Gog’s Armies Destroyed

39 “And ^(A)you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, ‘Thus says the Lord God: “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, ^[a]the prince of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal; ² and I will ^(B)turn you around and lead you on, ^(C)bringing you up from the far north, and bring you against the mountains of Israel. ³ Then I will knock the bow out of your left hand, and cause the arrows to fall out of your right hand. ^4 (D)You shall ^[b]fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; ^(E)I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. ⁵ You shall ^[c]fall on ^[d]the open field; for I have spoken,” says the Lord God. ^6 (F)“And I will send fire on Magog and on those who live ^[e]in security in ^(G)the coastlands. Then they shall know that I am the Lord. ^7 (H)So I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them ^(I)profane My holy name anymore. ^(J)Then the nations shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. ^8 (K)Surely it is coming, and it shall be done,” says the Lord God. “This is the day ^(L)of which I have spoken.

⁹ “Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and set on fire and burn the weapons, both the shields and bucklers, the bows and arrows, the ^[f]javelins and spears; and they will make fires with them for seven years. ¹⁰ They will not take wood from the field nor cut down any from the forests, because they will make fires with the weapons; ^(M)and they will plunder those who plundered them, and pillage those who pillaged them,” says the Lord God.

The Burial of Gog

¹¹ “It will come to pass in that day that I will give Gog a burial place there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea; and it will obstruct travelers, because there they will bury Gog and all his multitude. Therefore they will call it the Valley of ^[g]Hamon Gog. ¹² For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, ^(N)in order to cleanse the land. ¹³ Indeed all the people of the land will be burying, and they will gain ^(O)renown for it on the day that ^(P)I am glorified,” says the Lord God. ¹⁴ “They will set apart men regularly employed, with the help of ^[h]a search party, to pass through the land and bury those bodies remaining on the ground, in order ^(Q)to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search. ¹⁵ The search party will pass through the land; and when anyone sees a man’s bone, he shall ^[i]set up a marker by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon Gog. ¹⁶ The name of the city will also be ^[j]Hamonah. Thus they shall ^(R)cleanse the land.” ’

A Triumphant Festival

¹⁷ “And as for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God, ^(S)‘Speak to every sort of bird and to every beast of the field:

Israel Restored to the Land

^21 (AA)“I will set My glory among the nations; all the nations shall see My judgment which I have executed, and ^(AB)My hand which I have laid on them. ^22 (AC)So the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day forward. ^23 (AD)The Gentiles shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity; because they were unfaithful to Me, therefore ^(AE)I hid My face from them. I ^(AF)gave them into the hand of their enemies, and they all fell by the sword. ^24 (AG)According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I have dealt with them, and hidden My face from them.” ’

²⁵ “Therefore thus says the Lord God: ^(AH)‘Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob, and have mercy on the ^(AI)whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for My holy name— ^26 (AJ)after they have borne their shame, and all their unfaithfulness in which they were unfaithful to Me, when they ^(AK)dwelt safely in their own land and no one made them afraid. ^27 (AL)When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and I ^(AM)am hallowed in them in the sight of many nations, ^28 (AN)then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them ^[k]captive any longer. ^29 (AO)And I will not hide My face from them anymore; for I shall have ^(AP)poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,’ says the Lord God.”

A New City, a New Temple

40 In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after ^(AQ)the city was ^[l]captured, on the very same day ^(AR)the hand of the Lord was upon me; and He took me there. ^2 (AS)In the visions of God He took me into the land of Israel and ^(AT)set me on a very high mountain; on it toward the south was something like the structure of a city. ³ He took me there, and behold, there was a man whose appearance was ^(AU)like the appearance of bronze. ^(AV)He had a line of flax ^(AW)and a measuring rod in his hand, and he stood in the gateway.

⁴ And the man said to me, ^(AX)“Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears, and ^[m]fix your mind on everything I show you; for you were brought here so that I might show them to you. ^(AY)Declare to the house of Israel everything you see.” ⁵ Now there was ^(AZ)a wall all around the outside of the ^[n]temple. In the man’s hand was a measuring rod six ^[o]cubits long, each being a cubit and a handbreadth; and he measured the width of the wall structure, one rod; and the height, one rod.

The Eastern Gateway of the Temple

⁶ Then he went to the gateway which faced ^(BA)east; and he went up its stairs and measured the threshold of the gateway, which was one rod wide, and the other threshold was one rod wide. ⁷ Each gate chamber was one rod long and one rod wide; between the gate chambers was a space of five cubits; and the threshold of the gateway by the vestibule of the inside gate was one rod. ⁸ He also measured the vestibule of the inside gate, one rod. ⁹ Then he measured the vestibule of the gateway, eight cubits; and the gateposts, two cubits. The vestibule of the gate was on the inside. ¹⁰ In the eastern gateway were three gate chambers on one side and three on the other; the three were all the same size; also the gateposts were of the same size on this side and that side.

