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Hello everyone. Welcome to episode number 14 of our series in which we have been focusing

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primarily on one critical aspect of End Times Bible prophecy. Based upon the series we have

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titled the Bible prophecy masterclass. In this study, part 2 of our addendum of studies,

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our chief aim is to appease our curiosity surrounding the, who, of Magog and the, why,

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of God's hostile attitude toward that land and its End Times leader. As usual, the text

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for this study is volume 2 of the series called Judgment Day, Israel catapulted to global

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superpower, subtitle, a Muslim's nightmare, the writer of said series being Mr. Alvin

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Mitchell and, I am Carol, your host. Please feel free to join us as we invoke the blessing

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of God upon this and all of the studies to come in this highly informative and instructive

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series.

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Magog. Who were they? In antiquity. Thus far then, we now know that Magog finds its roost

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today in all of the landmass known as, and now occupied by, modern Russia. Likewise,

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we also know that Russia as it relates to and falls within the grand scheme and plan

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of God consists of two major parks or sections separated by the Ural Mountains. One, Western

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or European Russia and two, Siberia.

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That leaves open the question, who were these people during the Bible days of Ezekiel? Who

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were they prior to his day during and across the 2000 years following the birth and life

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of the Christ? What did they ever do to provoke God's ire? European Russia. Playground for

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murderers and marauders, wild and untamed, haven to pillagers and plunder seekers, more

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savage than the climate itself, ruled apparently for millennia by no one codified, written

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law or civilized authority. Such was this, and in reality, the rest of the world of humanity,

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their thoughts and knowledge of God had failed to grace the minds of men. Although the writing

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cultures appear to have managed a much greater sense of civility and stability.

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This section of the land of Magog refers to the western 25% of the old Soviet Union,

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one might say their early, old West, makes the American version look, sissy.

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Specifically, it is that part of Soviet Russia. Known since the Soviet breakup in 1991 as

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the Russian Federation, which lies west of the Euro mountains, but more precisely between

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the Caspian Sea on the east and the Baltic in the west, having as its southern border

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the Black Sea, whereas the white is its northernmost boundary. Its actual westernmost boundary

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or border has varied widely throughout history, dependent on who had the biggest sword and

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who could muster and manage the most living bodies after appeasement of the sacrificial

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demands and bite of one senseless battle after the other to enforce a shift.

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At no point along a timeline spanning millennia, has any one group ever peacefully peopled

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that region for any significantly long duration of time, apparently. The historical record

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suggests that in a span reaching back as far as 4000 years BC to the relatively recent

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mid-800s AD Europe's portion of today's Russia has been inundated repeatedly by floods of

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many different tribes of people, many, if not most, from Central Asia.

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Its steppes, great plains, said to be relatively infertile and part of a roughly 5,000-mile

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stretch. Reaching from the Ukraine to China, hosts an environment known for climatic contrasts

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which are extreme and are able to support only small bands of horsemen over huge allotments

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thereof. All of this begs the question. What then served

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as the virtual magnets attracting and luring these bands of murderous, marauding thugs,

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who either forced out whatever group happened to be in occupation upon their arrival or,

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simply killed them off, outright making this area a veritable slaughterhouse, or, more aptly,

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a killing field? Whatever the reason, it might well be said

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that this segment of the land of the realm of GOG in its entirety was hardly what God

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had in mind in terms of the, unknown, given that it was in fact quite well known to the

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outside world. One group of nomads is known for positioning itself in the area of well-worn

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trade routes, some of which like the, silk routes, traversed this area.

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Thus not to in any way minimize its sheer brutality, gore, and gruesomeness we see that

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Hitler's final solution was not by any means the beginning of man's inhumanity to man.

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Side note. The Assyrians, the Babylonians, Nido-Persia, the Greeks, the Romans, the

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Rome Catholic Church. Islam, Napoleon Bonaparte, the British Empire,

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Idi Amin, Chochiske, the Rwandan Massacre, and Milochevich murders. Even America the

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Beautiful, with its 250 years or so of slavery and its alleged slaughter of approximately

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100 million Native Americans, followed hard by 100 years plus of open, rampant Jim Crow,

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trace elements of which are still upon us today. All these are prime examples of man's

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want to be God over his neighbor, on account of which he is unable and often unwilling

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to live in harmony with him. Our industrialized world of today, the vast

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majority of which can realistically be confined to the past 50 years, although undeniably,

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its roots sink deeply into the prior 55 is not one which could not have been realized

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6,000 years ago. The same resources over which they trampled

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and fought like fools, each in hopes of subjugating or liquidating, the other, all these resources

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were available to them, at any point in time, on any page, in any chapter in history. Nothing

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has ever changed. All indications are such that their intellects

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were just as keen as any today. Their capacity for education, even where no

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formal investment was ever made. An engineering was identical to that manifested today. Across

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the board, in every culture. Yet, humanity for the most part, could think

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in no other terms than, what's yours is mine, and I want it. Including your life, your

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soul if need be, or where that's feasible. This kind of narrative just lends substance

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to the psalmist's musing, does it not, as he pours out his heart before Almighty God?

