The Daily Audio Bible

Gog Is Defeated

The Lord said:

39 Ezekiel, son of man, condemn Gog and tell him:

You are the ruler of Meshech and Tubal, but I, the Lord, am your enemy! ² I will turn you around and drag you from the north until you reach the mountains of Israel. ³ I will knock the bow out of your left hand and the arrows out of your right hand, ^4 (A) and you and your army will die on those mountains. Then birds and wild animals will eat the flesh ⁵ of your dead bodies left lying in open fields. I, the Lord, have spoken.

⁶ I will set fire to the land of Magog and to those nations along the seacoast that think they are so secure, and they will know that I am the Lord.

⁷ My people Israel will know me, and they will no longer disgrace my holy name. Everyone on earth will know that I am the holy Lord God of Israel. ⁸ The day is coming when these things will happen, just as I have promised.

⁹ When that day comes, the people in the towns of Israel will collect the weapons of their dead enemies. They will use these shields, bows and arrows, spears, and clubs as firewood, and there will be enough to last for seven years. ¹⁰ They will burn these weapons instead of gathering sticks or chopping down trees. That's how the Israelites will take revenge on those who robbed and abused them. I, the Lord, have spoken.

The Burial of Gog

The Lord said:

¹¹ After Gog has been destroyed, I will bury him and his army in Israel, in Travelers'^[a] Valley, east of the Dead Sea. That graveyard will be so large that it will block the way of anyone who tries to walk through the valley,^[b] which will then be known as “The Valley of Gog's Army.”^{[c] 12} The Israelites will spend seven months burying dead bodies and cleaning up their land. ¹³ Everyone will help with the burial, and they will be honored for this on the day the brightness of my glory is seen. ¹⁴ After those seven months, the people will appoint a group of men to look for any dead bodies left unburied. This must be done for seven months to make sure that the land is no longer unclean. ¹⁵ Whenever they find a human bone, they will set up a marker next to it. Then the gravediggers will bury it in “The Valley of Gog's Army” ¹⁶ near the town of “Gog's Army.” After that, the land will be pure again.

^17 (B) Ezekiel, son of man, I am going to hold a feast on Israel's mountains and offer sacrifices there. So invite all the birds and wild animals to come from every direction and eat the meat of sacrifices and drink the blood. The birds and animals ¹⁸ will feast on the bodies of warriors and foreign rulers that I will sacrifice like sheep, goats, and bulls. ¹⁹ I want the birds and animals to eat until they are full and drink until they are drunk. ²⁰ They will come to my table and stuff themselves with the flesh of horses and warriors of every kind. I, the Lord God, have spoken.

Israel Will Be Restored

The Lord said:

²¹ When I punish the nations of the earth, they will see the brightness of my glory. ²² The people of Israel will know from then on that I am the Lord their God. ²³ Foreign nations will realize that the Israelites were forced to leave their own land because they sinned against me. I turned my back on my people and let enemies attack and kill them. ²⁴ Their lives were wicked and corrupt, and they deserved to be punished.

²⁵ Now I will show mercy to the people of Israel and bring them back from the nations where they are living. They are Jacob's descendants, so I will bless them and show that I am holy. ²⁶ They will live safely in their own land, but will be ashamed when they remember their evil ways and how they disgraced me.^{[d] 27} Foreign nations will watch as I take the Israelites from enemy lands and bring them back home, and those nations will see that I am holy.

²⁸ My people will realize that I, the Lord their God, sent them away as prisoners and now will bring them back to their own land. ²⁹ Never again will I turn my back on the people of Israel, and my Spirit will live in them. I, the Lord, have spoken.

Ezekiel Sees the Future Temple in Jerusalem

40 ^1-2 (C) Twenty-five years after King Jehoiachin and the rest of us had been led away as prisoners to Babylonia, and 14 years after the Babylonians had captured Jerusalem, the Lord's power took control of me on the tenth day of the first month.^[e] The Lord showed me some visions in which I was carried to the top of a high mountain in Jerusalem. I looked to the south and saw what looked like a city full of buildings. ^3 (D) In my vision the Lord took me closer, and I saw a man who was sparkling like polished bronze. He was standing near one of the gates and was holding a tape measure in one hand and a measuring stick in the other. ⁴ The man said, “Ezekiel, son of man, pay close attention to everything I'm going to show you—that's why you've been brought here. Listen carefully, because you must tell the people of Israel what you see.”

The East Gate

^5 (E) The first thing I saw was an outer wall that completely surrounded the temple area. The man took his measuring stick, which was three meters long, and measured the wall; it was three meters high and three meters thick. ^6-7 Then he went to the east gate, where he walked up steps that led to a long passageway. On each side of this passageway were three guardrooms, which were three meters square, and they were separated by walls two and a half meters thick. The man measured the distance between the opening of the gate and the first guardroom, and it was three meters, the thickness of the outer wall.

At the far end of this passageway, I saw an entrance room that faced the courtyard of the temple itself. There was also a distance of three meters between the last guardroom and the entrance room ^8-9 at the end of the passageway. The man measured this room: It was four meters from the doorway to the opposite wall, and the distance from the doorway to the wall on either side was one meter. ¹⁰ The three guardrooms on each side of the passageway were the same size, and the walls that separated them were the same thickness.

