Gog and Magog, which they call Gug and Mungug
now; from hence came the Turks, even from Tar-
tary, which is called by the eastern writers Turches-
tan, whence they had their name; and so may with
great propriety be called by the name of Gog; their
emperor also being a high and mighty one, whose em-
pire must be destroyed; and which is.signified by the
passing away of the second woe, and the drying up of
the river Euphrates, Rev. xi. 14. and xvi. 1 2. upon which
passages this and the following chapter may be thought
a good commentary: and so the Jews{w} make Gog to
be the general of the Ishmaelites or Turks, as Ar-
millus of the Christians, and who shall, reign in the
kingdom of Magog or Scythia. Gog is the name
man, 1 Chron. v. 4. as it is here, and not of a country.
The country of Gog is called, .as-follows, the land of
Magog, of which Gog is king, as Jarchi and Kimchi
interpret it: it may be supplied in connexion with the
former clause, set thy face against Gog, in the land. of
Magog ; or, against Gog, against the land el Magog',
so Kimchi. The countries of Jagog and Magog, ac-
cording to the Arabic geographer{x}, are surrounded
by Mount Caucasus, which Bochart {y} conjectures has
its name from thence; it being in the Semi-Chatdee
language, the language of the Colchi and Armenians,
^Noxgwg\^, Gog-hasan, or Gog's fortress. This. land of
Magog is the same with Cathaia or Scythia+ that part
of Tartary from whence the Turks came; and whiclt
perhaps may come into their hands again before this
prophecy-is fulfilled; and even now the Turk calls
himself king of Tartary; and the iMagog of, Pli-nV in
Syria, the same with Xleppo, is in his-dominic;ns;
which Maimonides {z} also takes notice of as in Syria,
though he seems to distinguish it from Haleb or Alep-
po; however, according to him, they' were near to one
another; though some {a} think the place in Pliny is cor-
rupted, and that it ought to be read Mabog, as it is,
by Maimonides, Mugbah. Gog is further described
as the chief prince of Meshec and Tubai : some render
it, prince of Rosh, Meshec, and Tubal ; taking Rosh,

{o} Nat. Hist. I. 5. c. 23.
{p} Comment. in Jesaiam, vol. 1. p. 954.
{q} Vid. Calmet. Bibliotheca Sacra, art. 67. p. 442.
{r} Hiller. Ononmastic. Sacr. p. 67, 406, 477.
{s} Lexic. Arabic in Rad. *** col. 26.
{t} Antiqu. 1. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.
{u} Apud Schindler. Lex. Polyglott. col. 288. And Harris's Voyages
and Travels, vol. 1. p. 604.
{w} Vid. Huls. Theolog. Jud. par. 2. p. 511.
{x} Geograph. Arab. par. 9. clim. 5. lin. 22,23.
{y} Phaleg. I. 3. c. 13. col. 187.
{z} Hilchot Teramot, c. 1. sect. 9.
{a} See Hyde Not, in Peritsol Itinera Mundi, p. 42.