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What is man that you are mindful of him, or the Son of man? That you visit him? Do not

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man who is born of a woman, whose days are few, yet full of trouble.

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Psalm 8 verse 4. 144-3, 4. Job chapter 14 verses 1, 2.

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The one assurance common to all invaders was such that as assuredly as they had slaughtered

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their way onto the horizons of history and into the historical narrative of some writing

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culture, for, being nomads, most came and went with no written language, and thus, no

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written records of their own. And, as soon as they had settled into some comfort zone,

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just as assuredly, sooner or later. Another would come behind, bent on doing to it. What

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it had done to others before? So, who were these invaders of Europe's western Russia,

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and how do they relate to, Magog, or, today's Russia?

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What, if anything, do they bring to the bargaining table of God's eschatological plans for G.O.G?

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Samarians. Before the advent of these nomadic barbarians, southern Russia is said to have

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been inhabited by a culture known as the catechome. These were forced out of their homes by another

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called the shrubna. In an upheaval which occurred in or around the second half of the second

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millennium BC very little is known about this group of Samarians, although their place in

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history is a fact said to be confirmed by three reliable, if not immutable records given

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that they are mentioned in the writings of.

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1. The Greek writer Homer. 2. The historian Herodotus.

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3. And the annals of the Assyrians, compiled during the years of Sargon II and Asarhodon.

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Known for their nomadic lifestyle, barbarism and utter savagery. No one, on the other hand,

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seems to know where they came from before settling in the plains just north of the Black

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Sea in an area known as Thrace, in southern modern Ukraine, having as boundaries the Prut

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and Don rivers, west and east respectively. However, insofar as the leadership is believed

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to have been fluent in the Iranian dialect, there is speculation that they were most likely

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of that origin.

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They were recognized as a tall people, having black eyes, and they are credited with being

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the first to domesticate the horse, using it for 500 years as a draft animal before

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it ever occurred to them that it could be ridden.

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Having lived in Magog since around 1200 BC, some insist, as early as 2000 BC, the Samarians

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were almost completely wiped out by another group of nomads, more barbarous and cruel

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than they, called the Scythians, who moved into the area and forced them out around 700

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BC.

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In spite of their greatly reduced numbers, they still managed to be a menace and nuisance

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wherever they went.

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Their ability to cause trouble and inflict harm was aided tremendously by, and particularly

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after their appreciation and expectation of the horse was revved up a notch, thanks to

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the lessons they learned from their disastrous encounter with the Scythians.

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They are blamed for the final demise of the Hittite, Prigean, and Lydian kingdoms, all

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located at one point in the western Anatolia, or the area known today as modern Turkey.

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Although they were chased for years by the Scythians some escaping and settling in the

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Crimean Mountains, where they were called Tori.

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They're settling in the old home of the Hittite homelands, there, later being called Gauls

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or Galatians.

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This area is said to have also been inhabited by the Celts, who were also identified by

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some historians as, Gauls, and with, Gomor.

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See comments on verses 4 and 5, page 7-5, or so, though still identifiable as Samarians

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met their Waterloo while trifling with the Assyrians, augmented by fresh defeats from

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the Scythians, in 635 BC, and Lydian King-Eliots.

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History lost sight of them altogether after 500 BC.

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Scythians.

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Oddly, perhaps, it seems that men and women, living since the arrival and disappearance

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of these nomads have at least two things for which we are, unfortunately, indebted to them.

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1, domestication and use of the horse as a riding implement, and 2, a dress code and

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fashion statement centered around the wearing of trousers.

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Apparently, no other, known people groups anywhere, civilized or savage, had ever considered

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these options prior to their arrival.

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Moreover, it is believed that a certain prophecy in the Book of Jeremiah the Prophet makes

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reference to them, which may well be true, given that no military power prior had any

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reputation for the exploits and stunts they contrived for or during combat.

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As with the Samarians, not much is known of the Scythians, as they were called by the

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Greeks.

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The Persians knew them as Sackas.

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All the information available to date comes mainly from historians like Herodotus, who

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is said to have actually visited their territory, and whose work has been expanded upon in our

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day chiefly by Russian anthropologists, and dioderous, and from the many frozen graves

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– robbed, having been found in Russia, Kazakhstan, and the Eurasian plains.

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They were in a literate people, more preoccupied with the business of preparing for raids and

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war, which they often started, than with formal education and building of schools.

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Hence, they themselves maintained no written records of who they were, their origins, or

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of their daily activities.