¹¹ He measured the width of the entrance to the gateway, ten cubits; and the length of the gate, thirteen cubits. ¹² There was a ^[p]space in front of the gate chambers, one cubit on this side and one cubit on that side; the gate chambers were six cubits on this side and six cubits on that side. ¹³ Then he measured the gateway from the roof of one gate chamber to the roof of the other; the width was twenty-five cubits, as door faces door. ¹⁴ He measured the gateposts, sixty cubits high, and the court all around the gateway extended to the gatepost. ¹⁵ From the front of the entrance gate to the front of the vestibule of the inner gate was fifty cubits. ¹⁶ There were ^(BB)beveled window frames in the gate chambers and in their intervening archways on the inside of the gateway all around, and likewise in the vestibules. There were windows all around on the inside. And on each gatepost were ^(BC)palm trees.

The Outer Court

¹⁷ Then he brought me into ^(BD)the outer court; and there were ^(BE)chambers and a pavement made all around the court; ^(BF)thirty chambers faced the pavement. ¹⁸ The pavement was by the side of the gateways, corresponding to the length of the gateways; this was the lower pavement. ¹⁹ Then he measured the width from the front of the lower gateway to the front of the inner court exterior, one hundred cubits toward the east and the north.

The Northern Gateway

²⁰ On the outer court was also a gateway facing north, and he measured its length and its width. ²¹ Its gate chambers, three on this side and three on that side, its gateposts and its archways, 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 archways, and also its palm trees, had the same measurements as the gateway facing east; it was ascended by seven steps, and its archway was in front of it. ²³ A gate of the inner court was opposite the northern gateway, just as the eastern gateway; and he measured from gateway to gateway, one hundred cubits.

The Southern Gateway

²⁴ After that he brought me toward the south, and there a gateway was facing south; and he measured its gateposts and archways according to these same measurements. ²⁵ There were windows in it and in its archways all around like those windows; its length was fifty cubits and its width twenty-five cubits. ²⁶ Seven steps led up to it, and its archway was in front of them; and it had palm trees on its gateposts, one on this side and one on that side. ²⁷ There was also a gateway on the inner court, facing south; and he measured from gateway to gateway toward the south, one hundred cubits.

¹⁸ But someone will say, “You have faith, and I have works.” ^(A)Show me your faith without ^[a]your works, ^(B)and I will show you my faith by ^[b]my works. ¹⁹ You believe that there is one God. You do well. Even the demons believe—and tremble! ²⁰ But do you want to know, O foolish man, that faith without works is ^[c]dead? ²¹ Was not Abraham our father justified by works ^(C)when he offered Isaac his son on the altar? ²² Do you see ^(D)that faith was working together with his works, and by ^(E)works faith was made ^[d]perfect? ²³ And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, ^(F)“Abraham believed God, and it was ^[e]accounted to him for righteousness.” And he was called ^(G)the friend of God. ²⁴ You see then that a man is justified by works, and not by faith only.

²⁵ Likewise, ^(H)was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out another way?

²⁶ For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also.

The Untamable Tongue

3 My brethren, ^(I)let not many of you become teachers, ^(J)knowing that we shall receive a stricter judgment. ² For ^(K)we all stumble in many things. ^(L)If anyone does not stumble in word, ^(M)he is a ^[f]perfect man, able also to bridle the whole body. ^3 [g]Indeed, ^(N)we put bits in horses’ mouths that they may obey us, and we turn their whole body. ⁴ Look also at ships: although they are so large and are driven by fierce winds, they are turned by a very small rudder wherever the pilot desires. ⁵ Even so ^(O)the tongue is a little member and ^(P)boasts great things.

See how great a forest a little fire kindles! ⁶ And ^(Q)the tongue is a fire, a world of ^[h]iniquity. The tongue is so set among our members that it ^(R)defiles the whole body, and sets on fire the course of ^[i]nature; and it is set on fire by ^[j]hell. ⁷ For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and creature of the sea, is tamed and has been tamed by mankind. ⁸ But no man can tame the tongue. It is an unruly evil, ^(S)full of deadly poison. ⁹ With it we bless our God and Father, and with it we curse men, who have been made ^(T)in the ^[k]similitude of God. ¹⁰ Out of the same mouth proceed blessing and cursing. My brethren, these things ought not to be so. ¹¹ Does a spring send forth fresh water and bitter from the same opening? ¹² Can a ^(U)fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine bear figs? ^[l]Thus no spring yields both salt water and fresh.

Heavenly Versus Demonic Wisdom

^13 (V)Who is wise and understanding among you? Let him show by good conduct that his works are done in the meekness of wisdom. ¹⁴ But if you have ^(W)bitter envy and ^[m]self-seeking in your hearts, ^(X)do not boast and lie against the truth. ^15 (Y)This wisdom does not descend from above, but is earthly, sensual, demonic. ¹⁶ For ^(Z)where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every evil thing are there. ¹⁷ But ^(AA)the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, willing to yield, full of mercy and good fruits, ^(AB)without partiality ^(AC)and without hypocrisy. ^18 (AD)Now the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace by those who make peace.

Praise to God for His Everlasting Mercy