ROSH

[head chieftain].

1. A son of Benjamin listed among those who went into Egypt in 1728 B.C.E. with Jacob’s household, or who were born shortly thereafter. (Gen. 46:21, 26; see BENJAMIN No. 1.) The omission of his name from later lists of Benjamite families may indicate that he died childless, or that his sons merged with a different tribal family.

2. A name found in some translations of Ezekiel 38:2 and 39:1 (AS, JB, Le, LXX, Mo, Yg, Ro) viewed by some scholars as designating a barbarous people called Rosh, who are said to have lived in Russia along the Volga River N of the Taurus Mountains. In view of the meaning of the term and its application to Gog, however, it is appropriately translated as a title rather than a geographic name: “head chieftain” (NW); “chief prince” (AV, Dy, Fn, JP, RS); “great prince” (AT), “prince of the head” and “head prince” (Vg); “leader and head” (Peshitta); “head great one.”—Targums.