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And yet, all indications are such that though addicted to savagery and barbarism as a way

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of life they were in fact a talented, crafty people, capable both intellectually as well

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as physically.

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Relics of their prior existence are found most plentifully in southern Russia and in

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the territories of the Crimean Peninsula.

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The well-preserved artifacts and remains found in Scythian graves, one of which was found

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frozen stiff in 1947, in Siberia, yield only mixed messages in terms of who they were ethnically

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and where they were from.

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Some had Mongolian features.

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Others were more European in appearance, having blonde hair.

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No one knows with any amount of certainty whether they came from Central Asia, Iran,

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or the Russian steppes between the Volga River and the Ural Mountains.

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What is certain is that these bearded men with long hair, dark, deep-set eyes, their bodies,

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having never, ever apparently, in a lifetime received the benefit of a good washing.

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Covered in elaborate tattoos, did in fact crawl out of the woodwork, from some dark corner,

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moving chiefly, if not only, to plunder and to raid.

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Recognized as an exotically colorful folk, they were committed pagans, highly superstitious

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believers in witchcraft, magic and amulets.

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They employed and highly exalted cross-dressing, effeminate men called, ennorees, men women

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or half men, as their shaman or religious leaders.

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Known as perpetually restless, they were referred to as the people of the North Parts

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who posed a constant threat.

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There seems to be some confusion among scholars and researchers as to the place of Scythian

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women in that hostile, turbulent culture.

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Some say they were powerless and confined to the home, traveling behind their warrior

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men in covered wagons with the children.

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Researchers insist that the women were often warriors, like their husbands, complete with

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matching full-body tattoos, on equal footing and were some of the Scythians' best and

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most celebrated fighters.

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Confirmation of this was found late in the 20th century when archaeologists uncovered

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the remains of some of these women who had been buried, dressed in their riding garments

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the same as those worn by their men as well as their bows, their swords and their horses.

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Some claim, or had claimed that this tradition of warrior women was only typical of the Sarmatians,

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a study of whom will follow this one.

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Moreover, the Sarmatians do not appear to have ever been known to have applied the bow,

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as a weapon, in battle.

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Some say that to earn the right to marry, according to Herodotus, she was required to

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sustain the blood of at least one enemy, others say, three.

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To strengthen her pectoral muscle so that she could better handle her sword, the female

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warrior to be would be deprived of her right breast, while yet in her infancy.

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The testimony of Deodorodorus asserts that they fought like men and were not the least

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bit inferior with regard to courage.

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The Scythians were expert horsemen.

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While the Sarmarians are credited as the first, or as among the first, to domesticate the

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horse.

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The Scythians who were highly accomplished both in the area of breeding, training, and

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where the historical record goes, were the first to recognize and appreciate it for its

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ride potential.

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And that without saddles or stirrups.

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They took great pride in their animals, often decorating them lavishly, riding them as they

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sat upon cloths for saddles.

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Many among the peoples they terrorized saw horses ridden for the first time because

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of them.

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Warriors in death were often buried with their weapons and their horse.

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In addition to his horsemanship, his savagery and barbarity aside the Scythian was also

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noted for being an outstanding craftsman and skilled metalworker.

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Certain of their tribes were particularly talented workers with iron, while one of their

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trademarks was works of gold, found in abundance.

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They are said to have used gold profusely, decking themselves, their weapons and their

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horses out lavishly, in preparation for battle, as if they were going to a celebrity ball.

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Indeed, for a people whose culture never bothered to cultivate the art of reading and writing

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in which case they left no written records of their own history it might just as easily

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be said that their graves speak volumes, given that much of what is known of them today has

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been gleamed from the metalworks, said to be of fine workmanship, to the extreme, found

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in their frozen tombs scattered across what is often called today, the Eurasian plains,

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in the Black Sea and Crimean areas they inhabited.

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Thousands of their tombs have also been found as well throughout the Caucasus and Anatolia,

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or modern Turkey.

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In battle, virtually, if not always instigated by them for the purpose of plunder, the Scythian

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was known for being fierce, murderous and merciless.

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Their skill at horseback riding as well as their ability to handle the bow and arrow

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while on the run made them formidable enemies.

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There was no foot soldier among them, unlike the Samarians who utilized both infantry and

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chariots, but no riders, that is, until after their encounters.

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This meant of course that attacks on targets of choice and promise could be swift and deadly,

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while getaways were just as quick given that horse-drawn chariots were neither as fast

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nor as maneuverable, and the foot soldier, well, there was, needless to say, simply no

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contest.

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Since the Scythian fighter was a freeman, who received no compensation for his participation,

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beyond food and clothing, motivation and enthusiasm might have been low or nonexistent,

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but for the fact that each could share in the booty of any plunder mission, merely upon

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presentation of the head of an enemy, assuming he lived, and the enemy didn't.

