The Daily Audio Bible

Gog’s Armies Are Destroyed

39 “Son of man, speak against Gog, and tell him, ‘The Lord God says, “I am against you, O Gog, leader of Rosh, Meshech, and Tubal. ² I will turn you around and drive you on. I will bring you from the farthest parts of the north and lead you against the mountains of Israel. ³ I will knock your bow out of your left hand, and knock your arrows out of your right hand. ⁴ You will fall dead on the mountains of Israel, you and all your army and the nations who are with you. I will feed you to every kind of meat-eating bird and wild animal of the field. ⁵ You will fall dead in the open field, for I have spoken,” says the Lord God. ⁶ “I will send fire upon Magog and upon those who think they are safe in the islands. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

⁷ “I will make My holy name known among My people Israel. I will not let My holy name be made unclean any more. And the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. ⁸ It is coming, and it will be done,” says the Lord God. “This is the day I have spoken of.

⁹ “Then those who live in the cities of Israel will go out and make fires to burn up the objects of war. They will burn battle-coverings, bows and arrows, heavy sticks, and spears. For seven years they will use them to make fires. ¹⁰ They will not take wood from the field or from among the trees to burn. For they will make fires with the objects of war. And they will rob those who robbed them,” says the Lord God.

Gog Is Buried

¹¹ “On that day I will give Gog a place in Israel for burying his dead. It will be the valley of those who travel east of the sea. And it will close that road to travelers, for Gog and all his people will be buried there. They will call it the Valley of Hamon-Gog. ¹² It will take the people of Israel seven months to bury the dead and make the land clean again. ¹³ All the people of the land will bury them, and they will be honored for this on the day that I show My greatness,” says the Lord God. ¹⁴ “At the end of seven months, they will choose men to pass through the land to look for bodies that may be left on the ground. And the bodies will be buried to make the land clean. ¹⁵ Those who pass through and see a man’s bone will set up something to mark the place, until it is buried in the Valley of Hamon-Gog. ¹⁶ (There will be a city called Hamonah there also.) And so they will make the land clean.”’”

¹⁷ “Son of man, the Lord God says, ‘Speak to every kind of bird and to every wild animal of the field. Say to them, “Gather together and come. Come together from every side to the special supper I have made for you. Much food has been killed for you on the mountains of Israel. You will eat flesh and drink blood. ¹⁸ You will eat the flesh of powerful men, and drink the blood of the leaders of the earth. It will be as if they were rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fat animals of Bashan. ¹⁹ You will eat fat until you are filled, and drink blood until you are drunk, at the special supper I have killed and made ready for you. ²⁰ You will be filled at My table with horses and horsemen, with powerful men and all the men of war,” says the Lord God.

The Land Is Given Back to Israel

²¹ “I will show My greatness among the nations. All the nations will see how I have punished Israel and My hand which I have laid on them. ²² Then the people of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God from that day on. ²³ The nations will know that the people of Israel were taken from their land because of their sin, because they were not faithful to Me. So I hid My face from them and gave them over to those who hated them, and they died in battle. ²⁴ I punished them because they were unclean and sinful, and I hid My face from them.”’”

²⁵ So the Lord God says, “Now I will return the people of Jacob to their land and show loving-kindness to all the people of Israel. And I will be jealous for My holy name. ²⁶ They will forget their shame and how unfaithful they were to Me, when they live in peace on their own land with no one to make them afraid. ²⁷ I will bring them back from the nations and gather them from the lands of those who hate them. In this way I will show the many nations that I am holy. ²⁸ Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them away into the other nations and then gathered them again to their own land. And I will not leave any of them there any longer. ²⁹ I will not hide My face from them again, for I will pour out My Spirit on the people of Israel,” says the Lord God.

