Revelation 20:8

"And they went up upon the breadth of the earth, and compassed the camp of the saints about, and the beloved city; and fire came down from God out of heaven, and devoured them. And the devil who seduced them was cast into the take of fire and brimstone, where both the beast and the false prophet shall be tormented day and night for ever and ever."]This belongs to the last judgment. And after a little time the earth was made holy, as being at least that wherein lately had reposed the bodies of the virgins, when they shall enter upon an eternal kingdom with an immortal King, as they who are not only virgins in body, but, moreover, with equal inviolability have protected themselves, both in tongue and thought, from wickedness; and these, it shows, shall dwell in rejoicing for ever with the Lamb.

At that time the devil will have a single objective in his deception, namely, to bring on this battle, rather than deceive by the multifarious means of his previous malice. The expression “will go forth” means that his secret hatred will blaze out into open persecution. For this is to be the very last of all persecutions immediately preceding the very last of all judgments—a persecution that Holy church, the worldwide city of Christ, is to suffer at the hands of the worldwide city of the devil, in every place where the two cities will then extend. The peoples John calls Gog and Magog are not to be thought of as some definite barbarians dwelling in a certain part of the earth, such as the Getae and Massagetae (as some have imagined on account of the initial letters), or any other foreign tribes beyond the pale of the Roman Empire. John clearly indicates that they are to be everywhere in the world, “nations that are in the four corners of the earth, Gog and Magog.” Of these names I am told that, literally, Gog means “a roof” and Magog “from the roof.” Thus we may take the words to mean an “abode” and a “person issuing from this abode” and, therefore, “the peoples in whom the devil abides as in an abyss” and “the devil himself, lifting himself up and coming out of them.” They are the “roof,” and he is “from the roof.” If … we apply both names to the peoples (rather than the first to them, the second to the devil), then they are the “roof” because the ancient foe is now shut up and roofed over in them, and they will issue “from the roof” when their concealed hatred bursts forth and is revealed in the open.

This does not mean that they have come, or shall come, to one place, as if the camp of the saints and the beloved city should be in some one place; for this camp is nothing else than the Church of Christ extending over the whole world. And consequently wherever the Church shall be,— and it shall be in all nations, as is signified by the breadth of the earth,— there also shall be the camp of the saints and the beloved city, and there it shall be encompassed by the savage persecution of all its enemies; for they too shall exist along with it in all nations,— that is, it shall be straitened, and hard pressed, and shut up in the straits of tribulation, but shall not desert its military duty, which is signified by the word camp.

Therefore, enough of these things. But since he said in what has gone before that the Devil will come forth to deceive the nations, he now says what nations and from whom they are gathered: He says, Gog and Magog, to gather them to the war.

A war, however, against the saints. For having fulfilled the discourse concerning the salvific incarnation, he again returned from where he had gone out and related those things to us. He had gone forth from the Devil and the Antichrist; and from the defeat and punishment of the nations taken with them. Now I complete what was previously said insufficiently. He joins to the remaining nations those who have joined battle with the Antichrist; and Gog, thus saying:

And he went out to deceive all the nations that are in the four corners of the earth; among whom he says also Gog and Magog, to gather them together to the war, whose number is like the sand of the sea.

Concerning these, of Gog and of Magog, the prophetic seer Ezekiel delivered a prophecy, explaining how the wicked will be destroyed. These will be certain nations and rulers of nations gathered around the end (see Ezek. 38-39); for now they do not yet exist, or they are some of the nations now existing called by different names in the divine Scripture. These therefore will resist the God-hating Satan against the servants of Christ.

In this passage “to deceive” means to scatter or to spoil, that is, to drag the nations along with him into condemnation, namely, all the wicked whom he has deceived in every part of the earth. And he will cause those who have been gathered together with him in one single condemnation to be delivered over to eternal torments. For Gog means “roof” and Magog means “out of the covering” or “out from the roof.” Everyone whom he has brought out and led to the collapse of his own arrogance, or those whom he supported by the roof of his pride, or those who will be recognized as coming from the same cover and height of his arrogance, all these persons will be taken at the same time in one condemnation and by an eternal fire. When it says, “he will gather them for battle,” it describes as something future what is in the past, for in some manner this battle is the hostility that the wicked have toward good works. And since those who are wicked are many and numerous, he adds, “whose number is like the sand of the sea.”

Satan will be loosed from his prison and will deceive all nations and will entice Gog and Magog to war for the devastation of the world. Some believe that these two are the remote northern people of the Scythians, whom we call the Huns, and, as we see, are the most populous and warlike of any kingdom on earth and are kept from seizing the whole earth until the loosing of the devil by the hand of God alone.… Some interpret on the basis of the Hebrew language and render Gog as “one who gathers” or “that which is gathered” and Magog as “one who is exalted.” In this way, these names signify either the gathering of the nations or their exaltation. We should note that Ezekiel prophesied that these nations would come upon the earth with great power at the end of time, that Israel would fall and for a period of seven years would burn by their arms as though through a great fire. Some interpreters refer this to the fall of the Assyrians under Sennacherib at the time of Hezekiah, which happened a long time prior to the prophecy of Ezekiel. Others refer this to the destruction of the nations that attacked those coming to rebuild Jerusalem after the conquest by the Babylonians, when first Cyrus the Persian and then Darius ordered the governors of Syria to do this. Yet others refer to the forces of Antiochus, which were defeated by the Maccabees. However, it is clear that the arrival of these nations best suits the final times. First of all, it is nowhere written that the nation of the Scythians waged war against the Jews at that time, but only those nations round about them that envied their prosperity. Second, concerning Gog it is written, “He will be prepared from the days of old and will come at the end of time.” Third, in the present Revelation, which foretells future events, it is written that Gog and Magog will come toward the end of this age.

And he will go out and deceive the nations, etc. Then he will deceive them to gather them for this battle. For even before, in the ways he could, he was deceiving through many and various evils. For it is said that he will go out: he will burst forth from the hidden places of his hatred into open persecution. Furthermore, Gog and Magog either signify the whole from a part or, according to the interpretation of their names, which are said to mean roof and from the roof, indicate hidden and open enemies. And they are the roof, because the enemy is now enclosed and ruled in them: and they will be from the roof when they erupt into open hatred.

Like wild beasts from their lairs, so these also will be released over the earth from their places through the Devil their general, so that they may destroy the camps of the saints-that is, the Church- which have been established in the four extremities of the world; unaware that not one angel but many are those that surround the fearers of God, as the Psalm says, “Camps of angels of the Lord surround his fearers and guard them.” Ps 33:8 Straightaway they will also lay hands on the holy city Jerusalem; whence the divine law was spread throughout the whole world by the apostles, and where too we have learned from the Apostle that Antichrist sits in the temple. 2Thess 2:4

the beloved city. That is Jerusalem, which will be inhabited at that time by Christians, as was said in Ez. 39.