The Daily Audio Bible
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39 And you, son of man, prophesy against Gog, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am against you, O Gog, chief prince (ruler) of Rosh, of Meshech, and of Tubal.
2 And I will turn you about and will lead you on, and will cause you to come up from the uttermost parts of the north and will lead you against the mountains of Israel;
3 And I will smite your bow from your left hand and will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand.
4 You shall fall [dead] upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your hosts and the peoples who are with you. I will give you to the ravenous birds of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 You shall fall in the open field, for I have spoken [it], says the Lord God.
6 I will send fire on Magog and upon those who dwell securely in the coastlands, and they shall know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord [the Sovereign Ruler, Who calls forth loyalty and obedient service].
7 And I will make My holy name known in the midst of My people Israel, and I will not let them profane My holy name any more; and the nations shall know, understand, and realize that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.
8 Behold, it is coming and it will be done, says the Lord God; that is the day of which I have spoken.
9 And [when you, Gog, are no longer] they who dwell in the cities of Israel shall go forth and shall set on fire and burn the battle gear, the shields and the bucklers, the bows and the arrows, the handspikes or riding whips and the spears; and they shall burn them as fuel for seven years,
10 So that My people shall take no firewood out of the field or cut down any out of the forests, for they shall make their fires of the weapons. And they shall despoil those who despoiled them and plunder those who plundered them, says the Lord God.
11 And in that day, I will give to Gog a place for burial there in Israel, the valley of those who pass through on the east side in front of the [Dead] Sea [the highway between Syria, Petra, and Egypt], and it will delay and stop those who pass through. And there shall they [a]bury Gog and all his multitude, and they shall call it the Valley of Hamon-gog [multitude of Gog].
12 For seven months the house of Israel will be burying them, that they may cleanse the land.
13 Yes, all the people of the land will bury them, and it shall bring them renown in the day that I shall be glorified, says the Lord God.
14 And they shall set apart men to work continually who shall pass through the land, men commissioned to bury, with the help of those who are passing by, those bodies that lie unburied on the face of the ground, in order to cleanse the land. After the end of seven months they shall make their search.
15 And when these pass through the land and anyone sees a human bone, he shall set up a marker by it as a sign to the buriers, until they have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog or of Gog’s multitude.
16 And Hamonah [multitude] shall also be the name of the city [of the dead]. Thus shall they cleanse the land.
17 And you, son of man, thus says the Lord God: Say to the birds of prey of every sort and to every beast of the field, Assemble yourselves and come, gather from every side to the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, even a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel at which you may eat flesh and drink blood.
18 You shall eat the flesh of the mighty and drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, of lambs, of goats, and of bullocks, all of them fatlings of Bashan [east of the Jordan].
19 And 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.
20 And you shall be filled at My table with horses and riders, with mighty men, and with soldiers of every kind, says the Lord God.
21 And I will manifest My honor and glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see My judgment and justice [in the punishment] which I have executed and My hand which I have laid on them.
22 So the house of Israel shall know, understand, and realize beyond all question that I am the Lord their God from that day forward.
23 And the nations shall know, understand, and realize positively that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they trespassed against Me; and I hid My face from them. So I gave them into the hand of their enemies and they all fell [into captivity or were slain] by the power of the sword.(A)
24 According to their uncleanness and according to their transgressions I dealt with them and hid My face from them.
25 Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now will I reverse the captivity of Jacob and have mercy upon the whole house of Israel and will be jealous for My holy name.
26 They shall forget their shame and self-reproach and all their treachery and unfaithfulness in which they have transgressed against Me, when they dwell securely in their land and there is none who makes them afraid.
27 When I have brought them again from the peoples and gathered them out of their enemies’ lands, and My justice and holiness are set apart and vindicated through them in the sight of many nations,
28 Then shall they know, understand, and realize positively that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into captivity and exile among the nations and then gathered them to their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations any more [in the latter days].
29 Neither will I hide My face any more then from them, when I have poured out My Spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord God.
40 In the twenty-fifth year of our captivity [by Babylon], in the beginning of the year, on the tenth day of the month, in the fourteenth year after the city [of Jerusalem] was taken, on the very same day the hand of the Lord was upon me and He brought me to that place.
2 In the visions of God He brought me into the land of Israel and set me down upon a very high mountain, on the south side of which there was what seemed to be the structure of a city.
3 He brought me there, and behold, there was a man [an angel] whose appearance was like bronze, with a line of flax and a measuring reed in his hand, and he stood in the gateway.
4 And the man said to me, Son of man, look with your eyes and hear with your ears and set your heart and mind on all that I will show you, for you are brought here that I may show them to you. Declare all that you see to the house of Israel.
5 And behold, there was a wall all around the outside area of the house [of the Lord], and in the man’s hand a measuring reed six long cubits in length, each cubit being longer [than the usual one] by a handbreadth; so he measured the thickness of the wall, one reed, and the height, one reed.
6 Then he came to the gate which faced the east and went up its [seven] steps and measured the threshold of the gateway, one reed broad, and the other threshold of the gateway [inside the thick wall], one reed broad.
7 And every room for the guards was one reed long and one reed broad, and the space between the guardrooms or lodges was five cubits. And the threshold of the gate by the porch or vestibule of the gateway within was one reed.
8 He measured also the porch or vestibule of the gate toward the house [of the Lord], one reed.
9 Then he measured the porch or vestibule of the gateway, eight cubits, and its posts or jambs, two cubits. And the porch or vestibule of the gate was inside [toward the house of the Lord].
