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Gog is ISRAEL in the LXX

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  • Gog is ISRAEL in the LXX

    Pretty simple to prove by cross-checking other scripture. Here's the text referring to the identity of "Gog" in Numbers 24:5-9 in the LXX. Everyone will remember that this is the ancient prophecy that God gave to Balaam when Israel was about to enter the land of Canaan.

    "How goodly are thy habitations, Jacob, and thy tents, ISRAEL!
    As shady groves, and as gardens by a river, and as tents which God pitched, and as cedars by the waters.
    There shall come a man out of his seed, and he shall rule over many nations; and THE KINGDOM OF *GOG* shall be exalted, and his kingdom shall be increased.
    God led him" (God led GOG, that is) "out of Egypt; he has as it were the glory of a unicorn: he shall consume the nations of his enemies, and he shall drain their marrow, and with his darts he shall shoot through the enemy.
    He lay down, he rested as a lion, and as a young lion; who shall stir him up? they that bless thee are blessed, and they that curse thee are cursed."

    We can confirm that this identity of Gog actually is Israel by looking at the Gog prophecy in Ezekiel 38-39. That battle of "Gog" coming against Israel was foretold "in OLD TIME" by the prophets (Ez. 38:17). This tells me that the "old time" Balaam prophecy got handed down to the prophets in ancient Israel, and was repeated through the generations. But this sounds contradictory. If Gog actually WAS Israel, as Baaam's prophecy says, then Gog as Israel was going to come AGAINST Israel ?? That's what it says. By that we can understand that this was going to be a CIVIL WAR in Israel. Ezekiel 38:21 agrees with this. God said that at the same time when Gog would come against the land of Israel, that "...I will call for a sword against him (against Gog) throughout all my mountains, saith the Lord God: EVERY MAN'S SWORD SHALL BE AGAINST *HIS BROTHER*".

    There we have it. The battle involving "Gog" would pit Israelites in civil strife against their brother Israelites. Christ during His ministry hinted in Luke 12:52 that this fraternal conflict in Israel had already begun in His day. "For FROM HENCEFORTH there shall be five in one house divided, three against two, and two against three. The father shall be divided against the son, and the son against the father..." This kind of internal division in Israel would continue to increase until the Zealot rebellion openly broke out in AD 66. Those Zealots who were determined to begin a revolt against Rome were divided against those who wanted to maintain the status quo and avoid a disruptive war against their Roman overlords.

    Ezekiel 38-39 gives the details of just how a "chief prince" nicknamed "Gog" would amass a huge army that was composed - not just of native Israelites - but of those in Israel who had descended from other nations and had come to join his cause. All of them would be "handling swords" - the preferred weapon of choice that the more radical sicarii members among the Zealots were well known for using.

    Of course, the "chief prince" nicknamed "Gog" and his multitudinous army would not survive. Gog's army would "fall upon the mountains of Israel" (which typically meant the mountains surrounding the city of Jerusalem). Their dead bodies would end up being buried in Israel in "the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea". This is the disc-shaped plain at the top of the Dead Sea called the "kikar of Jordan" today. The travelers that used the trade route running up the east side of the Dead Sea would end up holding their noses as they passed through this region of the Jordan plain in the aftermath of Gog's army being buried there.

    The only individual that fits all the prophecy particulars about "Gog" the "chief prince" was the Zealot leader Simon bar Giora, who by AD 69 had managed to build a huge mixed-nation army of some 40,000 - the largest of all the other Zealot contenders for power in Jerusalem. Even the Romans regarded Simon bar Giora as the "King" of the rebellion. Because when Simon was finally captured after emerging from one of the underground tunnels on the Temple grounds, they reserved him for the victorious Roman triumph, after which he was executed. If anyone wants to delve into the details of how Simon bar Giora the Zealot commander fulfilled the terms of the Gog prophecy, I can point them out in Josephus where that record compares to the scripture references. That battle of Gog predicted in both Ezekiel 38-39 and Revelation 20 is loooong over.

