by
Damien F. Mackey
Ezekiel
38:1-2
Now the word of the Lord came to me, saying, ‘Son
of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the prince of Rosh,
Meshech, and Tubal, and prophesy against him …’.
Ezekiel 39:1
And you, son of man,
prophesy against Gog, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against you, O
Gog, the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal …”.’
Revelation
20:8
And shall go out to deceive the nations
which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them
together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea.
Introduction
Certain books deemed apocryphal, that do not constitute part of the Jewish or Protestant
canon, but which figure in the Catholic bibles, I have found to be absolutely
essential for completing key identifications.
For example:
Without the Book of Tobit, one
might not be able to come to realise that, contrary to the textbooks,
Sennacherib succeeded his father, Shalmaneser [V] (Tobit 1:15): “But when Shalmaneser died, and
his son Sennacherib reigned in his place ...”.
Hence
my:
Again, without the Book of Tobit,
I may never have been able properly to identify (at least as I see it) the
prophet Job:
And, without the Book of Judith,
I may never have discovered what actually happened to the 185,000-strong army
of Sennacherib:
Now it seems to me that I and II Maccabees might
enable for the interpretation of that enigmatic prophecy by Ezekiel concerning
Gog and Magog, which is later taken up by St. John in the Book of Revelation.
Part Two:
“Holofernes” and Nicanor
Because of
certain similarities between the Maccabean accounts of Nicanor against the
Jews, and the arrogant “Holofernes” who sought to take Jerusalem, some
commentators presume that the Book of Judith was written during - and mirrored
- the C2nd BC era of the Maccabees.
Judith Parallels in Maccabean
Defeat of Treacherous Nicanor
The author(s) of the Nicanor narratives in I and
II Maccabees may well have had in mind the stirring ancient saga of the heroine
Judith’s defeat of “Holofernes”.
This last was, according to my reconstructions,
e.g.:
A Revised History
of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah
and its Background
the catalyst for the rout and defeat of
Sennacherib’s 185,000-strong Assyrian army. And Judas Maccabeus will duly
allude to this epic Jewish victory in his prayer for victory against the
blasphemous Nicanor:
I Maccabees 7:40-42: “Then Judas prayed and said, ‘When the messengers from the king
spoke blasphemy, your angel went out and struck down one hundred and
eighty-five thousand of the Assyrians. So also crush this army before us today;
let the rest learn that Nicanor has spoken wickedly against the sanctuary, and
judge him according to this wickedness’.”
Cf. Judith’s prayer (Judith 9:7-14):
‘Here are the Assyrians, a vast force, priding themselves on horse and
chariot, boasting of the power of their infantry, trusting in shield and spear,
bow and sling. They do not know that you are the Lord who crushes
wars; Lord
is your name. Shatter their strength in your might, and crush their force in
your wrath.
For they have resolved to profane your sanctuary, to defile the tent where your
glorious name resides, and to break off the horns of your altar with the sword.
See their pride, and send forth your fury upon their heads. Give me, a widow, a
strong hand to execute my plan. By the deceit of my lips, strike down slave together
with ruler, and ruler together with attendant. Crush their arrogance by the
hand of a female.
Your strength is not in
numbers, nor does your might depend upon the powerful. You are God of the
lowly, helper of those of little account, supporter of the weak, protector of
those in despair, savior of those without hope.
Please, please, God of my father, God of the heritage of Israel, Master
of heaven and earth, Creator of the waters, King of all you have created, hear
my prayer! Let my deceitful words wound and bruise
those who have planned dire things against your covenant, your holy temple,
Mount Zion, and the house your children possess. Make every nation and
every tribe know clearly that you are God, the God of all power and might, and
that there is no other who shields the people of Israel but you alone’.
II Maccabees 15:22-24: “[Judas’s] prayer was worded thus: ‘You, Master, sent your angel in the
days of Hezekiah king of Judaea, and he destroyed no less than one hundred and
eighty-five thousand of Sennacherib’s army; now, once again,
Sovereign of heaven, send a good angel before us to spread terror and dismay. May these men be struck down by the might of your arm, since they
have come with blasphemy on their lips to attack your holy people’. And on
these words he finished”.
Because of the undoubted similarities between
the Judith drama and Maccabees here, some
commentators conclude that the Book of Judith must be a late product
reflecting Maccabean times. For example (http://mb-soft.com/believe/txs/judith.htm):
Both the apocalyptic element in the book and certain
details of the narrative suggest that it dates from the period of the
Maccabees. Nebuchadnezzar, for example, is said to have wanted “to destroy all
local gods so that the nations should worship Nebuchadnezzar alone and people
of every language and nationality should hail him as a god” (3:8). Yet it was
the Seleucids, not the Assyrians or Babylonians, whose kings first insisted on
divine honors. In that case, “Nebuchadnezzar” might represent Antiochus IV,
while “Holofernes” may stand for his general Nicanor, “Assyrians” for the
Seleucid Syrians, and “Nineveh” for Antiochus's capital Antioch. This
interpretation is supported by the existence of a Hebrew Midrash that tells the
story of Judith in an abbreviated form, explicitly assigning it to the period
of Seleucid oppression.
[End of quote]
The fact is that Judith of Bethulia and Judas
Maccabeus belonged to two entirely different eras separated the one form the
other by at least half a millennium. Judith belongs to the neo-Assyrian era of
Sennacherib (c. 700 BC). Hence, “Assyrians” in the Book of Judith means
Assyrians, not “Seleucid Syrians”, and “Nineveh” means Nineveh, and not
“Antioch”!
But there are, nevertheless, definite parallels
between the two eras, just as someone arriving on earth in a thousand years’
time might discern parallels between the First and Second World Wars. May even
end up concluding that this must have been just the one World War.
Judith’s era is somewhat like, but different
from, the era of Judas Maccabeus.
The Book of Judith, probably written by the high
priest, Joakim (4:6), could not have been influenced by I and II Maccabees.
Instead, it could only have been the other way around.
Comparing the two enthralling sagas, we find for
example:
Just as the Assyrian king will send his competent second-in command
(Judith 2:4), so will King Demetrius send Nicanor “ranking as Illustrious” (I
Maccabees 7:1, 26).
Like “Holofernes” (6:2-6), Nicanor is arrogant and mocking (as according
to Judas’s testimony above).
The Jews, the priests, in Jerusalem, in fear for their Temple, turn to
God and ask for vengeance upon the Assyrians (4:9-12), as do those whom Nicanor
had mocked and threatened (I Maccabees 7:36-37).
In both sagas, the small Jewish forces will be confronted by massive foreign
ones.
Like “Holofernes”, Nicanor falls early, thus precipitating a rout.
The Jews then swarm upon the enemy from all quarters.
The head of “Holofernes” is publicly displayed (14:1), as is that of
Nicanor (I Maccabees 7:47).
Judith and her victorious people will celebrate the victory for “three
months” (16:20), whilst the Maccabees will mark the day as an annual day of
celebration (Mordecai’s Day) (I Maccabees 7:48-49).
Peace then prevailed for a time (cf. Judith 16:25; I Maccabees 7:50).
The main point of this series, though, is to
identify “Gog and Magog”.
Part Three:
Could Haman be Gog?
At least one
able commentator, James B. Jordan, has suggested that the enigmatic Gog and
Magog might well fit the drama of the Book of Esther, with the wicked Haman,
enemy of the Jews, being Gog.
For instance:
“It
seems to me that if I were a Jew living during the intertestamental era, I
would be struck by the correspondence between Haman and Hamon-Gog, and it would
cause me to consider whether or not they are related”.
