The Daily Audio Bible

The Destruction of Gog’s Armies

39 Moreover you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say: Thus says the Lord God: I am against you, O Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshek, and Tubal. ² And I will turn you back, drive you on, and take you up the north parts and bring you against the mountains of Israel. ³ And I will strike your bow out of your left hand and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand. ⁴ You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you. I will give you to the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. ⁵ You shall fall upon the open field. For I have spoken, says the Lord God. ⁶ I will send a fire on Magog and among those who dwell safely in the coastlands. Then they shall know that I am the Lord.

⁷ So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel. And I will not let them pollute My holy name anymore. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. ⁸ It is coming and it shall be done, says the Lord God. This is the day of which I have spoken.

⁹ Those who dwell in the cities of Israel shall go and make fires with the weapons and burn them, both the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, and the war clubs and the spears, and they shall burn them with fire for seven years. ¹⁰ They shall take no wood out of the field, or cut down any out of the forests, for they shall make fires with the weapons. And they shall despoil those who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, says the Lord God.

The Burial of Gog

¹¹ It shall come to pass in that day that I will give to Gog a place of graves there in Israel, the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea, and it shall stop the passengers. And there they shall bury Gog and all his multitude, and they shall call it the Valley of Hamon Gog.

¹² For seven months the house of Israel shall be burying them so that they may cleanse the land. ¹³ Indeed, all the people of the land shall bury them. And it shall be their renown on the day that I shall be glorified, says the Lord God. ¹⁴ They shall separate men who continually pass through the land to bury the passengers, even those who remain upon the face of the earth, to cleanse it.

After the end of seven months they shall search. ¹⁵ As the passengers pass through the land and anyone sees a man’s bone, then he shall set up a sign by it until the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. ¹⁶ Also the name of the city shall be Hamonah. Thus they shall cleanse the land.

¹⁷ As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God: Speak to every kind of fowl and to every beast of the field: Assemble and come. Gather on every side to My sacrifice that I sacrifice for you, even a great sacrifice upon the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. ¹⁸ You shall eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the officials of the earth as though of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan. ¹⁹ You shall eat fat until you are full and drink blood until you are drunk from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. ²⁰ Thus you shall be filled at My table with horses and chariots, with mighty men, and with all the men of war, says the Lord God.

²¹ I will set My glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see My judgment that I have executed, and My hand that I have laid upon them. ²² So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward. ²³ The nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity because they trespassed against Me, and I hid My face from them. And I gave them into the hand of their enemies, and all of them fell by the sword. ²⁴ According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions, I have done to them and hid My face from them.

The Restoration of Israel

²⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel and will be jealous for My holy name. ²⁶ They shall forget their shame and all their trespasses by which they have trespassed against Me when they lived safely in their land and no one made them afraid. ²⁷ When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of the lands of their enemies, then I shall be sanctified in them in the sight of many nations. ²⁸ Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God who caused them to be led into captivity among the nations, and then gathered them again to their own land and have left none of them there anymore. ²⁹ Nor will I hide My face from them anymore. For I will have poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel, says the Lord God.

The Vision of the New Temple

40 In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city was struck, on that very day the hand of the Lord was upon me and He brought me there. ² In the visions of God He brought me into the land of Israel and set me upon a very high mountain, on which was as the frame of a city on the south. ³ He brought me there, and there was a man whose appearance was like the appearance of bronze, with a line of flax and a measuring reed in his hand. And he stood in the gate. 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 shall show you. For you have been brought here to show it to you. Declare all that you see to the house of Israel.”

The East Gate

⁵ There was a wall all around the outside of the temple. In the man’s hand was a measuring reed of six cubits^[a] long, each being a cubit and a handbreadth.^[b] So he measured the width of the building, one reed. And the height, one reed.

⁶ Then he went to the gateway facing east; and he went up its stairs and measured the threshold of the gate, which was one reed wide. And the other threshold of the gate was one reed wide. ⁷ Every little chamber was one reed long and one reed wide. And between the little chambers were five cubits.^[c] And the threshold of the gate by the vestibule of the inside gate was one reed.

⁸ He measured also the vestibule of the gate within, one reed. ⁹ Then he measured the vestibule of the gate, eight cubits.^[d] And its posts, two cubits.^[e] And the vestibule of the gate was the inner end.

