Posted: 20 March 2012
I have often taught on Ezekiel 38 over the years. It is an amazing prophetic passage that speaks of a coming invasion of Israel by a coalition of Middle Eastern and North African states led by a great northern power. However, there have been several pieces of the puzzle that I have always struggled to fit in place. For instance, why is Israel described in Ezekiel 38:11 as "...the land of unwalled villages...them that are at rest, that dwell safely...dwelling without walls...having neither bars nor gates"? And, why are such nations as Egypt, Edom, Ammon, Moab, and Babylon not mentioned?
Here is what I mean. The prophecy in Ezekiel 38 begins by saying in verses 1-6:
"And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying, Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him, And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal: 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: Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet: Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee."
These are the main nations involved in the Ezekiel 38 coalition that invades Israel. Now, when you first look at this passage you may not recognize too many of the nations mentioned right away. That's because the Bible uses the names of various people groups existing in Ezekiel's day instead of the modern place names. If we can identify who those people groups in the Bible are and where they were located, we can identify the modern nations represented by those groups.
The first group mentioned is composed of Gog, Magog, Meshech, and Tubal. Gog is identified as the leader or head of Meshech and Tubal. Gog appears to be a leader who arises out of the land of Magog and who heads up the coalition to invade the land of Israel. Interestingly, Gog is described as the "chief" prince. The word translated as chief comes from the Hebrew, rosh, a word that is said by the Hebrew scholar Gesenius (1786-1842) in his ancient Hebrew lexicon to be a name for Russia.
Magog, along with Meshech and Tubal, is mentioned in Genesis 10:2 as being a son of Japheth, one of Noah's three sons. Magog's descendants migrated north of the Black and Caspian seas and the Caucasus Mountains to settle in the northern regions of central Asia. There they became known as the Scythians. Historians and archaeologists have determined that the Scythinans, at their height, controlled an area from Ukraine in the west through Siberia in the east, north of Mongolia, and Iran. In other words, the land of Magog appears to represent Russia, Ukraine, and Kazakhstan.
The descendants of Meshech also migrated north and appear to have intermingled with the Sythians. They became known as the Moschi and then later as the Muscovs. Gesenius and others claim that Moschi and Muscov are derived from Meshech and gave rise to the name of the capital of Russia: Moscow.
Tubal's descendants also migrated north. They wound up in the area of modern day Georgia and in southern and central Russia. In fact, the name of the capital of Georgia, Tbilisi, is derived from Tubal, as is the name of the river Tobol and the city of Tobolsk in central Russia.
Consequently, the first group, made up of Gog, Magog, Meshech, and Tubal, appears to be confederation of members of the old Soviet Union, including, but not necessarily limited to, Ukraine, Georgia, and Kazakhstan, led by Russia.
The second group is listed as Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya. These are names familiar from both the Bible and, with the possible exception of Persia, current events and recent history. I say, "with the possible exception of Persia" because, while some might recognize the name, many might not. Persia is the ancient name for modern day Iran and was commonly in use up until 1935. In fact, maps produced after 1935 frequently had Persia in parenthesis under the name Iran since that is the name most people associated with that country.
Ethiopia today is a country located to the southwest of Egypt on the northeast coast of Africa, bordered by Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, Eritrea, and the Red Sea. However, Ethiopia in the Bible referred to the area south of Egypt, beyond the upper cataracts of the Nile River, about where Aswan and the Aswan Dam are located. The second century Alexandrian geographer Claudius Ptolemy produced a map of the Nile River which shows Ethiopia encompassing the areas of contemporary Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Djibouti, and Eritrea.
Libya, like Ethiopia, also consisted of a much greater geographic area than what modern maps show as Libya today. In the Bible, Libya essentially referred to all of North Africa, between the Mediterranean Sea and the Sahara Desert. Ptolemy's map of the Nile River shows Libya extending west of both Egypt and Ethiopia. Consequently, we see that the Libya of Ezekiel 38 covers the modern countries of Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, and Morocco. It Ptolemy's map is accurate, it could also include Chad, Niger, Mali, Mauritania, and other sub-Saharan countries.