The battle of Gog
and Magog is found in Ezekiel 38-39. My purpose in this brief essay is to
propound an explanation for this passage that I have not encountered in any of
my commentaries, but that makes more sense to me than any other. I offer it
here in the hope that others can enter into conversation over the matter. Thus,
this essay is designed as a "first word" and not the "last
word" on the subject.
….
At this point,
Ezekiel describes the attack of Gog, Prince of Magog, and his confederates.
Ezekiel states that people from all the world will attack God’s people, who are
pictured dwelling at peace in the land. God’s people will completely defeat
them, however, and the spoils will be immense. The result is that all nations
will see the victory, and "the house of Israel will know that I am the
Lord their God from that day onward" (Ezk. 39:21-23). This is the same
idea as we found in Zechariah 2:9, "They you will know that the Lord of
hosts has sent Me," which I argued above most likely refers to the events
of Esther.
Chronologically
this all fits very nicely. The events of Esther took place during the reign of
Xerxes, after the initial rebuilding of the Temple under Joshua and Zerubbabel
and shortly before the restoration of the Temple by Ezra and the rebuilding of
the walls by Nehemiah.
….
Looking at a few
details, we see that the victory of the Jews over their enemies in Esther
resulted in the deaths of 75,310 people (Esth. 9:10, 15, 16). This number of
deaths is commensurate with the extent of the slaughter pictured in Ezekiel
38-39. The Jews were told that they might plunder those they slew (Esth. 8:11),
but they did not take any of the plunder for their personal use (Esth. 9:10,
15, 16), which surely implies that it was regarded as holy and was sent to
adorn the Temple. Was this the gold and silver "found in the whole
province of Babylon" that Ezra brought to Jerusalem a few years later
(Ezr. 7:16)?
Another interesting
correspondence lies in the fact that the book of Esther repeatedly calls attention
to the "127 provinces" of the Persian Empire, and in connection with
the attack on the Jews, speaks of the "provinces which were from India to
Cush" (Esth. 8:9). This goes well with the way Ezekiel 38 starts out, for
there a number of nations are mentioned from all over the world, all of which
were within the boundaries of the Persian Empire (Ezk. 38:1-6). In other words,
the explicit idea that the Jews were attacked by people from all the provinces
of Persia is in both passages.
Another possible
cue is found in the prominent use of the Hebrew word for "multitude"
in Ezekiel 39:11, 15, and 16. That word is hamon,
which is spelled in Hebrew almost exactly like the name Haman. It was Haman, of
course, who engineered the attack on the Jews in Esther. In Hebrew, both words
have the same "triliteral root" (hmn).
Only the vowels are different. (Though in hamon,
the vowel "o" is indicated by the letter vav.) According to Ezekiel
39:11 and 15, the place where the army of Gog is buried will be known as the
Valley of Hamon-Gog, and according to verse 16, the nearby city will become
known as Hamonah. It seems to me that if I were a Jew living during the
intertestamental era, I would be struck by the correspondence between Haman and
Hamon-Gog, and it would cause me to consider whether or not they are related.
Yet another
corroboration, to my mind, lies in the fact that Haman was an Amalekite. He was
an "Agagite," a descendant of the Amalekite king Agag who was
captured by Saul and hacked to pieces by Samuel (1 Sam. 15; Esth. 3:1). What
Esther records is the last great attack upon Israel by Amalek, and the final
destruction of Amalek. Now, Numbers 24:20 states that "Amalek was the
first of the nations, but his end shall be destruction." The term
"nation" is more closely associated with the Japhethites than with
the Hamites or the Shemites. We don’t know which "nation" Amalek was,
since it is not listed in Genesis 10, but it would seem to have been a
Japhethite one.
At any rate, what
is striking about Ezekiel 38 is that the nations listed as conspiring against
Israel are Japhethite and Hamite nations seldom if ever heard from outside the
primordial list of Genesis 10. Magog, Meshech, Tubal, Beth-togarmah, Tarshish,
and Gomer are all Japhethite nations from Genesis 10:2-4. Cush, Put, Sheba, and
Dedan are Hamite peoples from Genesis 10:6-7. Thus, the notion is of a
conspiracy of primordial peoples against the true remnant of the Shemites. This
certainly squares well with the fact that Haman was the preeminent representative
of Amalek, the first of the nations.
[End of quote]
As Jordan points out, there seem to be some
compelling reasons to accept that the prophet Ezekiel’s Gog (and Magog) was a
prefiguring of the Haman conspiracy in the Book of Esther. Whilst I have been
favouring the Macedonian (Seleucid) era, and the blasphemous Nicanor:
Gog and Magog. Part Two: “Holofernes” and Nicanor
the “Macedonian” element does appear also in the
LXX version of the Book of Esther: “In the LXX, Haman is called a "Macedonian"
by Xerxes (see Esther 16:10)”.
Haman is variously also called a “Bougaean” and
an “Amalekite”, the latter being the nationality for him favoured by Jordan.
Haman is also, like Gog, an inveterate enemy of
the Jews.
Moreover, as with Gog and Magog, so with Haman,
the tables are turned when the beleaguered Jews gain the upper hand and
annihilate their foes.
However, things are not always as they seem.
According to my interpretations of the Book of Esther, Haman was not an Amalekite at all. He was, shock, horror - but yet
according to a legend of the Jews - a
Jew, and known to Moredecai.
I developed this startling notion in my:
and it ultimately led me to the conclusion that
Haman was in fact the Jewish king, Jehoiachin, or “Coniah the Captive”, and
that it was from the Greek word for “captive” that Haman had mistakenly been
confused as an Amalekite: “Now, ‘Amalekite’ (Greek: Amali̱kíti̱s) could no longer be regarded as Haman’s nationality, but
as a misinterpretation of the epithet by which he, as king Jehoiachin, was best
known: “the Captive” (Greek: aichmálo̱tos), of very
similar phonetics”.
This identification of Haman with the well-known (and
ill-fated) biblical king Jehoiachin thus enabled for any guess work to be taken
out of the historical location of the Book of Esther.
Now, Jordan himself has realised that there is a
problem with his own reconstruction. And it turns out to be a major one. Jordan
continues:
The main argument
against my hypothesis would be that Ezekiel 38-39 picture an invasion of the
land of Israel, whereas the events of Esther happened throughout the Persian
Empire. At present, this argument does not have much force with me because of
the fact that this entire section of Ezekiel is so highly symbolic in tone
anyway. Chapter 37 gives us the vision of the valley of dry bones, after all,
and chapters 40-48 are a thoroughly geometrical vision of the Restoration
Temple. Thus, I can see no difficulty in assuming that Ezekiel is picturing the
final world-wide attack of Amalek and his cohorts under the imagery of an
attack on the land, imagery derived from the book of Judges (cp. Jud. 18:7, 10,
27 with Ezk. 38:8, 11, 14).
A final
corroboration of this interpretive hypothesis comes from what we might call the
"Amalek Pattern" in the Bible. Note in Genesis 12-15 that Abram moves
into the land after escaping Pharaoh (ch. 12), settles down and experiences
peace and prosperity (ch. 13), and then faces an invasion of a worldwide
alliance of nations (ch. 14). This alliance captures Lot, but Abram rescues
him, after which a Gentile priest blesses Abram (ch. 14). Finally, after this,
God appears to Abram in a vision and makes covenant with him (ch. 15),
guaranteeing him a "house."