¹¹ Next, the man measured the width of the passageway, and it was six and a half meters, but the two doors of the gate were only five meters wide.^{[f] 12} In front of the guardrooms, which were three meters square, was a railing about 50 centimeters high and 50 centimeters thick. ¹³ The man measured the distance from the back wall^[g] of one of these rooms to the same spot in the room directly across the passageway, and it was twelve and a half meters. ¹⁴ He measured the entrance room at the far end of the passageway, and it was ten meters wide.^{[h] 15} Finally, he measured the total length of the passageway, from the outer wall to the entrance room, and it was 25 meters. ¹⁶ The three walls in the guardrooms had small windows in them, just like the ones in the entrance room.^[i] The walls along the passageway were decorated with carvings of palm trees.

The Outer Courtyard

¹⁷ The man then led me through the passageway and into the outer courtyard of the temple, where I saw 30 rooms built around the outside of the courtyard.^[j] These side rooms were built against the outer wall, and in front of them was a sidewalk that circled the courtyard. ¹⁸ This was known as the lower sidewalk, and it was 25 meters wide.

¹⁹ I saw the gates that led to the inner courtyard of the temple and noticed that they were higher than those leading to the outer courtyard. The man measured the distance between the outer and inner gates, and it was 50 meters.^[k]

The North Gate

²⁰ Next, the man measured the north gate that led to the outer courtyard. ²¹ This gate also had three guardrooms on each side of a passageway. The measurements of these rooms, the walls between them, and the entrance room at the far end of the passageway were exactly the same as those of the east gate. The north gate was also 25 meters long and 12.5 meters wide, ²² and the windows, the entrance room, and the carvings of palm trees were just like those in the east gate. The entrance room also faced the courtyard of the temple and had seven steps leading up to it. ²³ Directly across the outer courtyard was a gate that led to the inner courtyard, just as there was for the east gate. The man measured the distance between the outer and inner gate, and it was 50 meters.

The South Gate

²⁴ The man then took me to the south gate. He measured the walls and the entrance room of this gate, and the measurements were exactly the same as those of the other two gates. ²⁵ There were windows in the guardrooms of this gate and in the entrance room, just like the others, and this gate was also 25 meters long and 12.5 meters wide. ²⁶ Seven steps led up to the gate; the entrance room was at the far end of the passageway and faced the courtyard of the temple. Carvings of palm trees decorated the walls along the passageway. ²⁷ And directly across the outer courtyard was a gate on the south side of the inner courtyard. The man measured the distance between the outer and inner gate, and it was also 50 meters.

¹⁸ Suppose someone disagrees and says, “It is possible to have faith without doing kind deeds.”

I would answer, “Prove that you have faith without doing kind deeds, and I will prove that I have faith by doing them.” ¹⁹ You surely believe there is only one God. That's fine. Even demons believe this, and it makes them shake with fear.

²⁰ Does some stupid person want proof that faith without deeds is useless? ^21 (A) Well, our ancestor Abraham pleased God by putting his son Isaac on the altar to sacrifice him. ²² Now you see how Abraham's faith and deeds worked together. He proved his faith was real by what he did. ^23 (B) This is what the Scriptures mean by saying, “Abraham had faith in God, and God accepted him.” That's how Abraham became God's friend.

²⁴ You can now see that we please God by what we do and not only by what we believe. ^25 (C) For example, Rahab had been a prostitute. But she pleased God when she welcomed the spies and sent them home by another way.

²⁶ Anyone who doesn't breathe is dead, and faith that doesn't do anything is just as dead!

The Tongue

3 My friends, we should not all try to become teachers. In fact, teachers will be judged more strictly than others. ^2 (D) All of us do many wrong things. But if you can control your tongue, you are mature and able to control your whole body.

³ By putting a bit into the mouth of a horse, we can turn the horse in different directions. ⁴ It takes strong winds to move a large sailing ship, but the captain uses only a small rudder to make it go in any direction. ⁵ Our tongues are small too, and yet they brag about big things.

It takes only a spark to start a forest fire! ^6 (E) The tongue is like a spark. It is an evil power that dirties the rest of the body and sets a person's entire life on fire with flames that come from hell itself. ⁷ All kinds of animals, birds, reptiles, and sea creatures can be tamed and have been tamed. ⁸ But our tongues get out of control. They are restless and evil, and always spreading deadly poison.

^9-10 (F) My dear friends, with our tongues we speak both praises and curses. We praise our Lord and Father, and we curse people who were created to be like God, and this isn't right. ¹¹ Can clean water and dirty water both flow from the same spring? ¹² Can a fig tree produce olives or a grapevine produce figs? Does fresh water come from a well full of salt water?

Wisdom from Above

^13 (G) Are any of you wise or sensible? Then show it by living right and by being humble and wise in everything you do. ¹⁴ But if your heart is full of bitter jealousy and selfishness, don't brag or lie to cover up the truth. ¹⁵ This kind of wisdom doesn't come from above. It is earthly and selfish and comes from the devil himself. ¹⁶ Whenever people are jealous or selfish, they cause trouble and do all sorts of cruel things. ¹⁷ But the wisdom that comes from above leads us to be pure, friendly, gentle, sensible, kind, helpful, genuine, and sincere. ¹⁸ When peacemakers plant seeds of peace, they will harvest justice.

The Lord Is Always Merciful