The Daily Audio Bible

Prophecy against Gog—Invaders Destroyed

39 “And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, ‘Thus says the Lord God, “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince (ruler) of Meshech and Tubal; ² and I will turn you around and lead you along, and bring you up from the remotest parts of the north, and I will bring you against the mountains of Israel. ³ I will strike your bow from your left hand and make your arrows to fall out of your right hand. ⁴ You will fall [dead] on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the nations who are with you. I will give you to every kind of predatory bird and animal of the field as food. ⁵ You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken,” says the Lord God. ⁶ “I will also send fire on Magog and on those who live securely in the coastlands; and they will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord.

⁷ “I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name anymore; and the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel. ⁸ Behold, it is coming and it will be done,” says the Lord God. “That is the day of which I have spoken.

⁹ And [when you, Gog, no longer exist] those who live in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires with the weapons and burn them, both the [large] shields and the ^[a]bucklers (small shields), the bows and the arrows, the war clubs and the spears; and for seven years they will burn them. ¹⁰ They will not take any wood from the field or cut down and gather [any] firewood from the forests, because they will make their fires using the weapons. And they will take the spoil from those who despoiled them and seize the plunder of those who plundered them,” says the Lord God.

¹¹ “And on that day I will give Gog a place for burial there in Israel, the valley of those who pass through east of the sea, and it will block the way of those who would pass through. So they will ^[b]bury Gog there with all his hordes, and they will call it the Valley of Hamon-gog (the multitude of Gog). ¹² For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to cleanse the land. ¹³ Yes, all the people of the land will bury them; and it will be to their renown on the day that I appear in My glory and brilliance,” says the Lord God. ¹⁴ “They will elect men who will constantly go through the land, [men commissioned] to bury those who were passing through, those bodies that lie unburied on the surface of the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will do a search. ¹⁵ As those who pass through the land pass through and anyone sees a human bone, he will set up a marker beside it, until the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog. ¹⁶ And even the name of the city will be Hamonah. In this manner they shall cleanse the land.”’

¹⁷ “As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God, ‘Say to every kind of bird and to every animal of the field, “Assemble and come, gather from every side to My sacrifice that I am slaughtering for you, as a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you will eat flesh and drink blood. ¹⁸ You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as though they were rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan [east of the Jordan]. ¹⁹ So you will eat fat until you are filled and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast which I have prepared for you. ²⁰ You will eat your fill at My table with horses and riders, with mighty men, and with all the men of war,” says the Lord God.

²¹ “And I will bring [and manifest] My glory among the nations; and all the nations will see My judgment and justice [in the punishment] which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them. ²² So the house of Israel will know [with absolute confidence] that I am the Lord their God from that day forward. ²³ And the nations will know [without any doubt] that the house of Israel went into exile for their great sin, because they acted treacherously against Me; and I hid My face (favor, blessing) from them. So I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell [into captivity or were killed] by [the power of] the sword.^{(A) 24} I dealt with them in accordance with their uncleanness and their transgressions, and I hid My face from them.”’”

Israel Restored

²⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob (Israel) and have mercy on the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name [demanding what is rightfully and uniquely mine]. ²⁶ They will forget their disgrace and all their treachery (unfaithfulness) which they perpetuated against Me, when they live securely in their own land and there is no one who makes them afraid. ²⁷ When I bring them back from the nations and gather them out of their enemies’ lands, then I shall show Myself holy [and My justice and holiness will be vindicated] through them in the sight of many nations. ²⁸ Then they will know [without any doubt] that I am the Lord their God because I made them go into exile among the nations, and then gathered them to their own land. I will leave none of them there [among the nations] any longer. ²⁹ I will not hide My face from them any longer, because I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,” says the Lord God.