Now look at Moses:
After escaping Pharaoh (Ex. 1-14), the people are given food and water in the
wilderness (Ex. 16). Then Amalek attacks and kills many Lot-like stragglers
(Ex. 17; Dt. 25:17-19). Moses defeats Amalek, after which a Gentile priest
(Jethro) blesses the people, and then God appears in the Cloud and makes
covenant with them (Ex. 18-24), including the building of a "house"
(the Tabernacle).
The same themes
show up in the history of David: After escaping Pharaoh Saul (1 Sam. 18-26),
David finds a place of rest in the "wilderness" at Ziklag (ch. 27).
Then Amalek attacks and steals David’s wives (ch. 30), but David defeats them.
Following this, a Gentile priest-king (Hiram of Tyre, whose as a Gentile king
was also a priest) blesses David (2 Sam. 5:11-12), and then God appears to
David in a vision, promising him a "house" (2 Sam. 7).
In this pattern,
the attack of Gentile world powers (Gen. 14) is associated with the attack of
Amalek (Ex. 17; 1 Sam. 27). As can plainly be seen, the same pattern recurs in
the Restoration. After departing from Babylon, the people settle in the land
and experience a degree of peace. Then comes the attack of Amalek and Gog &
Magog. After this, Gentile priest-kings sponsor the return of Ezra and Nehemiah
to restore the land and the "house."
While it would be
fascinating to follow up this theme in the Gospels, Acts, and possibly
Revelation, enough has been said to indicate that it is a recurring pattern,
and one that lends some support to the hypothesis that the attack of Gog and
Magog is fulfilled in the book of Esther.
[End of quote]
As intriguing as
might seem to be “the
correspondence between Haman and Hamon-Gog”, I would suggest that it is merely
a coincidence, with no actual connection at all between the two.
Nor
do I think that Ezekiel 38-39’s “invasion of the land of Israel”, can be
reduced to Jordan’s “highly symbolic in tone”, but that it is rather what would
actually turn out to be the case.
Part Four:
The Geography (i) False Views
Ezekiel 38:1-2,
5-6
The word of the Lord came to me: “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the
chief prince of Meshek and Tubal … Persia, Cush and Put will be with them, all
with shields and helmets, also Gomer with all its
troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troops—the many
nations with you’.”
Ezekiel 39:1, 4
Son of man, prophesy against
Gog and say: ‘… On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you
and all your troops and the nations with you’.
Introduction
Biblical commentators of a conservative or
fundamentalist persuasion can be notorious for taking the geographical elements
of a biblical text and bestowing upon these an unwarranted modern
identification. I have discussed, for instance, the imposition of the modern
name, “Ararat” – {in the case of the mountain, Agri Dagh in Turkey} - upon the
original Ararat, meaning the land of Urartu:
Often the revised geographical name and location
is fabricated in order to shift a biblical prophecy from its
originally-intended environment so as to make it apply to our present times.
But it is in the case of Ezekiel’s Gog and Magog
that imaginations really begin to stir, with the Hebrew word rosh (רֹאשׁ)
in 38:2, translated above as “chief”, being taken instead for “Russia”. In that
context, “Meshech” and “Tubal” can stand for Moscow and Tobolsk/Tblisi.
Ezekiel
38:1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
: 2 Son of
man, set thy face against Gog (the head, the chief, President Putin),
the land of Magog (China
as well as the former Soviet Union/Currently Russia), the
chief prince of Meshech (Moscow) and Tubal, and prophesy against him,
(NKJV reads "Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of
Magog, the prince of Rosh, 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 (Moscow) and Tubal (Russian City of Tobolsk OR The Tobol
River in Russia OR the Georgian City of Tblisi???)
:4 And I will
turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws, and I will bring thee forth, and
all thine 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 (Iran),
Ethiopia (Cush= Ethiopia, Southern Egypt, Sudan, Yemen, Pakistan,
Afghanistan), and Libya (Phut) with them; all of them with shield
and helmet ….
[End
of quote]
Here “I Saw The Light Ministeries” might be
‘seeing’ what it wants to, rather than ‘the light’.
The Hebrew rosh
is probably not meant to be regarded as a geographical location, and so there
goes Russia; whilst “Meshech” and “Tubal” are known from the Assyrian
inscriptions: as Mushki and Tabal. In one of my efforts at folding
‘Middle’ Assyrian history with ‘Neo’ Assyrian history, Tiglath-pileser I with
Tiglath-pileser III:
Tiglath-pileser King of Assyria
when drawing possible comparisons between I and
III, I referred to both Mushki and Tabal:
Common to Tiglath-pileser I/III
were a love of building (especially in honour of Assur)
and hunting, and many conquests,
for example: the Aramaeans, with frequent raids across the Euphrates; the
Hittites (with the possibility of a common foe, Ini-Tešub); Palestine;
to the Mediterranean; the central Zagros tribes; Lake Van, Nairi and Armenia
(Urartu); the conquest of
Babylon. Just to name a few of the many similarities. I think that historians
really repeat themselves when discussing these presumably ‘two’ Assyrian ‘kings’.
Consider this amazing case of repetition, as I see it, from Lloyd: ….
The earliest Assyrian references
to the Mushki … suggest that their eastward thrust into the Taurus and towards
the Euphrates had already become a menace. In about 1100 BC Tiglath-Pileser I
defeats a coalition of ‘five Mushkian kings’ and brings back six thousand
prisoners. In the ninth century the Mushki are again [sic] defeated by
Ashurnasirpal II, while Shalmaneser III finds himself in conflict with Tabal ….
But when, in the following century, Tiglath-pileser III once more records a
confrontation with ‘five Tabalian kings’, the spelling of their names reveals
the fact that these are no sort of Phrygians … but a semiindigenous Luwian-speaking
people, who must have survived the fall of the Hittite Empire.
I think that we should now be on
safe grounds in presuming that the ‘five Mushkian kings’ and the ‘five Tabalian
kings’ referred to above by Lloyd as having been defeated
by Tiglath-pileser I/III – but
presumably separated in time by more than 3 centuries - were in fact the very
same five kings.
[End of quotes]
|
… The Identity Of Rosh
I am aware that there are many
reasons for thinking that rosh in Ez. 38:2 should be merely translated
“chief”. Basically,
Ez. 38:3,4 has to be read one of two ways. Either it speaks of “Gog, chief
prince of Meshech and Tubal”- or, it speaks of four entities: “Gog, Rosh,
Meshech and Tubal”. The issue is really resolved for us by considering a
simple piece of grammar. ‘Thee’ in the KJV refers to ‘you singular’. And so
clearly one, and not four, is being addressed here: “I am against thee
O Gog, chief prince of Meshech… I will turn thee back, and put hooks
into thy jaws”. It is a singular person or power being referred
to, not a plural. However, I would like to make a few
comments about another possibility for locating rosh- assuming for the
moment that it is indeed to be read as an actual place name. The observation
that rosh and ‘Russia’ sound similar, so therefore they are the same
place, is to my mind altogether too primitive a way to interpret Scripture.
In any case, modern ‘Russia’ is far bigger than any such single area could
have been in Ezekiel’s time. The translators of the Septuagint must have
known the place, because they transliterated the word as a place name. So,
there was a rosh known at least a few hundred years before Christ. And
clearly enough, it wasn’t Russia as we now know that country. For ‘Rus land’
or ‘Russia’ wasn’t even spoken of until at least 1500 years after Ezekiel.
Ezekiel’s primary audience must surely have known where rosh was; for
all the other areas named by him were contemporary nations.