  • #2
    Numbers 24:7, ". . . Water shall flow from his buckets, And his seed shall be in many waters, And his king shall be higher than Agag [Gog], And his kingdom shall be exalted. . . ."
    LXX, ". . . There shall come a man out of his seed, and he shall rule over many nations; and the kingdom of Gog shall be exalted, and his kingdom shall be increased. . . ."
    There is a problem between the Hebrew and the Greek from the Hebrew.
    Last edited by 37818; 03-19-2021, 09:50 AM.
    . . . the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; . . . -- Romans 1:16 KJV

    . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: . . . -- 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 KJV

    Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: . . . -- 1 John 5:1 KJV

    Comment


    • #3
      Afternoon 37818,

      I have read the other versions of these Numbers 24:5-9 verses for many years. But the light didn't come on for me about who Gog actually was until I read this in the LXX. These verses in the LXX say that God led GOG out of Egypt. ("Out of Egypt have I called my son" originally referred to the nation of Israel.) Gog is the particular referent to the pronoun in the sentence "God led HIM out of Egypt.... " That is the nation of ISRAEL without question under discussion, making Gog = Israel.

      In case anyone has a problem with using this verse in the LXX for proof (as you very well might have, 37818) , we have the Ezekiel 38:21 (KJV) verse that tells us without a doubt that the battle which Gog was going to be engaged in would be a *CIVIL* WAR, when "every man's sword shall be against HIS BROTHER". This pictures ISRAELITES battling ISRAELITES, since Gog was going to come against ISRAEL. If anyone thinks that contradicts the multi-national individuals that would compose Gog's army in Ezekiel 38:5-6, that is easily explained by the post-exilic return of the tribes of Israel that came out of every nation to which they had been scattered.

      The period from AD 66-70 was saturated with this CIVIL WAR element in Israel. Zealot factions abounded, with each of them thinking that the time had come to throw off the Roman yoke that had held their nation in subjugation. Each of the leaders of these competing Zealot factions thought that they personally could aspire to fulfill the "Messiah" role prophesied in Daniel 9. "Strong delusion", indeed, especially when the Zealot armies achieved their initial triumphant victory over Cestius Gallus' troops in late AD 66 before the winter had set in. From that single victory forward, the Zealots were convinced that God was on their side against the Romans. God let them believe that "strong delusion", so that they would end up carrying out His "days of vengeance" by destroying themselves.

      This period of Zealot conflict between AD 66-70 was actually the rise of the existence of the "Scarlet Beast" of Revelation 17. This "Scarlet Beast" was totally JUDEAN in features and character (which was another THIRD beast, altogether different from the FIRST Sea Beast and the SECOND Land Beast from Rev. 13). This THIRD "Scarlet Beast" (representing an independent kingdom nation of Israel which appeared in a wilderness setting) once "WAS" in existence after the Maccabean victories, but later on it "WAS NOT" in existence after Israel had become a subjugated nation giving the Romans tribute under Pompey. This "Scarlet Beast" kingdom of an independent kingdom nation of Israel was soon "ABOUT TO RISE out of the "abyss" of a non-functioning status in John's days (Revelation having been written somewhere between late AD 59 - early AD 60). After the Zealots made their official break with Rome in AD 66, this independent kingdom nation of Israel once more "IS" in existence.

      But only briefly. Because John not only said that the Scarlet Beast "IS ABOUT TO RISE...", he also said that it "IS ABOUT TO...GO INTO DESTRUCTION". Gog would soon destroy the nation of Israel itself by the end of AD 70, because internecine warfare was the main cause behind the fall of Jerusalem. The city would have never fallen to the Romans if it had not been so weakened beforehand by internal division and battle that the Romans only had to wait out those years while the Zealot factions chewed each other to pieces. Rome just came in and gave the final blows in AD 70 that destroyed the city with the last stone laid level with the ground.

      This civil war battle of Gog versus Israel and the "beloved city" of Jerusalem (Israelites battling Israelites) is a matter of ancient history by now. Gog's battle is NOT dangling over our heads as a threat which we will see either in our lifetime or at any time in the future. It's over and done with - every bit of it.
      Last edited by 3 Resurrections; 03-19-2021, 12:31 PM.