A New House of God

40 It was the twenty-fifth year since the people of Israel were taken away to a strange land, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, and fourteen years since Jerusalem was taken in battle. On that day the hand of the Lord was upon me and He brought me there. ² In a special way God brought me into the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain. There were some buildings on its south side that looked like a city. ³ He took me there, and I saw a man who looked like he was made of brass. In his hand was a linen rope and a stick to find how long something is. He was standing at the gate. ⁴ And the man said to me, “Son of man, look with your eyes, hear with your ears, and think about all I am going to show you. For you have been brought here so that I may show it to you. Tell the people of Israel everything you see.”

The East Gate

⁵ I saw a wall all around the outside of the house of the Lord. The stick in the man’s hand was six cubits long (with the width of a hand being added to the length of each arm). And with it he showed that the wall was one stick wide and one stick high. ⁶ Then he went up the steps of the east gate, and showed me with his stick that the gateway was one stick wide, and the other gate was also one stick wide. ⁷ The rooms for the watchmen were each one stick long and one stick wide, and they were five cubits apart. And the gateway next to the porch toward the Lord’s house was one stick wide. ⁸ Then he showed me with his stick that the porch of the inside gate was one-tenth stick wide. ⁹ The porch of the gate was eight cubits and its side pillars two cubits wide. The porch of the gate was on the inside. ¹⁰ There were three rooms for the watchmen on each side of the east gate. They all had the same length and width. And the pillars on each side were the same in width. ¹¹ Then he showed me that the opening of the gateway was ten cubits wide and thirteen cubits long. ¹² There was a wall one-tenth cubit wide in front of the watchmen’s rooms on each side. And the watchmen’s rooms were six cubits wide and six cubits long. ¹³ Then he showed me that it was twenty-five cubits from the roof of one room to the roof of the room across from it. ¹⁴ He showed me that it was twenty cubits around the walls inside the gateway, up to the porch facing the open space. ¹⁵ It was fifteen cubits from the front of the outer gate to the front of the porch of the inner gate. ¹⁶ There were narrow windows looking toward the watchmen’s rooms and toward their side pillars, all around inside the gate and also in the porches. And pictures of palm trees were cut on each side pillar.

The Outside Open Space

¹⁷ Then he brought me into the outer open space, and I saw rooms and a stone floor all around it. Thirty rooms were around the stone floor. ¹⁸ The lower stone floor was beside the gates, and was as wide as the gates. ¹⁹ Then he showed me how far it was from the inside of the lower gate to the outside of the inner open space. Both east and north sides were 100 cubits each.

The North Gate

²⁰ He then showed me the length and width of the north gate of the outer open space. ²¹ It had three rooms on each side for the watchmen. Its side pillars and porches were as long and as wide as the first gate. It was as long as fifty cubits, and as wide as twenty-five cubits. ²² Its windows, its porches, and palm tree pictures were the same length and width as those of the east gate. Seven steps led up to it, and its porch was in front of them. ²³ Across from the north gate was another gate leading to the inner open space, just as there was for the east gate. He showed me that it was 100 cubits from gate to gate.

The South Gate

²⁴ Then he led me to the south, and I saw a gate toward the south. He showed me the length and width of its side pillars and its porches, and they were the same as the others. ²⁵ The gate and its porches had windows like the others all around and was as long as fifty cubits and as wide as twenty-five cubits. ²⁶ Seven steps led up to it, and its porches were in front of them. And it had pictures of palm trees on its side pillars, one on each side. ²⁷ The open space had a gate toward the south. He showed me that it was 100 cubits from gate to gate toward the south.

¹⁸ Someone may say, “You have faith, and I do things. Prove to me you have faith when you are doing nothing. I will prove to you I have faith by doing things.” ¹⁹ You believe there is one God. That is good! But even the demons believe that, and because they do, they shake.

