Ezekiel 38:1-3 – “And the word of the Lord came unto me, saying, [2] Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, [3] And say, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal:”

In Prophecy Update Number 27 we established, from the Scriptures and the Assyrian stone monuments, that the descendants of Meshech and Tubal, at the time Ezekiel wrote his prophecies, were primarily located in what we know as Syria and Lebanon.  We also established that the prophecy is again a person, Gog (Antichrist), and against a land, the land of Magog.  I am convinced that the Antichrist will attack Israel from Syria.  Now, what about the “land of Magog?”  Where were the Magogites located at the time of Ezekiel’s writings?  Flavius Josephus, the noted Jewish historian makes the following statements concerning the Magogites in Antiquities of the Jews, Chapter VI, under the title,  HOW EVERY NATION WAS DENOMINATED FROM THEIR FIRST INHABITANTS:  “Japhet, the son of Noah, had seven sons.”  “They called the nations by their own names.”  “Magog founded those that from him were called Magogites, but who by the Greeks were called Scythians.”  The Greek writers of the Classic Age said the Scythians occupied the area which today we identify as stretching from Moldova eastward across the Ukraine, southern Russia, and into Kazakhstan, then southward into Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan – Roughly the area north of the Black Sea, between the Black and Caspian Seas, and the area northwest, north, and northeast of the Caspian Sea.  I do not believe the nations in this area will join in the initial attack against Israel, but I am certain they will come down for the final battle of Gog’s war, which is the Battle of Armageddon. The Battle of Armageddon, found in Revelation 16:16, is the final battle in Gog’s war, which began 3 and ½ years earlier.   

Verse 3 fails to include the “land of Magog,” and is a message directly pointed, and personally addressed, against the Antichrist Gog, who once again is identified as the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal.  Popular writers in the last century brought a teaching into play that is simply not true.  They said the word “chief” was “rosh” in the Hebrew language, which is true.  But they said it meant “Russian,” which is not true.  The Russian and Hebrew language have never overlapped in history to support such a claim.  He is not a Russian prince.  He is the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, most likely having a Syrian father.  The word “rosh,” in the KJV, is translated as “chief” 90 times, as “head” 349 times, as “top” 75 times, as “beginning” 14 times, as “company” 12 times, as “captain” 10 times, as “sum” 9 times, as “first” 6 times, as “principle” 5 times, as “chief man” 4 times, and as “ruler” on two occasions.  At no time, in all of history, could it legitimately be identified as someone who is a Russian.

I am convinced this chief prince of Meshech and Tubal will come from either northwestern Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, or southern Turkey, but I will be very much surprised if his father is not a Syrian.  He will be the leader of a multilateral Arab force that will carry out a surprise attack against Israel from the north.  I believe this is spoken of in Revelation 17:12,13 – “And the ten horns which thou sawest are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. [13] These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength unto the beast.”