And shall go out
Of his prison, the bottomless pit, and shall walk to and fro in
the earth, and go about like a deceitful serpent, and roaring
lion, as before:
to deceive the nations:
as he had done before the thousand years began, and from which he
was restrained during that time; he had before deceived the
Pagan, Papal, and Mahometan nations, and now he will go forth to
deceive those at this time
which are in the four quarters of the earth;
all the world over: the names of which nations are,
Gog and Magog:
not the same which are mentioned in (
Ezekiel 38:1-39:16 ) though there is an allusion to them, and
from thence the names are taken, and some of the figures
borrowed, and design the enemies of God's people, who will be in
the world at this time; so the Jews F2 speak of a Gog and
Magog, that will come up against Jerusalem in the days of the
Messiah, whom they still expect, by whom they shall be destroyed:
to gather them together to battle;
not one against another, as some think, as the pope against the
Turk, and the Turk against the pope, nor are they designed at
all; nor "to kill them", as the Ethiopic version renders it; but
against the saints and people of God, in the beloved city and
camp; herein will lie his deception of them:
the number of whom is as the sand of the sea;
that is, innumerable, in allusion to Gog and Magog in ( Ezekiel 38:9
Ezekiel
38:15 Ezekiel
38:16 ) but the great question is, who are meant by
these?--Not the Papists, the nations made drunk with the wine of
Rome's fornication, the Gentiles, by whom the holy city is
trodden under foot, and who will be angry when the time of
avenging the saints is come, ( Revelation
11:2 Revelation
11:18 ) ( 18:2 ) for
these will be all destroyed, even all the remains of them, at the
battle of Armageddon; nor is antichrist himself intended, who
will be destroyed in the spiritual reign of Christ, with the
breath of his mouth; and at the above decisive battle the beast
and the false prophet will be taken alive, and cast into the lake
of fire: nor are the Turks designed, the people of Magog being
Scythians originally, as Josephus says F3, from
whence the Turks sprung; or Tartarinns, for Paulus Venetus
F4 says the countries of Gog and Magog
are in Tartary, called Jug and Munjug; hence some think these are
the same with the four angels bound at the river Euphrates, and
loosed, whose armies are represented as exceeding numerous, (
Revelation 9:14
Revelation 9:16
Revelation 9:17 ) but
though the Turkish dominions are very large, yet they do not
extend to the four quarters of the world; and when the Turks were
let loose, and came even into Europe, it was not against the true
Christians, the camp of the saints, the beloved city, as here,
but against the antichristian party; the Papists have suffered
most by the incursions of the Turks, though it has not brought
them to repentance; besides, the loosing of the four angels, or
the Turkish nations, and their chiefs, is long before these
thousand years begin; that is past already, under the sixth
trumpet, whereas the seventh trumpet will be blown, and all the
seven vials poured out, and the world cleared of all Christ's
enemies, and after that a thousand years must run out, before
this Gog and Magog army will appear: nor are the Americans the
nations, here spoken of; for they are but in one quarter of the
world; nor is there any reason to believe there will be there
more enemies of Christ's people than in any other part, since in
the spiritual reign of Christ the earth shall be full of his
knowledge, and his spiritual kingdom will be to the ends of the
earth: and as for that notion that those inhabiting the other
hemisphere will be saved from the general conflagration, there is
no reason to believe it, since the earth, and whatsoever is
therein, shall be burnt up, ( 2 Peter 3:10
) . Some think that the wicked living in the distant parts of the
world, in the corners of the earth, are meant, who, upon Christ's
coming, will flee thither, and remain in continual dread and
terror to the end of the thousand years, when Satan will gather
them together, and spirit them up against the saints; but this
cannot be, because they will all be destroyed at the universal
conflagration of the world; nor will there be any in the new
earth but righteous persons: but these will be all the wicked
dead, the rest of the dead, who lived not again until the
thousand years are ended, when will be the second resurrection,
the resurrection of all the wicked that have been from the
beginning of the world; and these, with the posse of devils under
Satan, will make up the Gog and Magog army: all the characters
agree with them; these may be called nations, or Gentiles, being
aliens from the true Israel of God, the dogs that will be without
the holy city; these may be said to be in "the four quarters" of
the world, since where they die and are buried, there they will
rise and stand upon their feet, an exceeding great army; and as
they will die enemies to Christ and his people, they will rise
such; as they will go down to hell with their "weapons of war",
as is said of Meshech and Tubal, the people of Gog, ( Ezekiel
32:27 ) they will rise with the same; the grave, the dust of
the earth, will make no change in their vile bodies, nor the
flames of hell any alteration in the disposition of their minds;
yea, as is said in the above place, they will "lay their swords
under their heads", and so be in a readiness, when they rise, to
make use of them against the saints, and to avenge themselves;
for their envy, malice, and revenge, will be heightened and
increased by their confinement and punishment in hell: nor need
this be wondered at, since the devils, notwithstanding they have
been so long expelled the realms of light, and have been in
chains of darkness, and in expectation of everlasting torment,
retain the same enmity as ever; and though the deception will be
very great, to attack saints in an immortal state, who are like
the angels that die not, nor will these die any more, and
especially since Christ, the King of kings and Lord of lords, who
rules the nations with a rod of iron, will be at the head of
them; yet it need not seem strange, when they will rise as weak
and feeble, and as little able to resist temptation, and as much
exposed to seduction, as they were before; Satan will have as
much power over them as ever; and what with their own numbers,
and the posse of devils at the head of them, and especially
considering the desperateness of their state, and that this is
their last struggle and effort for liberty, they will animate
themselves and one another to this strange undertaking. These now
may be called Gog and Magog, as the one signifies "covered", the
other open, or "uncovered": these being all the enemies of Christ
and his people, both secret and open: and this sense well
accounts for their number, being as the sand of the sea; and
which the Arabic version seems to confirm, "and Jagog and Magog
shall rise with him". The Jews have a notion that this deception
of Satan will be at the day of judgment, which agrees with this
account; for immediately upon this will follow the judgment of
the wicked: they say F5,
``in the day that judgment shall be found in the world, and the holy blessed God shall sit upon the throne of Judgment, Satan (attw alyel yjoa) , "shall deceive above and below" (angels and men), and he shall be found to destroy the world, and to take away souls.''
F2 Targum in Cant. viii. 4. & Targum Hieros. in Numb. xi. 26.
F3 Antiqu. l. 1. c. 6. sect. 1.
F4 In Schindler. Lex. Pentaglott. col. 288.
F5 Zohar. in Gen. fol. 73. 1.