Prophecy against Gog—Invaders Destroyed

39 “And ^(A)you, son of man, prophesy against Gog and say, ‘Thus says the Lord ^[a]God, “Behold, I am against you, O Gog, ^[b]prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal; ² and I will turn you around, drive you on, take you up from the remotest parts of the north and bring you against the mountains of Israel. ³ I will ^(B)strike your bow from your left hand and dash down your arrows from your right hand. ⁴ You will ^(C)fall on the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops and the peoples who are with you; I will give you as ^(D)food to every ^[c]kind of predatory bird and beast of the field. ⁵ You will fall on the ^[d]open field; for it is I who have spoken,” declares the Lord God. ⁶ “And I will send ^(E)fire upon Magog and those who inhabit the ^(F)coastlands in safety; and they will know that I am the Lord.

⁷ “My ^(G)holy name I will make known in the midst of My people Israel; and I will not let My holy name be ^(H)profaned anymore. And the ^(I)nations will know that I am the Lord, the ^(J)Holy One in Israel. ⁸ Behold, it is coming and it shall be done,” declares the Lord God. “That is the day of which I have spoken.

⁹ “Then those who inhabit the cities of Israel will ^(K)go out and make ^(L)fires with the weapons and burn them, both shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, war clubs and spears, and for seven years they will make fires of them. ¹⁰ They will not take wood from the field or gather firewood from the forests, for they will make fires with the weapons; and they will take the spoil of those who despoiled them and seize the ^(M)plunder of those who plundered them,” declares the Lord God.

¹¹ “On that day I will give Gog a burial ground there in Israel, the valley of those who pass by east of the sea, and it will block off those who would pass by. So they will bury Gog there with all his ^[e]horde, and they will call it the valley of ^[f]Hamon-gog. ¹² For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them in order to ^(N)cleanse the land. ¹³ Even all the people of the land will bury them; and it will be ^[g]to their ^(O)renown on the day that I ^(P)glorify Myself,” declares the Lord God. ¹⁴ “They will set apart men who will constantly pass through the land, ^(Q)burying those who were passing through, even those left on the surface of the ground, in order to cleanse it. At the end of seven months they will make a search. ¹⁵ As those who pass through the land pass through and anyone sees a man’s bone, then he will ^[h]set up a marker by it until the buriers have buried it in the valley of ^[i]Hamon-gog. ¹⁶ And even the name of the city will be Hamonah. So they will cleanse the land.”’

¹⁷ “As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord God, ‘Speak to every ^[j]kind of ^(R)bird and to every ^(S)beast of the field, “Assemble and come, gather from every side to My sacrifice which I am going to ^(T)sacrifice for you, as a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel, that you may eat flesh and drink blood. ¹⁸ You will ^(U)eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, as though they were ^(V)rams, lambs, goats and ^(W)bulls, all of them fatlings of ^(X)Bashan. ¹⁹ So you will eat fat until you are glutted, and drink blood until you are drunk, from My sacrifice which I have sacrificed for you. ²⁰ You will be glutted at My table with ^(Y)horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all the men of war,” declares the Lord God.

²¹ “And I will set My ^(Z)glory among the nations; and all the nations will see My judgment which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them. ²² And the house of Israel will ^(AA)know that I am the Lord their God from that day onward. ²³ The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile for their ^(AB)iniquity because they acted treacherously against Me, and I ^(AC)hid My face from them; so I gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and all of them fell by the sword. ^24 (AD)According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I dealt with them, and I hid My face from them.”’”

Israel Restored

²⁵ Therefore thus says the Lord God, “Now I will ^[k](AE)restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole ^(AF)house of Israel; and I will be ^(AG)jealous for My holy name. ²⁶ They will ^[l](AH)forget their disgrace and all their treachery which they ^[m]perpetrated against Me, when they ^(AI)live securely on their own land with ^(AJ)no one to make them afraid. ²⁷ When I ^(AK)bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the lands of their enemies, then I shall be ^(AL)sanctified ^[n]through them in the sight of the many nations. ²⁸ Then they will know that I am the Lord their God because I made them go into exile among the nations, and then gathered them again to their own land; and I will leave none of them there any longer. ²⁹ I will not hide My face from them any longer, for I will have ^(AM)poured out My Spirit on the house of Israel,” declares the Lord God.