²⁰ You foolish man! Do I have to prove to you that faith without doing things is of no use? ²¹ Was not our early father Abraham right with God by what he did? He obeyed God and put his son Isaac on the altar to die. ²² You see his faith working by what he did and his faith was made perfect by what he did. ²³ It happened as the Holy Writings said it would happen. They say, “Abraham put his trust in God and he became right with God.” ^(A) He was called the friend of God. ²⁴ A man becomes right with God by what he does and not by faith only. ²⁵ The same was true with Rahab, the woman who sold the use of her body. She became right with God by what she did in helping the men who had been sent to look through the country and sent them away by another road. ²⁶ The body is dead when there is no spirit in it. It is the same with faith. Faith is dead when nothing is done.

The Power of the Tongue

3 My Christian brothers, not many of you should become teachers. If we do wrong, it will be held against us more than other people who are not teachers. ² We all make many mistakes. If anyone does not make a mistake with his tongue by saying the wrong things, he is a perfect man. It shows he is able to make his body do what he wants it to do. ³ We make a horse go wherever we want it to go by a small bit in its mouth. We turn its whole body by this. ⁴ Sailing ships are driven by strong winds. But a small rudder turns a large ship whatever way the man at the wheel wants the ship to go.

⁵ The tongue is also a small part of the body, but it can speak big things. See how a very small fire can set many trees on fire. ⁶ The tongue is a fire. It is full of wrong. It poisons the whole body. The tongue sets our whole lives on fire with a fire that comes from hell. ⁷ Men can make all kinds of animals and birds and fish and snakes do what they want them to do. ⁸ But no man can make his tongue say what he wants it to say. It is sinful and does not rest. It is full of poison that kills. ⁹ With our tongue we give thanks to our Father in heaven. And with our tongue we speak bad words against men who are made like God. ¹⁰ Giving thanks and speaking bad words come from the same mouth. My Christian brothers, this is not right! ¹¹ Does a well of water give good water and bad water from the same place? ¹² Can a fig tree give olives or can a grape-vine give figs? A well does not give both good water and bad water.

Wisdom from Above

¹³ Who among you is wise and understands? Let that one show from a good life by the things he does that he is wise and gentle. ¹⁴ If you have jealousy in your heart and fight to have many things, do not be proud of it. Do not lie against the truth. ¹⁵ This is not the kind of wisdom that comes from God. But this wisdom comes from the world and from that which is not Christian and from the devil. ¹⁶ Wherever you find jealousy and fighting, there will be trouble and every other kind of wrong-doing. ¹⁷ But the wisdom that comes from heaven is first of all pure. Then it gives peace. It is gentle and willing to obey. It is full of loving-kindness and of doing good. It has no doubts and does not pretend to be something it is not. ¹⁸ Those who plant seeds of peace will gather what is right and good.

A Prayer of Thanks

118 Give thanks to the Lord, for He is good. His loving-kindness lasts forever. ² Let Israel say, “His loving-kindness lasts forever.” ³ Let the house of Aaron say, “His loving-kindness lasts forever.” ⁴ Let those who fear the Lord say, “His loving-kindness lasts forever.”

⁵ I cried to the Lord in my trouble, and He answered me and put me in a good place. ⁶ The Lord is with me. I will not be afraid of what man can do to me. ⁷ The Lord is with me. He is my Helper. I will watch those lose who fight against me. ⁸ It is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in man. ⁹ It is better to trust in the Lord than to trust in rulers.

¹⁰ All nations gathered around me. But I cut them off in the name of the Lord. ¹¹ They gathered around me. Yes, they were on every side. But I cut them off in the name of the Lord. ¹² They were all around me like bees and they died out fast like burning thorns. I will destroy them in the name of the Lord. ¹³ You pushed me back so that I was falling, but the Lord helped me. ¹⁴ The Lord is my strength and my song. He is the One Who saves me.

¹⁵ The joy of being saved is being heard in the tents of those who are right and good. The right hand of the Lord does powerful things. ¹⁶ The Lord’s right hand is lifted high. The right hand of the Lord does powerful things. ¹⁷ I will not die but live. And I will tell of what the Lord has done. ¹⁸ The Lord has punished me but He has not given me over to death.

² When a nation sins, it has many rulers, but with a man of understanding and much learning, it will last a long time.