The following two quotations sum up
the view of many commentators:
“It is a reflection on evangelical
scholarship when some of its spokesmen continue to adhere to the groundless
identification of rosh as Russia , and the association of Meshech with
Moscow and of Tubal with Tobolsk, when we have had cuneiform texts and
discussions of them that provided the true clarification of these names since
the end of the 19th century”(1).
“Gesenius suggested Russia, but
this name is not attested in the area, and a very distant people named thus
early is unlikely in the context. Most follow Delitzsch in identifying Rosh
with Assyria, Rasûu on the NW border of Elam (i.e. in Media)”(2).
Even if we insist on reading rosh
as a proper noun, it's rather a big jump to make 'Russia' equal 'rosh'.
'Russia' derives from the word Rus, not rosh. And it was the
Vikings who introduced the word rus to describe the area around Kiev,
Ukraine [not Russia] in the Middle Ages (3). Meshech and Tubal likewise have
been identified as areas of Eastern Turkey / Kurdistan (4)- to apply these
terms to Moscow and Tobolsk is sheer guesswork. There are records of the
Assyrian kings receiving tribute from the Mushki, whose capital was at Mazaca
(modern Kayseri) in Eastern Turkey; and of the Assyrians attacking Tabal /
Tubal in the Taurus mountains (5). The same sources speak of Sargon II making
a treaty with the city of Til-garimmu, the Togarmah of Ez. 38:6 (6).
The Bible is written from the
perspective of the land promised to Abraham. An invader from the “sides /
boundaries of the north” (Ez. 38:6,15) would correspond to someone who
appears from the northern boundaries of that land- i.e. around the Tigris and
Euphrates rivers. Jer. 6:22; 50:41 and many other passages clearly identify
the invader “from the north” as Babylon. Gog’s “place” is from here- perhaps
implying that this charismatic leader of latter day rosh will have
been born in this area. It is awesome to discover that Saddam Hussein was
born in Tigrik- exactly in this area! And further, to discover that this is
the very area where it is known that chemical and nuclear weapons are being
developed with which to destroy Israel . But in addition to this plain
Biblical idenitification, there are other reasons for seeing rosh as
being located in the Tigris / Euphrates area, in modern day Iran and Iraq
(and therefore not in Russia).
Within the Semitic languages, the
same basic word can be repeated in slightly different forms- the word passes
through what are called phonetic shifts. A well known example would be
how the Hebrew word shalom becomes the Arabic salaam. When the phonetic
shifts and differences in pronunciation are taken into account, one can
find the name Rosh (or its phonetic equivalents) many times in the
various ancient documents. It’s rather like how the Latin term Caesar is
spelled as “Kaiser” in German, “Cesar” in French, “Kaisar” in Greek, and
“Tzar” in Russian. But these are all variants on the same original Latin
term.
[End of quote]
|
Russia and the War of Gog and
Magog
While most end times Bible prophecy authors have argued that
Russia's origins trace back to the ancient nation of "Magog” described in Ezekiel
38-39, this is simply not true. This myth that traces back to the mid 1800’s
is built on historical statements that were deliberately altered, and on the
assumption that the similarity of certain words could mean something else in
another language. Although ancient
records have been found that tell a different story about the identity of Magog
and about Russia’s origins, the “Russia is Magog” myth persists.
Assyrian Court Records
The popular identification
of the nations of Ezekiel 38-39 is not correct.
Despite the traditional viewpoint, professional archeologists know the
identity of these nations from the
Assyrian Royal Court records. The reliable, clear and detailed records of Assyrian Royal Court show they dealt directly with each of these nations about 100 years before Ezekiel
wrote. These are the same records that are
referred to in Ezra 4:15, 19 and 5:17-6:7. These passages tell how
the Jews of the fifth century BC 538 BC–457 BC overcame opposition by the local
Persian governor to the rebuilding of the Temple in Jerusalem by referring to
these same Assyrian cuneiform court records. They are also the same records Bible scholars
now use to provide independent verification and edification of the Bible’s
historical accounts from about 805 BC to 530 BC.
The Assyrian Royal Court records provide
direct evidence and represent an incontestable primary source on this subject,
since they were written during the time period in question by people who were
directly involved. Primary sources have greater value than secondary sources,
which can include generalizations,
speculation and interpretations made long after the occurrence of the
events. On this particular subject, too
often what has been written about these countries constitutes secondary
evidence and is not based on facts. In
some instances statements are the product of mischief, bias or not studying all of the
available information.
The
Assyrian Court records show dealings with Magog, Meshech, Tubal, and Togarmah (Ezekiel
38:3-6), the nations that stretched across ancient
Asia Minor (modern Turkey) from west to east. From these records we also learn that
the ancient nation of Gomer (Ezekiel 38:6), an enemy
of the Assyrians invaded Asia Minor by coming down from an area around the
northeast shore of the Black Sea.
Archeologists know that the militant leader called “Gog” in Ezekiel
38/39 led a confederacy of these nations against invading Gomer. ….
[End of quote]
Part Four:
The Geography (ii) Assyrian based
Old Testament texts, such as
the much-discussed Ezekiel 38 and 39, should be studied according to their own
proper geographical setting, rather than having superimposed upon them a modern
global world scene.
The geography of Ezekiel 38
and 39 can be well understood, for instance, from the Assyrian incursions into
the same regions not much before Ezekiel’s own time.
Part Four (i) of this series
saw the rejection of a common tendency today to take words from,
e.g., Ezekiel 38:2, such as rosh (רֹאשׁ), and meshech (מֶשֶׁךְ),
and tubal (תֻבָל),
and re-invent them as modern places, such as, respectively: “Russia”; “Moscow”;
and “Tobolsk” (or “Tblisi”).
Not to mention the possibility that “Gog” (38:1,
2) himself might stand for “President Putin”.
Rosh
is best interpreted, not
as a place name, but as e.g. “chief”, hence (38:2): “Gog,
of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal”, whilst the last
two names are known from the Assyrian records as Mushki (Muški) and Tabal.
Tabal was located in the Kayseri region of central Anatolia.
Gog is a historical man who the Greeks called Gyges of
Lydia. In Gyges of Lydia we have the leader the Assyrians called "Gugu,
King of Ludu," and "Gugu of Magugu," who is referred to in the
Bible as Gog of Magog. "Magog" simply means "the land of
Gog." In Akkadian ma means land, so in Akkadian Ma- gugu means "the land
of Gugu," which becomes our Ma-gog. (Just as the Assyrian eponym for the
land of the leader called Zamua is rendered as Ma-zamua). Magog is an eponym
for the ancient nation of Lydia that was in the westernmost part of Asia Minor.
The Assyrians often referred to a new land by the name of the first leader they
learned of from this land. The Assyrians dealt with Lydia through Meshech, who
were subsequently defeated by Gomer, and thus the Assyrians finally came to
deal with Lydia directly.
Then follows the typical extension of the ancient prophecy into a
Christian framework: “In the prophecy of
Ezekiel 38/39 Gog is being used as a "historical type" of the
"antichrist" who is prophesied to come during the end times, and
Magog is being used as a "historical type" of "the land of the
antichrist."
Passing on to verses 5-6, we encounter five more
place names: “Persia, Cush and Put will be with them,
all with shields and helmets, also Gomer with all its
troops, and Beth Togarmah …”.
“Persia” = Persia;
“Cush” is Ethiopia;
“Put” may be Phoenicia (“the Land of Punt”
of the Egyptians). See my:
The Maccabees, in whose era I would set the Gog
incident, were confronted by various hostile governors of Coele Syria and
Phoenicia. Thus (2 Maccabees 3:4-6):
But a man named Simon, of the tribe of Benjamin, who had been made
captain of the temple, had a disagreement with the high priest about the
administration of the city market; and when he could not prevail over Onias he
went to Apollonius of Tarsus, who at that time was governor of Coelesyria and
Phoenicia.
