The Daily Audio Bible

39 You, human one, prophesy about Gog and say, The Lord God proclaims: I challenge you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal! ² I will turn you about, drag you out, and bring you out of the far north, and I will bring you to Israel’s mountains. ³ I will strike your bow from your left hand, and make your arrows fall from your right. ⁴ You will fall on Israel’s mountains, you, all your troops, and the peoples who are with you. I will give you to the birds of prey, to every kind of bird and wild animal as food. ⁵ You will fall on the open field, for I have spoken! This is what the Lord God says! ⁶ I will send fire on Magog and on those who live securely in the coastlands, and they will know that I am the Lord. ⁷ I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. They will never again degrade my holy name, and the nations will know that I, the Lord, am holy in Israel. ⁸ Look, it has come! It has happened! This is what the Lord God says. This is the day that I spoke about.

⁹ Those who live in Israel’s cities will go out and kindle a fire with the weapons—shield and buckler, bow and arrow, spear and lance. They will burn them with fire for seven years. ¹⁰ They won’t gather wood from the field or chop down trees from the forest, because they will be able to keep the fire burning with the weapons. So they will take plunder and seize loot. This is what the Lord says.

¹¹ On that day, I will assign Gog a place for burial in Israel in the Travelers’ Valley east of the sea. It will block the travelers’ way, because Gog and all of his horde will be buried there. It will be called Hamon-gog^[a] Valley. ¹² For seven months, the house of Israel will bury them in order to cleanse the land. ¹³ All the people of the land will take part in the burial, so they will make a name for themselves on the day that I glorify myself. This is what the Lord God says. ¹⁴ They will appoint people who will continually cross through the land and bury^[b] the human remains that are left on the surface of the ground in order to purify it. They will begin their search at the end of seven months. ¹⁵ As the travelers cross through the land, when they see a human bone, they will set up a marker next to it until the gravediggers bury it in Hamon-gog Valley ¹⁶ (the name of the city is Hamonah). So they will purify the land.

¹⁷ And you, human one, the Lord God proclaims: Say to the birds of prey, to every kind of bird and every wild animal: Assemble and come! Come together from all around for the sacrifice that I make for you, a great sacrifice on Israel’s mountains! You will eat flesh and drink blood. ¹⁸ You will eat the flesh of warriors and drink the blood of the princes of the earth: rams, lambs, goats, bulls, all fattened animals from Bashan. ¹⁹ Gorge yourselves on their fat, and get drunk on their blood, from the sacrifice that I have made for you. ²⁰ Satisfy yourselves at my table with horses and riders, mighty men and every warrior. This is what the Lord God says! ²¹ When I glorify myself among the nations, all the nations will understand the judgments that I executed and the power that I used among them. ²² And the house of Israel will know that I, the Lord, am their God, from that day on. ²³ The nations will know that the house of Israel went into exile because of their guilt. Because they rebelled against me, I hid my face from them. When I handed them over to their enemies, all of them fell by the sword. ²⁴ I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions and hid my face from them.

²⁵ So the Lord God proclaims: Now I will bring back the captives of Jacob. I will have compassion on the whole house of Israel and defend my holy name. ²⁶ They will forget their humiliation and all their rebellions against me when they live securely on their fertile land with no one to frighten them. ²⁷ When I bring them back from the peoples and gather them from the lands of their enemies, I will be made holy through them in the sight of the many nations. ²⁸ They will know that I am the Lord their God when, after I made them go into exile among the nations, I gathered them to their land. I won’t leave any of them behind. ²⁹ When I pour my Spirit upon the house of Israel, I won’t hide my face from them again. This is what the Lord God says.

Vision of restoration

40 In the beginning of the twenty-fifth year of our exile, on the tenth day of the month, exactly fourteen years after the city was struck down, on that very day, the Lord’s power was on me, and he took me there. ² In God’s visions, he brought me to the land of Israel and set me down on a very high mountain, where there was a city structure to the south. ³ When he brought me there, I saw a man standing in the gate. He appeared to be bronze, and he had a linen cord and a measuring rod in his hand. ⁴ The man spoke to me, “Human one, look and listen well, and take seriously everything I show you, because you were brought here so that these things could be revealed to you. Describe everything you see to the house of Israel.”

Temple compound

⁵ Now there was an outer wall that went all the way around the temple compound. The measuring rod in the man’s hand was ten and a half feet^[c] (based on a standard eighteen inches^[d] plus three inches^[e]). When he measured the wall’s height and width it was ten and a half feet high and ten and a half feet wide. ⁶ He entered the gate facing east. He went up its steps, and he measured the plaza^[f] at the gate. It was ten and a half feet wide: the plaza was ten and a half feet wide. ⁷ The rooms were ten and a half feet long and ten and a half feet wide, with a space of seven and a half feet between them. The plaza next to the porch at the gate opposite the temple was ten and a half feet. ⁸ He measured the porch of the gate opposite the temple: it was ten and a half feet. ⁹ Then he measured the porch of the gate: it was twelve feet,^[g] and its arches were three feet. The porch of the gate was opposite the temple. ¹⁰ Inside the east gate, there were three rooms on each side. Each was the same size, and the arches on each side were the same size also. ¹¹ Then he measured the width of the gate opening, which was fifteen feet, and the gate’s length, which was nineteen and a half feet. ¹² A border running along the front of the rooms on each side was eighteen inches wide, and each of the rooms was nine feet square. ¹³ He measured the gate through the room openings that faced each other. From the outer ceiling edge of one room to the outer ceiling edge of the other, the gate was thirty-seven and a half feet wide. ¹⁴ Next he made out the perimeter of the hallway, defined by the arches inside the gate: it was ninety feet. ¹⁵ It was seventy-five feet from the front of the outer gate to the front of the inner porch of the gate. ¹⁶ Inside the gate, all of the rooms and their arches had closed windows; there were also niches inside the porch all the way around. The arches were decorated with palm trees.