Vav.

Paul before Felix

24 After ^(A)five days the high priest ^(B)Ananias came down with some elders, ^[a]with an ^[b]attorney named Tertullus, and they ^[c]brought charges to ^(C)the governor against Paul. ² After Paul had been summoned, Tertullus began to accuse him, saying to the governor,

“Since we have through you attained much peace, and since by your providence reforms are being carried out for this nation, ³ we acknowledge this in every way and everywhere, ^(D)most excellent Felix, with all thankfulness. ⁴ But, that I may not weary you any further, I beg you ^[d]to grant us, by your kindness, a brief hearing. ⁵ For we have found this man a real pest and a fellow who stirs up dissension among all the Jews throughout ^[e]the world, and a ringleader of the ^(E)sect of the Nazarenes. ⁶ And he even tried to ^(F)desecrate the temple; and ^[f]then we arrested him. [^[g]We wanted to judge him according to our own Law. ⁷ But Lysias the commander came along, and with much violence took him out of our hands, ⁸ ordering his accusers to come before you.] By examining him yourself concerning all these matters you will be able to ascertain the things of which we accuse him.” ^9 (G)The Jews also joined in the attack, asserting that these things were so.

¹⁰ When ^(H)the governor had nodded for him to speak, Paul responded:

“Knowing that for many years you have been a judge to this nation, I cheerfully make my defense, ¹¹ since you can take note of the fact that no more than ^(I)twelve days ago I went up to Jerusalem to worship. ^12 (J)Neither in the temple, nor in the synagogues, nor in the city itself did they find me carrying on a discussion with anyone or ^(K)causing ^[h]a riot. ^13 (L)Nor can they prove to you the charges of which they now accuse me. ¹⁴ But this I admit to you, that according to ^(M)the Way which they call a ^(N)sect I do serve ^[i](O)the God of our fathers, ^(P)believing everything that is in accordance with the Law and that is written in the Prophets; ¹⁵ having a hope in God, which ^(Q)these men cherish themselves, that there shall certainly be a resurrection of both the righteous and the wicked. ¹⁶ In view of this, ^(R)I also ^[j]do my best to maintain always a blameless conscience both before God and before men. ¹⁷ Now ^(S)after several years I ^(T)came to bring ^[k]alms to my nation and to present offerings; ¹⁸ in which they found me occupied in the temple, having been ^(U)purified, without any ^(V)crowd or uproar. But there were some ^(W)Jews from ^[l]Asia— ¹⁹ who ought to have been present before you and to ^(X)make accusation, if they should have anything against me. ²⁰ Or else let these men themselves tell what misdeed they found when I stood before ^(Y)the ^[m]Council, ²¹ other than for this one statement which ^(Z)I shouted out while standing among them, ‘For the resurrection of the dead I am on trial before you today.’”

²² But Felix, ^[n]having a more exact knowledge about ^(AA)the Way, put them off, saying, “When Lysias the ^[o]commander comes down, I will decide your case.” ²³ Then he gave orders to the centurion for him to be ^(AB)kept in custody and yet ^(AC)have some freedom, and not to prevent any of ^(AD)his friends from ministering to him.

²⁴ But some days later Felix arrived with Drusilla, his ^[p]wife who was a Jewess, and sent for Paul and heard him speak about ^(AE)faith in Christ Jesus. ²⁵ But as he was discussing ^(AF)righteousness, ^(AG)self-control and ^(AH)the judgment to come, Felix became frightened and said, “Go away for the present, and when I find time I will summon you.” ²⁶ At the same time too, he was hoping that ^(AI)money would be given him by Paul; therefore he also used to send for him quite often and converse with him. ²⁷ But after two years had passed, Felix ^[q]was succeeded by Porcius ^(AJ)Festus, and ^(AK)wishing to do the Jews a favor, Felix left Paul ^(AL)imprisoned.