He reported to him that the treasury in Jerusalem was full of untold
sums of money, so that the amount of the funds could not be reckoned, and that
they did not belong to the account of the sacrifices, but that it was possible
for them to fall under the control of the king.
And (2 Maccabees 8:8-9):
When Philip
saw that the man was gaining ground little by little, and that he was pushing
ahead with more frequent successes, he wrote to Ptolemy, the governor of
Coelesyria and Phoenicia, to come to the aid of the king’s government. Then
Ptolemy promptly appointed Nicanor son of Patroclus, one of the king’s chief Friends,
and sent him, in command of no fewer than twenty thousand Gentiles of all
nations, to wipe out the whole race of Judea. He associated with him Gorgias, a
general and a man of experience in military service.
“Gomer”, is generally thought to indicate the
Cimmerians.
“Gomer
fathered the Cimmerians who located southwest of the Black Sea. After being
defeated by the Assyrians they settled in the area between Armenia and
Cappadocia (Ezekiel 38:2 and 39:6)”.
“Beth Togarmah” is the Assyrian Til-garimmu
With whom Sargon II made a treaty.
Some of these nations were Japhetic in origin
(Genesis 10:2-5):
The sons of Japheth:
Gomer, Magog,
Madai, Javan, Tubal, Meshek and Tiras.
The sons of Gomer:
Ashkenaz, Riphath and Togarmah.
The sons of Javan:
Elishah, Tarshish, the Kittites and
the Rodanites. (From these the maritime peoples spread out into
their territories by their clans within their nations, each with its own
language.)
In the course of this series we are going to find
that the Seleucid rulers, against whose governors and generals the Maccabean
Jews fought so tenaciously, had ruled at one time or another all of the regions
identified above from the prophecies of Ezekiel.
“On the mountains of Israel”
“The main argument
against my hypothesis would be that Ezekiel 38-39 picture an invasion of the
land of Israel, whereas the events of Esther happened throughout the Persian
Empire”.
He is right, for
according to Ezekiel 39:1-6:
Son of man, prophesy against Gog and say: ‘This is what the
Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshek and Tubal.
I will turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you
from the far north and send you against the
mountains of Israel. Then I will strike your bow
from your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand. On the mountains of Israel
you will fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will
give you as food to all kinds of carrion birds and to the wild animals. You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the
Sovereign Lord. I will send fire on Magog and on those who
live in safety in the coastlands, and they will know that I am the Lord’.
Clearly, the
geographical setting for the annihilation of the forces of Gog is ‘the land of
Israel and its mountains’. And, whilst that region may not fit well the drama
of the Book of Esther, it is precisely the geography for the many
confrontations between the Seleucid armies and the Maccabean Jews.
Part Five:
Gog Long Foretold
Ezekiel 38:16-17
…. O Gog …. Thus saith the Lord God; ‘Art thou he of whom I have spoken
in old time by my servants the prophets of Israel, which prophesied in those
days many years that I would bring thee against them?’
Who foretold Gog?
Some Equivocal References
Prophetic utterance about Gog goes back to
the time of Moses according to some versions of Numbers 24:7, such as the LXX,
which renders Balaam’s prediction of “a king
higher than Agag”, as “a king higher than Gog”. Likewise the Samaritan Hebrew
text.
But
there is an Amalekite king called “Agag” at the time of King Saul (I Samuel
15:8): “[Saul] also took Agag king of the
Amalekites alive …”.
In Amos 7:1 LXX we have a most intriguing passage. Most English
translations read something like this: “The sovereign LORD showed me this: I
saw him making locusts just as the crops planted late were beginning to sprout.
(The crops planted late sprout after the royal harvest.)” (NET Bible)
Gog
the Grasshopper
The LXX, however, reads: οὕτως ἔδειξέν μοι κύριος καὶ ἰδοὺ ἐπιγονὴ ἀκρίδων ἐρχομένη ἑωθινή καὶ ἰδοὺ βροῦχος εἷς Γωγ ὁ βασιλεύς. In English:
“Thus the Lord showed me, and behold, a swarm of locusts coming early, and
behold, one locust, Gog, the king.” It’s possible that the translator has seen
in Amos 7:1 a link to Joel’s locust army, which comes from the north (Joel
2:20), and has thus linked it to Ezekiel’s Gog, which also comes from the north
(Ezek 38:15).
[End of quote]
More
Promising Predictions
Though
the prophet Zechariah who is late - whose life continued on into the
post-exilic period - never actually mentions Gog, he does predict a Jewish
victory over the Greeks (9:13):
I will bend Judah as I bend my bow
and fill it with Ephraim.
I will rouse your sons, Zion,
against your sons, Greece,
and make you like a warrior’s sword.
The most
promising of all biblical anticipations of the Macedonian Greek hostile
incursions into Palestine comes of course from the prophet Daniel, from as far
back as “the first year of Darius the Mede”
(11:1), who was, according to my:
none
other than the King Ahasuerus of the Book of Esther.
The
prophet Ezekiel refers to Daniel in several places. Though various modern
commentaries suggest that this is not the Daniel of the Old Testament, but
possibly a pagan king, Dan’el, of Ugaritic literature. In my article on this:
I quoted
the following from The Jerome Biblical Commentary (my emphasis):
Inasmuch as Daniel (Hebr
consonants d-n-‘-l, Danel, as in Ugaritic) is placed beside Noah and Job, he
is probably a figure from antiquity known through popular tradition and not to
be identified with the biblical Daniel. Probably, although not necessarily, the
reference is to Danel of ancient Ugarit, known for the effectiveness of his
intercession with the gods, for attention to their desires, and as a
righteous judge (ANET 150).
Sticking, however, with the real Daniel, the biblical
prophet, who I believe was Ezekiel’s “Daniel”, this is what that prophet
foretold about the one who I think looms as a most likely candidate for Gog
(11:21-31):
He will
be succeeded by a contemptible person who has not been given the honor of
royalty. He will invade the kingdom when its people feel secure, and he will
seize it through intrigue. Then an overwhelming army will be swept away before
him; both it and a prince of the covenant will be destroyed. After coming to an
agreement with him, he will act deceitfully, and with only a few people he will
rise to power. When the richest provinces feel secure, he will invade them and
will achieve what neither his fathers nor his forefathers did. He will
distribute plunder, loot and wealth among his followers. He will plot the
overthrow of fortresses—but only for a time.
With a
large army he will stir up his strength and courage against the king of the
South. The king of the South will wage war with a large and very powerful army,
but he will not be able to stand because of the plots devised against him.
Those who eat from the king’s provisions will try to destroy him; his army will
be swept away, and many will fall in battle. The two kings, with their hearts
bent on evil, will sit at the same table and lie to each other, but to no
avail, because an end will still come at the appointed time. The king of the
North will return to his own country with great wealth, but his heart will be
set against the holy covenant. He will take action against it and then return
to his own country.
At the
appointed time he will invade the South again, but this time the outcome will
be different from what it was before. Ships of the western coastlands will
oppose him, and he will lose heart. Then he will turn back and vent his fury
against the holy covenant. He will return and show favor to those who forsake
the holy covenant.
His armed
forces will rise up to desecrate the temple fortress and will abolish the daily
sacrifice. Then they will set up the abomination that causes desolation. With
flattery he will corrupt those who have violated the covenant, but the people
who know their God will firmly resist him.