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Thus, it might well be said that his chief incentive, his sole purpose, in general, in

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war was to murder for plunder.

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Although he also carried a sword said to be of a Persian type, his primary weapon was

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a double curved bow from which he fired a tree-foil-shaped arrow, which he shot with

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apparent deadly accuracy from the left side of his horse, while on the run.

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They were experts in this type of warfare.

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Sidebar.

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Although there is no specific reference to any specific encounters between them, there

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is a prophetic reference in one of the OT prophets which seems at least, and is thought

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by some authorities, to be a definite inference to them coming against Israel.

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Their exploits, as shown earlier, do seem to have taken them through the holy land,

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right up to the gates of Egypt, before her pharaoh bought them off.

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The general practices and customs of the Scythian made him an individual as bizarre as he was

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bloody.

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They were notorious for decapitating their enemies.

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This practice provided him at once with several amenities.

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1.

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A scalp, which when scraped free of all its skin, he used as a napkin.

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2.

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In the case of multiple scalps, he would decorate his horse, hanging them on its bridle or,

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weave himself a cloak, all the while increasing his status amongst his fellows.

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3.

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The skulls were leather-bound and used as drinking cups, as well as gold-lined trophies

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by which to impress others.

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Of several different tribes or divisions of the Scythians, the royal group was the

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dominate one.

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When the king, always a member of this group, died, his death automatically implied, signaled

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and occasioned the death of many others, by strangulation.

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One of his concubines, the cupbearer, his cook, the king's lackey, his messenger, and

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the best of his horses, each was strangled so as to accompany their leader in death.

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One year later, up to fifty youths might be singled out from among the ranks of those

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who had been unlucky enough to be in the direct employ of the king, chosen to join their former

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chief executive in death, also by strangling.

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Their bodies would then be placed in a circle, around the sixty-foot-tall mound covering the

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tomb of the late king.

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In addition to the difficulty of settling the question of the origin of this utterly

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strange, nomadic people, believed to be of Iranian stock, due to certain elements of

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their linguistics.

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Recorded history knows of no place for them before 700 BC.

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Although, one historian A.I.

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Meljukeva has written suggesting that early Scythians may be descended from a so-called

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shrubnaya culture which migrated from the Volga-Yural Great Plains to the area north

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of the Black Sea, there to be absorbed by the Samarians sometime around or between the

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middle of the 2nd millennium BC and the end of the 7th century BC.

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It is at about this time that they galloped onto the scene.

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Some say from the plains east of the Don River, west of the Ural Mountains.

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Others say they came from Central Asia, Siberia.

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Having meandered westward from that region, early in the 1st millennium this according

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to Herodotus and other ancient Near Eastern documentation.

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They were for at time allied with the Syria against the Samarians, who were forced out

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of the Black Sea plains to seek refuge toward the south.

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In spite of being as ruthless, cruel and as ferocious as the Scythians, the few chariots

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and slow-moving infantry was simply no match for the speed and might of the horse-mounted

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newcomers, archers all, to the region.

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The meads south of the Caucasus Mountains rendered fruitless their bid to make their tumultuous

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presences felt in the Near East, so that, from the end of the 7th century to the 3rd

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century BC, this latest nomadic savage occupied the plains north of the Black Sea extending

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from the Don River in the east to the Danube River in the west, a span of roughly 950 miles.

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Their empire is said to have included also West Persia, Syria, and Judea to the Egyptian

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borders this, apparently before being driven out by the meads.

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During the 4th century BC, the Scythian Empire reached its zenith politically, economically,

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culturally and socially, all the various tribes being united by one king Atheas.

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It was at this time that they began to lose their grip on the southern Russian steppes.

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In keeping with the true spirit of the Maxim, some folks just don't know when to quit.

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This king was killed at age 90, during a battle with Philip the Macedonian, in 339 BC mounting

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pressure from the Celts and Thracians out of the west and the Sarmatians from the east

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during the second half of the 3rd century contributed to the subsequent cave-in of the

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Scythian world, as they, having become more sedentary, were absorbed into other invading

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powers following which assimilation, the blight of their particular, peculiar brand of presence

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too, like that of the Samarians was stricken or hidden from the pages of time.

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Ironically, perhaps, a few rather than mix or be destroyed, simply retreated to the same

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general area in a peninsula known as the Crimea, into which they had forced the Samarians,

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approximately 400 years earlier.

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Here their memory would survive not even as a jaded recollection by the 3rd century AD.

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Alright then, with that, we will hear, stop this edition of the podcast in the Bible

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prophecy masterclass.

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Please plan to be with us next time for episode number 15, in which we will continue our look

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at some of the strange, utterly godless but colorful cultures that may have contributed

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to the shaping of God's current vitriol toward that land He unaffectionately dubs as, Magog.

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Until our next encounter, may the good Lord bless and keep you safe.