The third group Ezekiel mentions is composed of "Gomer, and all his bands; the house of Togarmah of the north quarters, and all his bands: and many people with thee. (Ezekiel 38:6)" Notice that this group is not made up of just Gomer and Togarmah. We have the addition of the curious phrase, "and all his bands" added to each. The phrase literally means, "wings of an army, or crowds of troops," according to Strong's Hebrew Dictionary.
Gomer represents a large group of people who initially settled in the area of Turkey. Gomer's descendants then spread northwest, colonizing Central and Eastern Europe. From there they continued to spread throughout Europe, reaching France, the British Isles, and the Scandinavian countries. Other people groups moved in, however, and weakened Gomer's domination of much of Western Europe and the British Isles. Gomer's descendants seem to be best represented today by Germany, the Baltic countries, and Turkey.
Togarmah, according to Genesis 10:3, is a son of Gomer. While most of Gomer's descendants migrated up into Europe, Togarmah and his descendants, primarily the Turks and the Armenians, mostly stayed south of the Black Sea. Consequently, Togarmah is represented today by the countries of Turkey and Armenia.
A second coalition of nations is mentioned in Ezekiel 38:13. This group centers around Sheba, Dedan, and the merchants of Tarshish, "with all the young lions thereof." They oppose the coalition led by Russia that invades the Middle East to attack Israel but do not seem to take action. Instead, they lodge a complaint: "Art thou come to take a spoil? hast thou gathered thy company to take a prey? to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to take a great spoil?" I can see this happening in the form of a UN resolution and diplomatic sanctions.
Sheba is a somewhat difficult nation to identify today as there were two nations called Sheba. One was located in Northeast Africa, along the Red Sea, in the vicinity of modern day Eritrea and Djibouti. This Sheba appears to be founded by descendants of Ham via Cush's son Sheba. The second Sheba was founded by the descendants of Shem, via Eber's son Joktan. It was located on the southwestern part of the Arabian Peninsula, in the area occupied today by Yemen and Saudi Arabia.
At first glance it would seem that the Hamitic Sheba would be the Sheba of Ezekiel 38:13. After all, according to Genesis 10:7, this Sheba also had a brother named Dedan, which would seem to tie in with the linking of Sheba and Dedan in Ezekiel 38:17. However, there is another Sheba in Scripture that had a brother named Dedan. In Genesis 25:1-3 we find that Abraham had a son, Jokshan, by his third wife, Keturah. Jokshan then had two sons named Sheba and Dedan. Abraham's grandson's descendants, like those of Eber, also settled in the Arabian Peninsula; Sheba in the south and Dedan in the north.
Now, considering that the African Sheba was included in the area known then as Ethiopia in Ezekiel's day, it would seem that this Sheba is more properly a part of the coalition that invades Israel rather than the coalition of those who sit back and watch. That brings us back to the Arabian Sheba, which appears to be the Sheba of Ezekiel's time. In fact, the eminent Middle Eastern archaeologists W. F. Albright and Wendell Phillips identify Sheba as occupying the southwestern edge of the Arabian Peninsula across the Red Sea from present-day Ethiopia. In other words, present day Yemen.
Identification of Dedan poses some of the same difficulties as the identification of Sheba. However, for many of the same reasons we can rule out the Hamitic descendants of Dedan in favor of the descendants of Abraham's grandson. Again, we can look to the findings of Albright and Phillips who found that the descendants of the Abrahamic Dedan spread throughout the Arabian Peninsula. This is supported by Isaiah 21:13, which says, "The burden upon Arabia. In the forest in Arabia shall ye lodge, O ye travelling companies of Dedanim." Consequently, Ezekiel's Dedan would be today's Saudi Arabia.