      Comment


      • #4
        As to the signification of Gog, it appears to mean mountain, i.e. Caucasus (Persic koh, Ossetic ghogh, i.e., mountain; and even the classical name "Caucasus" originated in Koh-Kaf), since Caucasus was the chief seat of the Scythian people. The hardening of the last sound (h) into g (gog from koh) seems to have taken place early, and when the name had already become that of a people, the other names, Magog, Agag (Samaritan Agog, gentile Agagi, Phoenic. Agog) also arose. Another explanation from the Pehlvi koka, "moon" (see Grabschrift des Darius, page 64), because they prayed to the moon, is improbable. A Sheneitic etymology is also possible. From the reduplicated form גַּאגֵא (from the root גָּא, whence גָּג, a roof), in the sense of "to be high or overtopping," גּוֹג might signify a mountain or summit (compare Arabic juju, breast of a ship, i.e., something heightened). Figuratively this stem would mean gigantic, great of stature, powerful, warlike (cognate with קִואּקִן of Isa 18:2); camp. Sanskrit kû, to be mighty, kavi (in the Vedas, Persic kav), king, modern Persian kay, warlike or valiant; in which sense the Amalekite name Ageg or Agog, the Heb. name Gog, and the Phoen. Agog in the story of Ogyges, may be taken.
        McClintock and Strong Biblical Cyclopedia

        Though the original etymology and meaning are "uncertain", the name Ogyges may be related to the Greek Okeanos (Ὠκεανός), the Titan who personified the great world ocean. The Greek word Ogygios (Ὠγύγιος), meaning Ogygian, came to mean "primeval, primal," or "from earliest ages" and also "gigantic".

        ...

        The first worldwide flood in Greek mythology, the Ogygian deluge occurred during his reign and derives its name from him, though some sources regard it as a local flood, such as an inundation of Lake Copais, a large lake once in the center of Boeotia. Other sources see it as a flood associated with Attica. This latter view was accepted by Africanus, who says "that great and first flood occurred in Attica, when Phoroneus was king of Argos, as Acusilaus relates."

        When this deluge has been considered global, a similarity is noticed with Noah's flood in the Bible. Various dates have been assigned to the event, including 9500 BCE (Plato), 2136 BCE (Varro), and 1793 BCE (Africanus).

        ...

        The historian Josephus mentions Ogyges as the name of the oak by which the Hebrew patriarch Abram dwelt while he lived near Hebron. Furthermore, Og, also called "Ogias the Giant", who was king of Bashan in the Old Testament; was described as a giant in Deut 3:11, viewed by the Hebrews as having aided Noah in building the Ark, thus Noah allowed him to stay on the deck of the Ark.
        Ogyges - Wikipedia

        Og/Gog/Okeanos was the personified ocean, of which the ancients conceived there to be one ocean/river/sea which surrounded the known land and were the remnant waters of the flood. Those flood waters themselves were considered part of the primeval waters which in the Bible the Spirit of God "hovered over" when He created the world, so the waters themselves were considered divine, as in the primeval Babylonian goddess of the sea Tiamat. Her name is considered cognate with the "tehom" of Genesis 1:2.

        Since the primeval waters were chaotic before they were ordered in creation, they came to symbolize chaos and were ubiquitous in the "chaoskampf" myths in the ancient world.

        The motif of Chaoskampf (German: [ˈkaːɔsˌkampf]; lit. 'struggle against chaos') is ubiquitous in myth and legend, depicting a battle of a culture hero deity with a chaos monster, often in the shape of a serpent or dragon. The same term has also been extended to parallel concepts in the Middle East and North Africa, such as the abstract conflict of ideas in the Egyptian duality of Maat and Isfet or the battle of Horus and Set.
        Chaos (cosmogony) - Wikipedia

        So Og of Bashan considered himself a divine king. And "Gog" is a title of the Antichrist, who will also consider himself a divine king.

