Passage: Ezekiel 38, 39 (RSV)


Ezekiel 38


1The word of the LORD came to me:
2"Son of man, set your face toward Gog, of the land of Magog, the chief prince of Meshech and Tubal, and prophesy against him
3and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal;
4and I will turn you about, and put hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you forth, and all your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great company, all of them with buckler and shield, wielding swords;
5Persia, Cush, and Put are with them, all of them with shield and helmet;
6Gomer and all his hordes; Beth-togar'mah from the uttermost parts of the north with all his hordes -- many peoples are with you.
7"Be ready and keep ready, you and all the hosts that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them.
8After many days you will be mustered; in the latter years you will go against the land that is restored from war, the land where people were gathered from many nations upon the mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste; its people were brought out from the nations and now dwell securely, all of them.
9You will advance, coming on like a storm, you will be like a cloud covering the land you and all your hordes, and many peoples with you.
10"Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day thoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme
11and say, `I will go up against the land of unwalled villages; I will fall upon the quiet people who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having no bars or gates';
12to seize spoil and carry off plunder; to assail the waste places which are now inhabited, and the people who were gathered from the nations, who have gotten cattle and goods, who dwell at the center of the earth.
13Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all its villages will say to you, `Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your hosts to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away cattle and goods, to seize great spoil?'
14"Therefore, son of man, prophesy, and say to Gog, Thus says the Lord GOD: On that day when my people Israel are dwelling securely, you will bestir yourself
15and come from your place out of the uttermost parts of the north, you and many peoples with you, all of them riding on horses, a great host, a mighty army;
16you will come up against my people Israel, like a cloud covering the land. In the latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, I vindicate my holiness before their eyes.
17"Thus says the Lord GOD: Are you he of whom I spoke in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel, who in those days prophesied for years that I would bring you against them?
18But on that day, when Gog shall come against the land of Israel, says the Lord GOD, my wrath will be roused.
19For in my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare, On that day there shall be a great shaking in the land of Israel;
20the fish of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field, and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the men that are upon the face of the earth, shall quake at my presence, and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground.
21I will summon every kind of terror against Gog, says the Lord GOD; every man's sword will be against his brother.
22With pestilence and bloodshed I will enter into judgment with him; and I will rain upon him and his hordes and the many peoples that are with him, torrential rains and hailstones, fire and brimstone.
23So I will show my greatness and my holiness and make myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then they will know that I am the LORD.

Ezekiel 39


1"And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say, Thus says the Lord GOD: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal;
2and I will turn you about and drive you forward, and bring you up from the uttermost parts of the north, and lead you against the mountains of Israel;
3then I will strike your bow from your left hand, and will make your arrows drop out of your right hand.
4You shall fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your hordes and the peoples that are with you; I will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the wild beasts to be devoured.
5You shall fall in the open field; for I have spoken, says the Lord GOD.
6I will send fire on Magog and on those who dwell securely in the coastlands; and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7"And my holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let my holy name be profaned any more; and the nations shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8Behold, it is coming and it will be brought about, says the Lord GOD. That is the day of which I have spoken.
9"Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go forth and make fires of the weapons and burn them, shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, handpikes and spears, and they will make fires of them for seven years;
10so that they will not need to take wood out of the field or cut down any out of the forests, for they will make their fires of the weapons; they will despoil those who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, says the Lord GOD.
11"On that day I will give to Gog a place for burial in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers east of the sea; it will block the travelers, for there Gog and all his multitude will be buried; it will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog.
12For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order to cleanse the land.
13All the people of the land will bury them; and it will redound to their honor on the day that I show my glory, says the Lord GOD.
14They will set apart men to pass through the land continually and bury those remaining upon the face of the land, so as to cleanse it; at the end of seven months they will make their search.
15And when these pass through the land and any one sees a man's bone, then he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog.
16(A city Hamo'nah is there also.) Thus shall they cleanse the land.
17"As for you, son of man, thus says the Lord GOD: Speak to the birds of every sort and to all beasts of the field, `Assemble and come, gather from all sides to the sacrificial feast which I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast upon the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood.
18You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth -- of rams, of lambs, and of goats, of bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19And you shall eat fat till you are filled, and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast which I am preparing for you.
20And you shall be filled at my table with horses and riders, with mighty men and all kinds of warriors,' says the Lord GOD.
21"And I will set my glory among the nations; and all the nations shall see my judgment which I have executed, and my hand which I have laid on them.
22The house of Israel shall know that I am the LORD their God, from that day forward.
23And the nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they dealt so treacherously with me that I hid my face from them and gave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword.
24I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid my face from them.
25"Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob, and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel; and I will be jealous for my holy name.
26They shall forget their shame, and all the treachery they have practiced against me, when they dwell securely in their land with none to make them afraid,
27when I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies' lands, and through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations.
28Then they shall know that I am the LORD their God because I sent them into exile among the nations, and then gathered them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations any more;
29and I will not hide my face any more from them, when I pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord GOD."



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