¹⁷ Then he brought me to the outer courtyard, which consisted of chambers and a pavement all the way around. Thirty chambers came up to the pavement, ¹⁸ and the pavement came up to the facades of the gates along their entire length. That was the lower pavement. ¹⁹ When he measured the width from the inside of the lower gate to the outer edge of the inner courtyard, it was one hundred fifty feet.

After he measured the east gate, he measured the north gate, ²⁰ the one facing north at the outer courtyard. He measured its length and width, ²¹ its three inner rooms on each side, its arches, and its porch. Its measurements were the same as the first gate: seventy-five feet long and thirty-seven and a half feet wide. ²² The windows, porch, and palm decorations had the same measurements as those of the east gate. Seven steps led up to the entrance, and the porch was at the other end. ²³ There were also gates to the inner courtyard opposite the north and east gates. When he measured from gate to gate, it was one hundred fifty feet.

²⁴ Then he had me walk toward the south, where there was a gate facing south. He measured its arches and porch using the same measurements. ²⁵ Its windows and its porch all around were like the others, and the gate also was seventy-five feet long and thirty-seven and a half feet wide. ²⁶ Its stairway had seven steps, and its porch was at the other end. On its arches, one on either side, were palm decorations. ²⁷ There was a gate to the inner courtyard on the south. When he measured from gate to gate on the south side, it was one hundred fifty feet.

¹⁸ Someone might claim, “You have faith and I have action.” But how can I see your faith apart from your actions? Instead, I’ll show you my faith by putting it into practice in faithful action. ¹⁹ It’s good that you believe that God is one. Ha! Even the demons believe this, and they tremble with fear. ²⁰ Are you so slow? Do you need to be shown that faith without actions has no value at all? ²¹ What about Abraham, our father? Wasn’t he shown to be righteous through his actions when he offered his son Isaac on the altar? ²² See, his faith was at work along with his actions. In fact, his faith was made complete by his faithful actions. ²³ So the scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed God, and God regarded him as righteous.^[a] What is more, Abraham was called God’s friend. ²⁴ So you see that a person is shown to be righteous through faithful actions and not through faith alone. ²⁵ In the same way, wasn’t Rahab the prostitute shown to be righteous when she received the messengers as her guests and then sent them on by another road? ²⁶ As the lifeless body is dead, so faith without actions is dead.

Taming the tongue

3 My brothers and sisters, not many of you should become teachers, because we know that we teachers will be judged more strictly. ² We all make mistakes often, but those who don’t make mistakes with their words have reached full maturity. Like a bridled horse, they can control themselves entirely. ³ When we bridle horses and put bits in their mouths to lead them wherever we want, we can control their whole bodies.

⁴ Consider ships: They are so large that strong winds are needed to drive them. But pilots direct their ships wherever they want with a little rudder. ⁵ In the same way, even though the tongue is a small part of the body, it boasts wildly.

Think about this: A small flame can set a whole forest on fire. ⁶ The tongue is a small flame of fire, a world of evil at work in us. It contaminates our entire lives. Because of it, the circle of life is set on fire. The tongue itself is set on fire by the flames of hell.

⁷ People can tame and already have tamed every kind of animal, bird, reptile, and fish. ⁸ No one can tame the tongue, though. It is a restless evil, full of deadly poison. ⁹ With it we both bless the Lord and Father and curse human beings made in God’s likeness. ¹⁰ Blessing and cursing come from the same mouth. My brothers and sisters, it just shouldn’t be this way!

¹¹ Both fresh water and salt water don’t come from the same spring, do they? ¹² My brothers and sisters, can a fig tree produce olives? Can a grapevine produce figs? Of course not, and fresh water doesn’t flow from a saltwater spring either.

Wisdom from above

¹³ Are any of you wise and understanding? Show that your actions are good with a humble lifestyle that comes from wisdom. ¹⁴ However, if you have bitter jealousy and selfish ambition in your heart, then stop bragging and living in ways that deny the truth. ¹⁵ This is not the wisdom that comes down from above. Instead, it is from the earth, natural and demonic. ¹⁶ Wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there is disorder and everything that is evil. ¹⁷ What of the wisdom from above? First, it is pure, and then peaceful, gentle, obedient, filled with mercy and good actions, fair, and genuine. ¹⁸ Those who make peace sow the seeds of justice by their peaceful acts.

Psalm 118