        Scripture Verse: 2 Thes 2

        3 Don’t let anyone deceive you in any way, for that day will not come until the rebellion occurs and the man of lawlessness is revealed, the man doomed to destruction. 4 He will oppose and will exalt himself over everything that is called God or is worshiped, so that he sets himself up in God’s temple, proclaiming himself to be God.

        © Copyright Original Source



        Scripture Verse: Isaiah 8

        7 Now therefore, behold, the Lord bringeth up upon them the waters of the river, strong and many, even the king of Assyria, and all his glory: and he shall come up over all his channels, and go over all his banks:

        8 And he shall pass through Judah; he shall overflow and go over, he shall reach even to the neck; and the stretching out of his wings shall fill the breadth of thy land, O Immanuel.

        © Copyright Original Source



        Scripture Verse: Isaiah 10

        5 “Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger,
        in whose hand is the club of my wrath!
        6 I send him against a godless nation,
        I dispatch him against a people who anger me,
        to seize loot and snatch plunder,
        and to trample them down like mud in the streets.
        7 But this is not what he intends,
        this is not what he has in mind;
        his purpose is to destroy,
        to put an end to many nations.
        ...
        12 When the Lord has finished all his work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, he will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the willful pride of his heart and the haughty look in his eyes. 13 For he says:

        “‘By the strength of my hand I have done this,
        and by my wisdom, because I have understanding.
        I removed the boundaries of nations,
        I plundered their treasures;
        like a mighty one I subdued their kings.
        14 As one reaches into a nest,
        so my hand reached for the wealth of the nations;
        as people gather abandoned eggs,
        so I gathered all the countries;
        not one flapped a wing,
        or opened its mouth to chirp.’”

        © Copyright Original Source



        This is one of those double fulfillments, since the near "king of Assyria" was Sennacherib, but he was an obvious type of the Antichrist, considering himself a divine opponent of the God of Israel

        Scripture Verse: Isaiah 37

        21 Then Isaiah son of Amoz sent a message to Hezekiah: “This is what the Lord, the God of Israel, says: Because you have prayed to me concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria, 22 this is the word the Lord has spoken against him:
        ...
        26 “Have you not heard?
        Long ago I ordained it.
        In days of old I planned it
        ;
        now I have brought it to pass,
        that you have turned fortified cities
        into piles of stone.
        27 Their people, drained of power,
        are dismayed and put to shame.
        They are like plants in the field,
        like tender green shoots,
        like grass sprouting on the roof,
        scorched before it grows up.

        28 “But I know where you are
        and when you come and go
        and how you rage against me.
        29 Because you rage against me
        and because your insolence has reached my ears,
        I will put my hook in your nose
        and my bit in your mouth,
        and I will make you return
        by the way you came.

        © Copyright Original Source



        "hook in nose" and "bit in mouth" is familiar imagery...

        Scripture Verse: Ezekiel 38

        The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face against Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshek and Tubal; prophesy against him 3 and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshek and Tubal. 4I will turn you around, put hooks in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army—your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords. 5 Persia, Cush 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 troops—the many nations with you.

        7 “‘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.

        © Copyright Original Source






        Comment


        • #5
          Originally posted by 3 Resurrections View Post
          Afternoon 37818,

          I have read the other versions of these Numbers 24:5-9 verses for many years. But the light didn't come on for me about who Gog actually was until I read this in the LXX. These verses in the LXX say that God led GOG out of Egypt. ("Out of Egypt have I called my son" originally referred to the nation of Israel.) Gog is the particular referent to the pronoun in the sentence "God led HIM out of Egypt.... " That is the nation of ISRAEL without question under discussion, making Gog = Israel.

          In case anyone has a problem with using this verse in the LXX for proof (as you very well might have, 37818) , we have the Ezekiel 38:21 (KJV) verse that tells us without a doubt that the battle which Gog was going to be engaged in would be a *CIVIL* WAR, when "every man's sword shall be against HIS BROTHER". This pictures ISRAELITES battling ISRAELITES, since Gog was going to come against ISRAEL. If anyone thinks that contradicts the multi-national individuals that would compose Gog's army in Ezekiel 38:5-6, that is easily explained by the post-exilic return of the tribes of Israel that came out of every nation to which they had been scattered.