Part Six:
Who is Gog?
What did the prophet Ezekiel have in mind when he predicted the rise of
Gog?
Since Ezekiel’s “Gog”, already foretold in
bygone days, was to emerge at a time well beyond Ezekiel’s own era (38:8): “After
many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land
that has recovered from war …”, and well after the return from Babylonian
Exile: “… whose people were gathered from many nations to the mountains of
Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the
nations, and now all of them live in safety”, we would not expect the prophet
to have crystal clear knowledge of this future enemy - just a general
impression.
Ezekiel,
apparently having an inspired awareness of the general region to be ruled by
the future foe of Israel, chose to identify him by the generic name of “Gog”.
This was likely a hearkening back to the historical king Gyges of Lydia, whom
the Assyrians called “Gugu, King of Ludu”.
For
the Seleucids did indeed rule over the Lydian realm of Gyges.
“The Romans are said to have taken “India
and Media and Lydia” from Antiochus and to have given them to Eumenes”. This is
a reference to I Maccabees 8:8.
{Commentators say that “India” ought perhaps
to be replaced here by “Ionia”, since the Seleucids are thought not to have
reigned over India}.
We have already discussed Seleucid control
over Coele Syria and Phoenicia, as well. And, although Egypt and Ethiopia
rightfully belonged to the Ptolemies, Antiochus IV “Epiphanes”, the stand-out
candidate for Ezekiel’s “Gog”, would successfully invade Egypt with a great
force (I Maccabees 1:17-20):
And
the kingdom was established before Antiochus, and he had a mind to reign over
the land of Egypt, that he might reign over two kingdoms.
And
he entered into Egypt with a great multitude, with chariots and elephants, and
horsemen, and a great number of ships:
And
he made war against Ptolemy king of Egypt, but Ptolemy was afraid at his
presence, and fled, and many were wounded unto death.
And he took the strong cities in the land of Egypt: and he took the
spoils of the land of Egypt.
“[Antiochus] took the spoils of the
land of Egypt”. Nothing surprising about that, of course. But Ezekiel will give
as Gog’s very motivation, loot and plunder (38:12-13):
‘I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled
ruins and the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods,
living at the center of the land. Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish
and all her villages will say to you, “Have you come to plunder? Have you
gathered your hordes to loot, to carry off silver and gold, to take away
livestock and goods and to seize much plunder?”’
And Antiochus’s next move would be to turn
upon Israel and plunder Jerusalem and its Temple (vv. 21-34):
And
after Antiochus had ravaged Egypt in the hundred and forty-third year, he
returned and went up against Israel.
And
he went up to Jerusalem with a great multitude.
And
he proudly entered into the sanctuary, and took away the golden altar, and the
candlestick of light, and all the vessels thereof, and the table of
proposition, and the pouring vessels, and the vials, and the little mortars of
gold, and the veil, and the crowns, and the golden ornament that was before the
temple: and he broke them all in pieces.
And
he took the silver and gold, and the precious vessels: and he took the hidden
treasures which he found: and when he had taken all away he departed into his
own country.
And
he made a great slaughter of men, and spoke very proudly.
And
there was great mourning in Israel, and in every place where they were.
And
the princes, and the ancients mourned, and the virgins and the young men were
made feeble, and the beauty of the women was changed.
Every
bridegroom took up lamentation: and the bride that sat in the marriage bed,
mourned:
And
the land was moved for the inhabitants thereof, and all the house of Jacob was
covered with confusion.
And
after two full years the king sent the chief collector of his tributes to the
cities of Juda, and he came to Jerusalem with a great multitude.
And
he spoke to them peaceable words in deceit: and they believed him.
And
he fell upon the city suddenly, and struck it with a great slaughter, and
destroyed much people in Israel.
And
he took the spoils of the city, and burnt it with fire, and threw down the
houses thereof, and the walls thereof round about:
And they took the women captive, and the children, and the cattle
they possessed.
Not long after this, however, Judas Maccabeus
began to win battles against the hated foreigners. He defeated Apollonius,
who had “gathered together the Gentiles, and a numerous and great army from
Samaria, to make war against Israel” (3:10-11). And then an army led by “Seron, captain of the army of Syria” (vv.
13-24).
Naturally, these setbacks infuriated king
Antiochus IV (vv. 27-33):
Now when king
Antiochus heard these words, he was angry in his mind: and he sent and gathered
the forces of all his kingdom, an exceeding strong army.
And he opened his
treasury, and gave out pay to the army for a year: and he commanded them, that
they should be ready for all things.
And he perceived
that the money of his treasures failed, and that the tributes of the country
were small because of the dissension, and the evil that he had brought upon the
land, that he might take away the laws of old times:
And he feared that
he should not have as formerly enough, for charges and gifts, which he had
given before with a liberal hand: for he had abounded more than the kings that
had been before him.
And he was greatly
perplexed in mind, and purposed to go into Persia, and to take tributes of the
countries, and to gather much money.
And he left Lysias,
a nobleman of the blood royal, to oversee the affairs of the kingdom, from the
river Euphrates even to the river of Egypt:
And to bring up his son Antiochus, till he came again.
So it is apparent that the profligate
Antiochus “Epiphanes” was ever seeking more and more plunder and wealth. Just
like Gog.
Moreover, due to the vastness of the
Seleucid empire, Antiochus could draw on what Ezekiel says of Gog, “the many
nations with you” (38:6). These included (vv. 5-6) “Persia”, to where
Antiochus would march to replenish his treasury, “Cush”, included in his
conquest of Egypt, “and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets,
also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far
north with all its troops”, all lands belonging to the Seleucid empire.
Later Antiochus’s general, Nicanor, will
march against the Jews with “no fewer than twenty thousand armed men of
different nations”, or, as The Jerusalem
Bible puts it, “an international
force” (2 Maccabees 8:9).
From
a reading through of I and II Maccabees one learns that the Maccabean family
would have to face wave after wave of massive forces over a lengthy period of
time. In other words, the assault by Gog upon Israel was not simply just one
concentrated invasion at one point in time, as was the case with Sennacherib’s
Assyrian army of 185,000. No, it was a prolonged affair. And it saw one
Seleucid king succeed another.
Ezekiel,
who knew the broad outline of the war, summarised it as follows whilst
reverting to apocalyptic language (38:14-20):
Therefore,
son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: In that day, when my people Israel are living in safety, will
you not take notice of it? You will come from your
place in the far north, you and many nations with you, all of them riding on
horses, a great horde, a mighty army. You will advance
against my people Israel like a cloud that covers the land. In days to come,
Gog, I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I
am proved holy through you before their eyes. This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You are the one I spoke of in former days by my servants the
prophets of Israel. At that time they prophesied for years that I would bring
you against them. This is what will happen in that day:
When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the
Sovereign Lord. In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that
at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field,
every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of
the earth will tremble at my presence. The mountains will be overturned, the
cliffs will crumble and every wall will fall to the ground’.
Gog’s
war machine would be no amateur assortment of troops, but a well-oiled and
well-armed fighting force that properly understood war (vv. 4-5): “… your
horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small
shields, all of them brandishing their swords. Persia,
Cush and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets …”.
Likewise,
the forces of Gorgias, one of the “mighty men of the king’s friends” (1
Maccabees 3:38, 4:7): “And they saw the camp of the Gentiles that it was
strong, and the men in breastplates, and the horsemen round about them, and
these were trained up to war”.
