They said, "O Two Eras, Gog and Magog are destroyers of the land, and so shall we make a tribute for you that you will make between us and them a barrier?"
Translation endnotes
[18:94-99] Because of the link with the end of the world, the verses can be understood as prophetic narratives of future events, rather than historical information. The Quran occasionally uses the past tense as a style of telling future events, to emphasize their inevitability. Can we understand this passage as an international civilization led by a just and peaceful leader that lasted for two generations, and just before the end of the world the two hostile nations will regain their power and attack that civilization?