          The period from AD 66-70 was saturated with this CIVIL WAR element in Israel. Zealot factions abounded, with each of them thinking that the time had come to throw off the Roman yoke that had held their nation in subjugation. Each of the leaders of these competing Zealot factions thought that they personally could aspire to fulfill the "Messiah" role prophesied in Daniel 9. "Strong delusion", indeed, especially when the Zealot armies achieved their initial triumphant victory over Cestius Gallus' troops in late AD 66 before the winter had set in. From that single victory forward, the Zealots were convinced that God was on their side against the Romans. God let them believe that "strong delusion", so that they would end up carrying out His "days of vengeance" by destroying themselves.

          This period of Zealot conflict between AD 66-70 was actually the rise of the existence of the "Scarlet Beast" of Revelation 17. This "Scarlet Beast" was totally JUDEAN in features and character (which was another THIRD beast, altogether different from the FIRST Sea Beast and the SECOND Land Beast from Rev. 13). This THIRD "Scarlet Beast" (representing an independent kingdom nation of Israel which appeared in a wilderness setting) once "WAS" in existence after the Maccabean victories, but later on it "WAS NOT" in existence after Israel had become a subjugated nation giving the Romans tribute under Pompey. This "Scarlet Beast" kingdom of an independent kingdom nation of Israel was soon "ABOUT TO RISE out of the "abyss" of a non-functioning status in John's days (Revelation having been written somewhere between late AD 59 - early AD 60). After the Zealots made their official break with Rome in AD 66, this independent kingdom nation of Israel once more "IS" in existence.

          But only briefly. Because John not only said that the Scarlet Beast "IS ABOUT TO RISE...", he also said that it "IS ABOUT TO...GO INTO DESTRUCTION". Gog would soon destroy the nation of Israel itself by the end of AD 70, because internecine warfare was the main cause behind the fall of Jerusalem. The city would have never fallen to the Romans if it had not been so weakened beforehand by internal division and battle that the Romans only had to wait out those years while the Zealot factions chewed each other to pieces. Rome just came in and gave the final blows in AD 70 that destroyed the city with the last stone laid level with the ground.

          This civil war battle of Gog versus Israel and the "beloved city" of Jerusalem (Israelites battling Israelites) is a matter of ancient history by now. Gog's battle is NOT dangling over our heads as a threat which we will see either in our lifetime or at any time in the future. It's over and done with - every bit of it.
          Ezekiel 38:18, ". . . And it shall come to pass at the same time when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, saith the Lord GOD, . . ." Ezekiel, 38:21, ". . . every man's sword shall be against his brother. . . ." Well, lost unsaved Israel against the Israel of God, Revelation 20:8, ". . . the nations which are in the four quarters of the earth, Gog and Magog, to gather them together to battle: the number of whom is as the sand of the sea. . . ." I see this as yet future. Gog and others.
          . . . the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; . . . -- Romans 1:16 KJV

          . . . that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: . . . -- 1 Corinthians 15:3-4 KJV

          Whosoever believeth that Jesus is the Christ is born of God: . . . -- 1 John 5:1 KJV

          Comment


          • #6
            Hi 37818,

            There's a problem with saying that this "Gog" event must take place in our future. Reading from the context of Revelation 20:8, with Gog simultaneously surrounding the camp of the saints inside the beloved city of Jerusalem...in that same context when Gog was to be devoured by God's fire out of heaven, we also read of the Devil and the Beast and the False prophet all sharing in the Lake of Fire torment. We already know that this Scarlet Beast of Rev. 17 was "*ABOUT TO*...GO INTO DESTRUCTION" (Rev. 17:8) in the near future for John's readers. That would chronologically place ALL those events in the same first-century time span - not in our future. Even the Devil cast into that Lake of Fire at that time was at the end of his existence. That's because the Devil's "little season" and "short time" of existence to operate on earth was already underway even BEFORE John was writing Revelation (as Rev. 12:12 tells us). Satan's "SHORT time" and "LITTLE season" were not going to last for 2,000 years and more. Scripture called the 40 years of wilderness wanderings a "LONG season" (in Joshua 24:7). So, the "LITTLE season" that the Devil was operating in John's days by comparison should at least be less than that "LONG season" of 40 years amount of time.