And,
later, the troops of king Antiochus V, son of the now-deceased “Epiphanes” (1
Maccabees 6:28-30):
Now
when the king heard this, he was angry: and he called together all his friends,
and the captains of his army, and them that were over the horsemen.
There
came also to him from other realms, and from the islands of the sea hired
troops.
And the number of his army was an hundred thousand footmen, and
twenty thousand horsemen, and thirty-two elephants, trained to battle.
V.
35: “And they distributed the beasts by the legions: and there stood by every
elephant a thousand men in coats of mail, and with helmets of brass on their
heads: and five hundred horsemen set in order were chosen for every beast”.
V.
39: “Now when the sun shone upon the shields of gold, and of brass, the
mountains glittered therewith, and they shone like lamps of fire”.
V.
51: “And [Antiochus] turned his army against the sanctuary for many days: and
he set up there battering slings, and engines and instruments to cast fire, and
engines to cast stones and javelins, and pieces to shoot arrows, and slings”.
But
all of this massed force will ultimately be in vain, for this is to be a
victory, not of Gog’s, but of the Lord’s (38:21-23):
I will summon
a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign Lord. Every man’s sword will be against his brother. I will execute judgment on him with plague and bloodshed; I will
pour down torrents of rain, hailstones and burning sulfur on him and on his
troops and on the many nations with him. And so I will
show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of
many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.’
Part Six (ii):
Judas Maccabeus Defeats Nicanor
Historians writing about the Hellenistic era can tend to downplay the
significance of the Jewish resistance as being of minor concern to the Seleucid
kings, who, they estimate, had far bigger fish to fry.
That would probably have been the case had not the Seleucids had the
misfortune to have encountered Judas Maccabeus, undoubtedly one of the greatest
military tacticians and intrepid warriors in Jewish history.
Introduction
Despite the fact that I and II Maccabees
records victory after victory by the Maccabean-led Jews over armies - some of
massive size and strength - sent against them by successive kings and
governors, and commanded by some of their most illustrious generals, historians
seem at pains to play it all down as being of no great import.
That is a common pattern that one finds with
regard to biblical history and archaeology. There seems to be a predisposition
by would-be scholars to give little or no credit to Israel, to minimalise, or
even to annihilate from the historical record, the claims and achievements of
Israel. And, ironically, the Israelis can be at the forefront of this, as
witness Israel Finkelstein’s boast to have rid history of King Solomon:
Less radically than Finkelstein, but still
following a minimalising tendency, Peter Green will describe the Jewish-led
resistance of the Maccabees as “a comparatively minor affair” (Alexander to
Actium: The Hellenistic Age, 1990, p. 497):
For the clarification of
Hellenistic history it should always be borne in mind that the Jewish problem,
including the nationalist revolution under Judas Maccabeus … was, from the
viewpoint of Alexandria and, subsequently, Antioch, a comparatively minor
affair, involving local tribal politics, and significant chiefly because of its
strategic setting between Idumaea and Samaria, on the marches of Coele Syria
….
Green is right insofar as he notes Israel’s
“significance” in relation to its geographical setting. Did not the prophet
Ezekiel have Gog describe it thus (38:12): “I will plunder and loot and
turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people … living at the center [navel] of the land [earth]”?
The fact that king Antiochus “Epiphanes”
had, to his chagrin, completely under-estimated the power of the Jewish
resistance, is not the same as to say that it was in actuality something
“comparatively minor”.
In the
early days of this growing revolt against his authority and abuses, Antiochus
again made a major mistake -- he vastly underestimated the power and zeal of
this band of Jewish rebels. He assumed this was little more than a minor
incident which would be quickly put down. Therefore, he sent out some of his
less capable generals [sic], with only a small army, to seek out the rebels and
put down the rebellion. It would prove to be a costly miscalculation.
These
generals and their forces were simply not equal to Judas, who was possibly one
of the greatest military minds in all of Jewish history! Even though greatly
outnumbered, Judas and his rebels defeated general after general in battle. He
overpowered General [Apollonius] near Samaria; he routed General Seron in the
valley of [Beth-horon]; and in a tremendous victory south of Mizpah he
conquered three generals, who led a combined army of 50,000 troops ....
and he did it with only 6000 poorly equipped Jewish rebels!! The people of
Israel gave Judas the nickname "Maccabeus" because of his great
daring and success in "hammering" the enemy forces into the ground.
Antiochus
soon realized he had a full-scale rebellion on his hands, and that it was far
more serious than he had originally believed. He decided, therefore, to end the
revolt in a most dramatic fashion, and to exterminate the Jewish people in the
process. He sent Lysias, the commander-in-chief of the Seleucid army, along
with 60,000 infantrymen and 5000 cavalry, to utterly destroy the Jews. This
vast army was additionally commanded by two generals serving under Lysias --
Nicanor and Gorgias. This powerful army finally encountered Judas, who had a
force of only 3000 poorly equipped rebels, in the town of Emmaus, which was
just over 7 miles from Jerusalem. Judas managed to gather together another 7000
rebels, but was still terribly outnumbered. He prayed to God for strength and
deliverance (I Maccabees 4:30-33), and God answered! They won a huge victory
over the Seleucid army!
Judas
then determined to enter Jerusalem and liberate the city, and also to purify
the Temple and rededicate it to God. When they entered the holy city, the
extent of the destruction which they beheld caused them to be overwhelmed by
grief (I Maccabees 4:36-40). Their grief, however, soon turned to determination
and action. They set about the task of driving the enemy out of the city, and
also of cleaning up the Temple. On December 25, 165 BC (exactly three years
after Antiochus had defiled the altar of God by offering a pig upon it), the
Temple of God was rededicated to God with rejoicing and sacrifices. The
celebration continued for eight days. This is the famous "Feast of
Lights" (Hanukkah) which is still celebrated by the Jews to this
day.
[End of
quote]
“To exterminate the
entire Jewish race”
King Antiochus “Epiphanes”
It
seems that, whilst the initial motivation of the invading armies had been
plunder and loot, as anticipated also by the words Ezekiel will put into the
mouth of Gog (38:12-13; cf. v. 10):
‘I
will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the
people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods …’. Sheba and
Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all her villages will say to you, “Have
you come to plunder? Have you gathered your hordes to loot, to carry off silver
and gold, to take away livestock and goods and to seize much plunder?”’,
the
fury that the unexpected Maccabean victories had stirred up
in the hearts of kings Antiochus, Lysias, and Nicanor, had affected that so
that the primary motivation now appears to have become - as with wicked Haman
(Esther 3:6) - to destroy the Jews completely.
Thus
the furious Antiochus “Epiphanes”, returning from Persia (II Maccabees 9:4):
And
swelling with anger … thought to revenge upon the Jews the injury done by them
that had put him to flight. And therefore he commanded his chariot to be
driven, without stopping in his journey, the judgment of heaven urging him
forward, because he had spoken so proudly, that he would come to Jerusalem, and make it a common burying place of the
Jews.
But it
would mainly be the Jews doing the burying as according to Ezekiel 39:11: ‘On
that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in the valley of those who
travel east of the Sea. It will block the way of travelers, because Gog and all
his hordes will be buried there. So it will be called the Valley of Hamon Gog’.
Moreover,
it would be the Jews who would be enjoying the abundant booty (I Maccabees
4:23): “And
Judas returned to take the spoils of the camp, and they got much gold, and
silver, and blue silk, and purple of the sea, and great riches”. (II
Maccabees 8:25): “They
seized the money from the people who had come to buy them as slaves”.