Now that we have identified who Sheba and Dedan represent today, we need to look at Tarshish and "the young lions" who are confederate with Sheba and Dedan. Tarshish, according to Genesis 10:2-4, is the grandson of Noah's son Japheth, through his son Javan. The descendants of Tarshish and his brothers, according to Genesis 10:5 settled throughout the islands of Mediterranean Sea. Most notable were the Greeks whose ancient name Ionia was derived from Javan. The Ionians had settlements in Spain, most notably Tartessos on the southwestern coast of Spain, probably around the mouth of the Guadalquivir River, just north of United States Naval Station Rota and the Spanish city of Cadiz.
Tartessos, which is the Aramaic equivalent of Tarshish, later became an important Phoenician outpost on the Iberian Peninsula along with Gades, which is the present day city of Cadiz. The Phoenicians were a seafaring, merchant people descended from Ham's son Canaan. Though unrelated to the Ionians, they soon spread from their homeland on the Mediterrranean coast, just north of Israel, throughout much of the area settled by the Ionians and beyond. They possessed sturdy seafaring vessels, referred to in the Bible as "ships of Tarshish," which, according to 1 Kings 10:22 and 2 Chronicles 9:21, King Solomon joined with Hiram, the Phoenician King of Tyre, to build fleets of. The ships were designed for a three year voyage that took them from Israel, through the Red Sea, down the east coast of Africa, around the southern end of Africa at the Cape of Good Hope, and back north along the western coast of Africa to Tarshish. From there the ships sailed back to Israel through the Mediterranean Sea and, after unloading their cargo and resupplying, they would retrace their route back for another three year voyage.
Some of the ships also sailed to India and points east while others sailed north of Tarshish to visit a network of important Phoenician trading outposts and settlements on the Iberian Peninsula (Spain and Portugal), along the coast of France, and in the British Isles. The northern trade routes, according to Ezekiel 27:12, supplied the Phoenicians with silver, iron, tin, and lead. In fact, the Iberian Peninsula and the British Isles became the most important source of silver, lead, and tin for the Phoenicians, as well as providing an abundant supply of gold, copper, and iron. Consequently, just as the term "ships of Tarshish" referred to a particular kind of seagoing vessel, "the merchants of Tarshish" began to refer to those who settled in Spain, Portugal, France, and the British Isles to ply the northern trade routes. Of course, this equates well with the statement in Ezekiel 38:13 that it is "the merchants of Tarshish," not merely Tarshish that are confederate with Sheba and Dedan.
So, if "the merchants of Tarshish," in Ezekiel 38:13, refers to Spain, Portugal, France, Great Britain, and Ireland, who or what does the phrase "all the young lions thereof" refer to? Interestingly, the Hebrew word, kephiyr, translated here as young lions can also be translated as villages, as in Nehemiah 6:2. This could be an interesting play on words indicating that the young lions of Ezekiel 38:13 are the powerful offspring of the merchants of Tarshish. In other words, the young lions may very well represent the countries which are the offspring of Spain, Portugal, Ireland, and Great Britain. Chief among them would necessarily be the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. It may also include the nations of South and Central America, some of the southern African nations, and India, all places colonized by the merchants of Tarshish.
In summary, Ezekiel 38 pictures a coming invasion of Israel. The invading forces will be led by Russia and will include, but not necessarily be limited to, the Ukraine, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Iran, Sudan, Kenya, Somalia, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Turkey, Germany, Armenia, and some of the Baltic countries. Another alliance will oppose the invasion but not take action to prevent it. This group appears to be made up of Great Britain, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, France, the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and possibly India and the countries of South and Central America.
--Pastor Al Davis
Bible Baptist Church, Richfield, Ohio
The Pre-Ezekiel 38 Battle - Part One: Who Is Mentioned in the Invasion of Israel?
[Video Presentation]
[Posted: 10 Apr 12]