            Isaiah 31:9 said that God's "fire is in Zion and His furnace in Jerusalem." With that "furnace of fire" in Jerusalem, (aka the "Lake of Fire"), God took out Gog's army, the Scarlet Beast, the Land Beast, and the Devil and his angels - all in one brief period of time by the end of that AD 70 conflict. God certainly knows how to multi-task when He wants to.

            The weaponry and armor that were to equip Gog's army (swords, helmets, shields and bucklers, chariots, and horses) are definitely first-century in style - not what we would see in modern warfare. God said that Israel was going to be given into the hand of her enemies, and they would ALL FALL BY THE SWORD (Ezekiel 39:23). Literally, just as Ezekiel 39:9-10 predicted, it took 7 years to burn all the weapons used in the Roman-Jewish war of AD 70. Josephus said that every tree within a 10-mile radius was cut down by the end of the AD 70 conflict. The Romans used the trees of the land for weapons, their siege machinery, and for the wall of circumvallation that they built to completely surround Jerusalem back then (just as Jesus predicted in Luke 19:43 that Jerusalem would be "compassed around" and "kept in on every side") . Seven years after AD 70 of using this leftover war materiel as a substitute for firewood was not an exaggerated statement for that time.

            And the 7 months that it took to bury all of Gog's dead in Ezekiel 39:12 was not an exaggeration for the end of that AD 70 period either. Only the people of a nation that was still trying to observe the Mosaic laws of purity by not touching a bone from a dead body would have cared to set apart a separate, reserved category of men who would remain ritually unclean for the length of time it took to bury all the dead they could find. After they had accomplished their task of burying all the dead that could be found, the land would be "cleansed" - a term from Mosaic law that only a nation that was still stubbornly sticking to the Mosaic rituals would have used. This harks back to the laws of uncleanness in Numbers 19:16. "And whosoever toucheth one that is slain with a sword in the open fields, or a dead body, or a bone of a man, or a grave, shall be unclean seven days." So, if those "men of continual employment" were going to be continually employed in burying Gog's dead that they found in all the land, they would have remained ritually unclean for the entire duration of those seven months after AD 70.

            The "four quarters of the earth" reference in Rev. 20:8 for Gog and Magog does not refer to the entire globe. It describes the four corners of the land of ISRAEL'S dimensions. God "divided them into corners" (Nehemiah 9:22) when the 12 tribes of Israel originally entered the land of Canaan. In Ezekiel 7:2-3, God sent a warning message to the "LAND OF ISRAEL", saying "An end, the end is come upon the FOUR CORNERS OF THE LAND. Now is the end come upon thee..."

            Israel was divided into "nations" within its borders (Samaria, Galilee, etc.) In Ezekiel 38:15 and 39:2, Gog was going to "come from thy place out of the NORTH PARTS" - in other words, Gog would come from the NORTH PARTS of the land of ISRAEL'S four corners. That means Gog would come out of "GALILEE of the Gentiles'. And we know that Galilee was the home turf for many Zealot leaders of that era. Judas the Galilean of Acts 5: 37 being one example.

            Gog would come against Israel in years future, at a time after the post-exilic return had mercifully brought them back from their Babylonian captivity when they had dwelt in other nations and the land of Israel had remained desolate for 70 years. Once they returned in the post-exilic period, God promised to "pour out my spirit upon the house of Israel" (Ezekiel 39:29), which He did in a revival of the people under Nehemiah, Ezra, Zerubbabel, and Joshua the high priest. Yet this restored nation of Israel would apostatize again, and would fall once again in its "Second Death" during the AD 66-70 years

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