Moreover,
king Antiochus himself would now die a most horrible death (9:8-12):
Thus he
that seemed to himself to command even the waves of the sea, being proud above
the condition of man, and to weigh the heights of the mountains in a balance,
now being cast down to the ground, was carried in a litter, bearing witness to
the manifest power of God in himself:
So that
worms swarmed out of the body of this man, and whilst he lived in sorrow and
pain, his flesh fell off, and the filthiness of his smell was noisome to the
army.
And the
man that thought a little before he could reach to the stars of heaven, no man
could endure to carry, for the intolerable stench.
And by
this means, being brought from his great pride, he began to come to the
knowledge of himself, being admonished by the scourge of God, his pains
increasing every moment.
And when
he himself could not now abide his own stench, he spoke thus: It is just to be
subject to God, and that a mortal man should not equal himself to God.
Having
finally achieved the liberation of Jerusalem, and the restoration of their
religious practices in the Temple, Judas and his rebels now turned their
attention to the task of seeking to liberate all of Palestine from pagan
control. Within a rather brief period of time they were able to regain
possession of much of the land. However, their successes were short-lived, for
Lysias, now acting as king after the death of Antiochus, who had died during a
military campaign in Persia, gathered a large army and marched upon Jerusalem.
In the
autumn of 163 BC, Lysias, and an army of 120,000 men and 32 war elephants, met
Judas and his army 10 miles SW of Jerusalem. Lysias made the elephants drunk on
grape and mulberry wine so they would stampede over the Jewish rebels (I
Maccabees 6:34). This time Judas was unable to prevail, and although they
killed 600 of the enemy soldiers, they were nevertheless forced to retreat into
the city of Jerusalem. During this battle, Eleazer (the younger brother of Judas)
died in a most heroic manner when he single-handedly attacked a large elephant
that he believed to be carrying the enemy king (I Maccabees 6:42-46). Lysias
surrounded Jerusalem in the hopes of starving the Jews into submission. But
during this siege he learned that one of his rivals was marching against his
own capital city in an effort to overthrow him and take the throne. Being
anxious to return home and defend his throne, he made an offer of peace to
Judas -- the Jews would be allowed to worship their God unmolested, if they
would remain politically loyal to the Seleucid Empire. Judas agreed to
these terms, and Lysias and his army departed.
[End of
quote]
At this
point we read that (II Maccabees 12:1): “When these
covenants were made, Lysias went to the king, and the Jews gave themselves to
husbandry”, for the Jews were apparently, according to Ezekiel (38:12),
“stock-breeders and tradesmen”.
Nicanor
Contrary
to the view above that king Antiochus had “sent out some of his less capable
generals”, the highly-regarded Nicanor, for instance, was “ranked as
Illustrious” (I Maccabees 7:26), and was “in
the closest circle of the King’s Friends” (II Maccabees 8:9). Now,
Nicanor’s brief was brutally straightforward: “Ptolemy
immediately appointed Nicanor son of Patroclus … and sent him with more than
20,000 troops of various nationalities to
wipe out the entire Jewish race. Ptolemy also appointed Gorgias, a general
of wide military experience, to go with him”. And:
(I Maccabees 7:26): “… king [Demetrius]
sent Nicanor … who was a bitter enemy to Israel: and he commanded him to destroy the people”.
It was
on this occasion, when faced with Nicanor, that Judas Maccabeus would remind
his army of the great Jewish victory over Sennacherib’s massive force of 185,000
(7:41).
Just as
Ezekiel had foretold the anticipation of the merchant nations for Jewish booty
(38:13): “Sheba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish,
with all the young lions thereof, shall say unto thee, Art thou come to take a
spoil?”, so do we read in 2 Maccabees 8:10-11:
Nicanor
determined to make up for the king the tribute due to the Romans, two thousand
talents, by selling the captured Jews into slavery. So he immediately sent to
the towns on the seacoast, inviting them to buy Jewish slaves and promising to
hand over ninety slaves for a talent, not expecting the judgment from the
Almighty that was about to overtake him.
And
again (v. 34): “The thrice-accursed Nicanor, who had
brought the thousand merchants to buy the Jews …”.
Nicanor,
as we read earlier in this series, had come against the Jews with an
“international” force, and this claim is further substantiated by I Maccabees
6:29: “There
came also to [Nicanor] from other realms, and from the islands of the sea hired
troops”.
General
Nicanor’s final effort to defeat the heroic Judas
Maccabeus is narrated in I Maccabees 7:43-49:
And the armies joined battle on
the thirteenth day of the month Adar: and the army of Nicanor was defeated, and
he himself was first slain in the battle.
And when his army saw that
Nicanor was slain, they threw away their weapons, and fled:
And they pursued after them one
day's journey from Adazer, even till ye come to Gazara, and they sounded the
trumpets after them with signals.
And they went forth out of all
the towns of Judea round about, and they pushed them with the horns, and they
turned again to them, and they were all slain with the sword, and there was not
left of them so much as one.
And they took the spoils of them
for a booty, and they cut off Nicanor's head, and his right hand, which he had
proudly stretched out, and they brought it, and hung it up over against
Jerusalem.
And the people rejoiced
exceedingly, and they spent that day with great joy.
And he
ordained that this day should be kept every year, being the thirteenth of the
month of Adar.
And
once again, more elaborately, in II Maccabees 15:25-36:
Nicanor and
his troops advanced with trumpets and battle songs, but Judas and his troops
met the enemy in battle with invocations to God and prayers. So, fighting with
their hands and praying to God in their hearts, they laid low at least
thirty-five thousand, and were greatly gladdened by God’s manifestation.
When
the action was over and they were returning with joy, they recognized Nicanor,
lying dead, in full armor. Then there was shouting and tumult, and they blessed
the Sovereign Lord in the language of their ancestors. Then the man who was
ever in body and soul the defender of his people, the man who maintained his
youthful goodwill toward his compatriots, ordered them to cut off Nicanor’s
head and arm and carry them to Jerusalem. When he arrived there and had called
his compatriots together and stationed the priests before the altar, he sent
for those who were in the citadel. He showed them the vile Nicanor’s head and
that profane man’s arm, which had been boastfully stretched out against the
holy house of the Almighty. He cut out the tongue of the ungodly Nicanor and
said that he would feed it piecemeal to the birds and would hang up these
rewards of his folly opposite the sanctuary. And they all, looking to heaven,
blessed the Lord who had manifested himself, saying, “Blessed is he who has
kept his own place undefiled!” Judas hung Nicanor’s head from the citadel, a
clear and conspicuous sign to everyone of the help of the Lord. And they all
decreed by public vote never to let this day go unobserved, but to celebrate
the thirteenth day of the twelfth month—which is called Adar in the Aramaic
language—the day before Mordecai’s day.
Though the Seleucids had intended for the Jews to be
lying dead in heaps, as food for birds and worms, this turned out to be the fate,
instead, of their vaunted leaders, such as king Antiochus, dying of worms and
foul stench, and Nicanor, his tongue fed “piecemeal to the
birds”.
Revelation 20:7-10
And when the thousand years are
expired, Satan shall be loosed out of his prison,
And shall go out to deceive the
nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to
gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the
sea.
And they went up on the breadth of
the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city:
and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them.
And the devil that deceived them was
cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, where the beast and the false prophet
are, and shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever.
Yemeni pro-government fighters guard outside a Missionaries of Charity elderly home March 4 after unidentified gunmen targeted the home in Aden, Yemen. Four Missionaries of Charity and 10 to 12 other people were killed in the attack. (CNS photo/EPA)