Vision of the Man with a Measuring Rod

40 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile [in Babylon], in the beginning of the year, on the tenth [day] of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city [of Jerusalem] was taken, on that [very] same day the hand of the Lord was upon me and He brought me there. ² In the visions of God He brought me to the land of Israel and set me down on a very high mountain, on the south side of which there was what seemed to be a structure of a city. ³ So He brought me there; and behold, there was a man [an angel] whose appearance was like bronze, with a line of flax and a measuring ^[c]rod in his hand; and he was standing in the gateway. ⁴ The man said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and set your heart on all that I am going to show you; for you have been brought here that I may show it to you. Declare to the house of Israel all that you see.”

Measurements Relating to the Temple

⁵ And behold, there was a wall all around the outside [area] of the temple (house) [of the Lord], and in the man’s hand a measuring rod six cubits long (10.2 ft.), ^[d]each ^[e]cubit being longer than the ^[f]standard one by a hand width. So he measured the thickness of the wall, one rod; and the height, one rod. ⁶ Then he went to the gate which faced the east and went up its [seven] steps and measured the threshold of the gate, one rod in width; and the other threshold [of the gate inside the thick wall] was one rod in width. ⁷ The guardroom was one rod long and one rod wide, and [the space] between the guardrooms was five cubits. And the threshold of the gate by the porch (portico) of the gate facing inward was one rod. ⁸ He also measured the porch of the gate facing inward [toward the temple of the Lord], one rod. ⁹ Then he measured the porch of the gate, eight cubits, and its side pillars, two cubits. The porch of the gate faced inward [toward the temple of the Lord]. ¹⁰ There were three guardrooms on each side of the gate toward the east; the three were the same size, and the side pillars on each side measured the same. ¹¹ And he measured the width of the ^[g]gateway, ten cubits, and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits. ¹² On each side a border (barrier wall) one cubit wide stood in front of the guardrooms on each side; and the guardrooms were six cubits square on each side. ¹³ He measured the gate from the roof of one guardroom to the roof of the other, a width of twenty-five cubits from one door to the opposite door. ¹⁴ He made [the measurement of] the side pillars sixty cubits high; the gate extended all around to the side pillar of the courtyard. ¹⁵ From the front of the entrance gate [on the outside] to the front of the inner porch (portico) of the gate [the distance] was fifty cubits. ¹⁶ There were shuttered windows looking toward the guardrooms, and toward their side pillars within the gate all around, and likewise for the porches. And windows were all around inside; and palm tree decorations were on each side pillar.

¹⁷ Then he brought me into the outer courtyard, and behold, there were chambers and a pavement made for the courtyard all around; thirty chambers faced the pavement. ¹⁸ The pavement (that is, the lower pavement) was by the ^[h]side of the gates, corresponding to the length of the gates. ¹⁹ Then he measured the width from the front of the lower gate to the front of the exterior of the inner court, a hundred cubits [both] on the east and on the north.

²⁰ And as for the gate of the outer courtyard which faced the north he measured [both] its length and its width. ²¹ Its guardrooms, three on each side, and its side pillars and its porches had the same measurement as the first gate. Its length was fifty cubits and the width was twenty-five cubits. ²² Its windows and its porches and its palm tree decorations had the same measurements as the gate that faced toward the east. It was reached by going up seven steps, and its porch was in front of them. ²³ The inner courtyard had a gate opposite the gate on the north as well as the gate on the east; and he measured a hundred cubits from gate to gate.

²⁴ Then he led me toward the south, and behold, there was a gate toward the south; and he measured its side pillars and its porches, ^[i]and they measured the same as the others. ²⁵ The gate and its porches had windows all around like those windows [in the other gateways]; the length was fifty cubits and the width was twenty-five cubits. ²⁶ There were seven steps going up to the gate, and its porches were in front of them; and it had palm tree decorations [carved] on its side pillars, one on each side. ²⁷ The inner courtyard had a gate toward the south; and he measured from gate to gate toward the south, a hundred cubits.

