From the time of the Jewish historian Josephus, it has been suggested that “the land of Magog” related to the Scythian tribes found in NE Europe and Central Asia. (Jewish Antiquities, I, 123 [vi, 1]) Classical writers of Greek and Roman times described the Scythians as northern barbarians, rapacious and warlike, equipped with large cavalry forces, well armored, and skilled with the bow. While the name Scythian may originally have been derived from “Ashkenaz,” another descendant of Japheth (Ge 10:2, 3), the 1959 edition of the Encyclopædia Britannica (Vol. 20, p. 235) states that “throughout classical literature Scythia generally meant all regions to the north and northeast of the Black sea, and a Scythian (Skuthes) any barbarian coming from those parts.” Other reference works likewise show that the term “Scythian” was used rather flexibly to embrace generally the nomadic tribes N of the Caucasus (the region between the Black and Caspian Seas), similar to the modern use of the term “Tartar.” Hence The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge comments: “The name ‘Scythians’ was among the ancients an elastic appellation, and so was the Hebrew ‘Magog.’”​—Edited by S. Jackson, 1956, Vol. V, p. 14.

The fact that the term “Scythian,” with which Magog is usually associated, came to be used as a synonym for that which is brutal, rapacious, and warlike would logically point to a position of strong opposition to God’s people. The nations of the world will find themselves in such a position when, at the instigation of the foremost opposer of God, Satan the Devil, they launch a final attack on earth against true worship of God.​—See GOG No. 2.