Read Epicenter by Joel Rosenberg!

With his czarist aspirations and lust for power, many wonder if Vladimir Putin is the Gog of Ezekiel 38 and 39 in the Bible.

â??Son of man, prophesy against Gog and say: â??This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Gog, chief prince of^[a] Meshek and Tubal. ^2 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. ^3 Then I will strike your bowfrom your left hand and make your arrows drop from your right hand. ^4 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. ^5 You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord. ^6 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.

^7 â??â??I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned, and the nations will know that I the Lord am the Holy One in Israel. ^8 It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign Lord. This is the day I have spoken of.

^9 â??â??Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and use the weapons for fuel and burn them upâ??the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the war clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel. ^10 They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunder those who plundered them and loot those who looted them, declares the Sovereign Lord.

^11 â??â??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.^[b]

^12 â??â??For seven months the Israelites will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. ^13 All the people of the land will bury them, and the day I display my glory will be a memorable day for them, declares the Sovereign Lord. ^14 People will be continually employed in cleansing the land. They will spread out across the land and, along with others, they will bury any bodies that are lying on the ground.

â??â??After the seven months they will carry out a more detailed search. ^15 As they go through the land, anyone who sees a human bone will leave a marker beside it until the gravediggers bury it in the Valley of Hamon Gog, ^16 near a town called Hamonah.^[c] And so they will cleanse the land.â??

^17 â??Son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Call out to every kind of bird and all the wild animals: â??Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrifice I am preparing for you, the great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood. ^18 You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as if they were rams and lambs, goats and bullsâ??all of them fattened animals from Bashan. ^19 At the sacrifice I am preparing for you, you will eat fat till you are glutted and drink blood till you are drunk. ^20 At my table you will eat your fill of horses and riders, mighty men and soldiers of every kind,â?? declares the Sovereign Lord.

^21 â??I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the punishment I inflict and the hand I lay on them. ^22 From that day forward the people of Israel will know that I am the Lordtheir God. ^23 And the nations will know that the people of Israel went into exile for their sin, because they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. ^24 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their offenses, and I hid my face from them.

^25 â??Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will now restore the fortunes of Jacob^[d] and will have compassion on all the people of Israel, and I will be zealous for my holy name. ^26 They will forget their shame and all the unfaithfulness they showed toward me when they lived in safety in their land with no one to make them afraid. ^27 When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will be proved holy through them in the sight of many nations. ^28 Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather them to their own land, not leaving any behind. ^29 I will no longer hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit on the people of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord. â?

The word of the Lord came to me: ^2 â??Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog,the chief prince of^[a] Meshek and Tubal; prophesy against him ^3 and say: â??This is what the SovereignLord says: I am against you, Gog, chief prince of^[b] Meshek and Tubal. ^4 I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole armyâ??your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. ^5 Persia, Cush^[c]and Put will be with them, all with shields and helmets, ^6 also Gomer with all its troops, and Beth Togarmah from the far north with all its troopsâ??the many nations with you.

^7 â??â??Get ready; be prepared, you and all the hordes gathered about you, and take command of them.^8 After many days you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, 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. ^9 You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up, advancing like a storm; you will be like a cloud covering the land.

^10 â??â??This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On that day thoughts will come into your mind and you will devise an evil scheme. ^11 You will say, â??I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting people â??all of them living without walls and without gates and bars. ^12 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.^[d]â?Â ^13 Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all her villages^[e] will say to you, â??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? â?â??

^14 â??Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: â??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? ^15 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. ^16 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.

^17 â??â??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.^18 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. ^19 In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. ^20 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. ^21 I will summon a sword against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign Lord. Every manâ??s sword will be against his brother. ^22 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. ^23 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. â??

Footnotes:

1. Ezekiel 38:2 Or the prince of Rosh,
2. Ezekiel 38:3 Or Gog, prince of Rosh,
3. Ezekiel 38:5 That is, the upper Nile region
4. Ezekiel 38:12 The Hebrew for this phrase means the navel of the earth.
5. Ezekiel 38:13 Or her strong lions