¹⁰ The little chambers of the gate eastward were three on this side and three on that side. The three were of one measurement. And the posts had one measure on this side and on that side. ¹¹ He measured the width of the entrance of the gate, ten cubits,^[f] and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits.^{[g] 12} The space also before the little chambers was one cubit^[h] on this side, and the space was one cubit on that side. And the little chambers were six cubits on this side, and six cubits on that side. ¹³ He measured then the gate from the roof of one little chamber to the roof of another; the width was twenty-five cubits,^[i] door against door. ¹⁴ He measured the posts, sixty cubits,^[j] even to the post of the court all around the gate. ¹⁵ From the face of the gate of the entrance to the face of the vestibule of the inner gate was fifty cubits.^{[k] 16} There were narrow windows in the little chambers and in their posts inside the gate all around, and likewise in the vestibules. And windows were all around inside. And on each post were palm tree ornaments.

The Outer Court

¹⁷ Then he brought me into the outer court, and there were chambers and a pavement made all around the court. Thirty chambers were on the pavement. ¹⁸ The pavement was by the side of the gates, corresponding to the length of the gates; this was the lower pavement. ¹⁹ Then he measured the width from the front of the lower gate to the outer front of the inner court, a hundred cubits^[l] eastward and northward.

The North Gate

²⁰ As for the gate of the outer court that faced north, he measured its length and its width. ²¹ Its little chambers, three on this side and three on that side, its posts, and its arches had the same measurements as the first gate; its length was fifty cubits, and its width twenty-five cubits. ²² Its windows, and those of its arches, and its palm trees had the same measurements as the gate facing east. Seven steps led up to it; and its arches were in front of it. ²³ The gate of the inner court was opposite the gate on the north, as on the east. And he measured from gate to gate, a hundred cubits.

The South Gate

²⁴ After that he brought me toward the south, and there was a gate facing south. And he measured its posts and its arches according to these same measurements. ²⁵ There were windows in it and in its arches all around like those windows. The length was fifty cubits, and the width twenty-five cubits. ²⁶ There were seven steps to go up to it, and its arches were before them. And it had palm tree ornaments, one on this side, and another on that side on its posts. ²⁷ There was a gate in the inner court facing south. And he measured from gate to gate toward the south, a hundred cubits.

¹⁸ But a man may say, “You have faith and I have works.”

Show me your faith without your works, and I will show you my faith by my works. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God; you do well. The demons also believe and tremble.

²⁰ But do you want to be shown, O foolish man, that faith without works is dead? ²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² Do you see how faith worked with his works, and by works faith was made perfect? ²³ The Scripture was fulfilled which says, “Abraham believed God, and it was reckoned to him as righteousness,”^[a] and he was called the friend of God. ²⁴ You see then how by works a man is justified, and not by faith only.

²⁵ Likewise, was not Rahab the prostitute justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way? ²⁶ As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead.

The Tongue

3 My brothers, not many of you should become teachers, knowing that we shall receive the greater judgment. ² We all err in many ways. But if any man does not err in word, he is a perfect man and able also to control the whole body.

³ See how we put bits in the mouths of horses that they may obey us, and we control their whole bodies. ⁴ And observe ships. Though they are so great and are driven by fierce winds, yet they are directed with a very small rudder wherever the captain pleases. ⁵ Even so, the tongue is a little part of the body and boasts great things. See how great a forest a little fire kindles. ⁶ The tongue is a fire, a world of evil. The tongue is among the parts of the body, defiling the whole body, and setting the course of nature on fire, and it is set on fire by hell.

⁷ All kinds of beasts, and birds, and serpents, and things in the sea are tamed or have been tamed by mankind. ⁸ But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, full of deadly poison.

⁹ With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men, who are made in the image of God. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brothers, these things ought not to be so. ¹¹ Does a spring yield at the same opening sweet and bitter water? ¹² Can the fig tree, my brothers, bear olives, or a vine, figs? So no spring can yield both salt water and fresh water.

The Wisdom From Above

¹³ Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show his works by his good life in the meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have bitter envying and strife in your hearts, do not boast and do not lie against the truth. ¹⁵ This wisdom descends not from above, but is earthly, unspiritual, and devilish. ¹⁶ For where there is envying and strife, there is confusion and every evil work.

¹⁷ But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, open to reason, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy. ¹⁸ And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Psalm 118