1. Revelation 20:8 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

What is “Gog and Magog”?

Revelation 20:8 (ESV)

8 and will come out to deceive the nations that are at the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them for battle; their number is like the sand of the sea.

These two terms are earlier found in Scripture in Ezekiel 38:2 and Ezekiel 39:1, where “Magog” appears to be the land over which “Gog” is chief prince. The wider context of Ezekiel 38:2 & Ezekiel 39:1 suggests that Ezekiel has a specific land (to us hard to identify) in mind, with ruthless, powerful, and unlimited soldiers. In the present passage the terms “Gog and Magog” describe “the nations that are at the four corners of the earth,” implying that these nations also have ruthless, powerful, and unlimited soldiers.