¹⁸ But someone may say, “You [claim to] have faith and I have [good] works; show me your [alleged] faith without the works [if you can], and I will show you my faith by my works [that is, by what I do].” ¹⁹ You believe that ^[a]God is one; you do well [to believe that]. The demons also believe [that], and shudder and bristle [in awe-filled terror—they have seen His wrath]!^{(A) 20} But are you willing to recognize, you foolish [spiritually shallow] person, that faith without [good] works is useless? ²¹ Was our father Abraham not [shown to be] justified by works [of obedience which expressed his faith] when he offered Isaac his son on the altar [as a sacrifice to God]?^{(B) 22} You see that [his] faith was working together with his works, and as a result of the works, his faith was completed [reaching its maturity when he expressed his faith through obedience]. ²³ And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and this [faith] was credited to him [by God] as righteousness and as conformity to His will,” and he was called the friend of God.^{(C) 24} You see that a man (believer) is justified by works and not by faith alone [that is, by acts of obedience a born-again believer reveals his faith]. ²⁵ In the same way, was Rahab the prostitute not justified by works too, when she received the [Hebrew] ^[b]spies as guests and protected them, and sent them away [to escape] by a different route?^{(D) 26} For just as the [human] body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works [of obedience] is also dead.

The Tongue Is a Fire

3 Not many [of you] should become teachers [serving in an official teaching capacity], my brothers and sisters, for you know that we [who are teachers] will ^[c]be judged by a higher standard [because we have assumed greater accountability and more condemnation if we teach incorrectly]. ² For we all stumble and sin in many ways. If anyone does not stumble in what he says [never saying the wrong thing], he is a perfect man [fully developed in character, without serious flaws], able to bridle his whole body and rein in his entire nature [taming his human faults and weaknesses]. ³ Now if we put bits into the horses’ mouths to make them obey us, we guide their whole body as well. ⁴ And look at the ships. Even though they are so large and are driven by strong winds, they are still directed by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the helmsman determines. ⁵ In the same sense, the tongue is a small part of the body, and yet it boasts of great things.

See [by comparison] how great a forest is set on fire by a small spark! ⁶ And the tongue is [in a sense] a fire, the very world of injustice and unrighteousness; the tongue is set among our members as that which contaminates the entire body, and sets on fire the course of our life [the cycle of man’s existence], and is itself set on fire by ^[d]hell (Gehenna). ⁷ For every species of beasts and birds, of reptiles and sea creatures, is tamed and has been tamed by the human race. ⁸ But no one can tame the human tongue; it is a restless evil [undisciplined, unstable], full of deadly poison. ⁹ With it we bless our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made in the likeness of God. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. These things, my brothers, should not be this way [for we have a moral obligation to speak in a manner that reflects our fear of God and profound respect for His precepts]. ¹¹ Does a spring send out from the same opening both ^[e]fresh and bitter water? ¹² Can a fig tree, my brothers, produce olives, or a grapevine produce figs? Nor can salt water produce ^[f]fresh.

Wisdom from Above

¹³ Who among you is wise and intelligent? Let him by his good conduct show his [good] deeds with the gentleness and humility of true wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your hearts, do not be arrogant, and [as a result] be in defiance of the truth. ¹⁵ This [superficial] wisdom is not that which comes down from above, but is earthly (secular), natural (unspiritual), even demonic. ¹⁶ For where jealousy and selfish ambition exist, there is disorder [unrest, rebellion] and every evil thing and morally degrading practice. ¹⁷ But the wisdom from above is first pure [morally and spiritually undefiled], then peace-loving [courteous, considerate], gentle, reasonable [and willing to listen], full of compassion and good fruits. It is unwavering, without [self-righteous] hypocrisy [and self-serving guile]. ¹⁸ And the seed whose fruit is righteousness (spiritual maturity) is sown in peace by those who make peace [by actively encouraging goodwill between individuals].

Thanksgiving for the Lord’s Saving Goodness.