10 And the guardrooms or lodges of the east gateway were three on this side and three on that side; the three were the same size, and the posts or jambs were the same size on either side.
11 And he measured the breadth of the opening of the gateway, ten cubits, and the length of the gateway, thirteen cubits.
12 And a border or barrier before the guardrooms was one cubit on this side, and a border or barrier, one cubit on that side. And the guardrooms or lodges were six cubits on this side and six cubits on that side.
13 And [b]the man [an angel] measured the gate from the outer wall of one chamber or guardroom to the outer wall of another—a breadth of twenty-five cubits from door to door.
14 And [c]the open part of the porch or vestibule of the gateway on the outside was twenty cubits, the chambers or guardrooms of the gate being round about.
15 And including this porch or vestibule of the gate on the outside and the porch or vestibule on the inside, the extent was fifty cubits.
16 And there were closed windows to the guardrooms or chambers and to their posts or pillars within the gate round about, and likewise to the archway or vestibule; and windows were round about facing into the court, and upon each post or pillar were palm tree [decorations].
17 Then he brought me into the outward court, and behold, there were chambers and a pavement round about the court; thirty chambers fronted on the pavement.
18 And the pavement was along by the side of the gates, answerable to the length of the gateways; this was the lower pavement.
19 Then the man measured the distance from the inner front before the lower gate to the outer front of the inner court, a hundred cubits, both on the east and on the north.
20 And the gate of the outward court which faced the north, of it he measured both the length and the breadth.
21 And its guardrooms or lodges, three on this side and three on that side, and its posts or pillars and archway or vestibule were the same size as those of the first gate; the length was fifty cubits and the breadth twenty-five cubits.
22 And its windows and its archway or vestibule and its palm trees were of the same size as those of the gate that faces toward the east. It was reached by going up seven steps, and the archway of its vestibule was on the inner side.
23 Opposite the gate on the north and on the east was a gate to the inner court, and he [the man with the measuring rod of reed] measured from gate to gate, a hundred cubits.
24 After that the man brought me toward the south, and behold, there was a gate on the south, and he measured its posts or pillars and its archway or vestibule; they measured as the others did.
25 And there were windows round about in it and in its archway or vestibule, like those windows in the other gateways; its length was fifty cubits and its breadth twenty-five cubits.
26 And there were seven steps going up to the gate, and its archway or vestibule was on the inside. And it had palm trees, one on this side and another on that side, carved on its posts or pillars.
27 And there was a gate to the inner court on the south, and he measured from gate to gate toward the south, a hundred cubits.
18 But someone will say [to you then], You [say you] have faith, and I have [good] works. Now you show me your [alleged] faith apart from any [good] works [if you can], and I by [good] works [of obedience] will show you my faith.
19 You believe that God is one; you do well. So do the demons believe and shudder [in terror and horror such as [a]make a man’s hair stand on end and contract the surface of his skin]!
20 Are you willing to be shown [proof], you foolish (unproductive, spiritually deficient) fellow, that faith apart from [good] works is inactive and ineffective and worthless?
21 Was not our forefather Abraham [shown to be] justified (made acceptable to God) by [his] works when he brought to the altar as an offering his [own] son Isaac?(A)
22 You see that [his] faith was cooperating with his works, and [his] faith was completed and reached its supreme expression [when he implemented it] by [good] works.
23 And [so] the Scripture was fulfilled that says, Abraham believed in (adhered to, trusted in, and relied on) God, and this was accounted to him as righteousness (as conformity to God’s will in thought and deed), and he was called God’s friend.(B)
24 You see that a man is justified (pronounced righteous before God) through what he does and not alone through faith [through works of obedience as well as by what he believes].
25 So also with Rahab the harlot—was she not shown to be justified (pronounced righteous before God) by [good] deeds when she took in the scouts (spies) and sent them away by a different route?(C)
26 For as the human body apart from the spirit is lifeless, so faith apart from [its] works of obedience is also dead.
3 Not many [of you] should become teachers ([b]self-constituted censors and reprovers of others), my brethren, for you know that we [teachers] will be judged by a higher standard and with greater severity [than other people; thus we assume the greater accountability and the more condemnation].
2 For we all often stumble and fall and offend in many things. And if anyone does not offend in speech [never says the wrong things], he is a fully developed character and a perfect man, able to control his whole body and to curb his entire nature.
3 If we set bits in the horses’ mouths to make them obey us, we can turn their whole bodies about.
4 Likewise, look at the ships: though they are so great and are driven by rough winds, they are steered by a very small rudder wherever the impulse of the helmsman determines.
5 Even so the tongue is a little member, and it can boast of great things. See how much wood or how great a forest a tiny spark can set ablaze!
6 And the tongue is a fire. [The tongue is a] world of wickedness set among our members, contaminating and depraving the whole body and setting on fire the wheel of birth (the cycle of man’s nature), being itself ignited by hell (Gehenna).
7 For every kind of beast and bird, of reptile and sea animal, can be tamed and has been tamed by human genius (nature).
8 But the human tongue can be tamed by no man. It is a restless (undisciplined, irreconcilable) evil, full of deadly poison.
9 With it we bless the Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who were made in God’s likeness!
10 Out of the same mouth come forth blessing and cursing. These things, my brethren, ought not to be so.
11 Does a fountain send forth [simultaneously] from the same opening fresh water and bitter?
12 Can a fig tree, my brethren, bear olives, or a grapevine figs? Neither can a salt spring furnish fresh water.
13 Who is there among you who is wise and intelligent? Then let him by his noble living show forth his [good] works with the [unobtrusive] humility [which is the proper attribute] of true wisdom.
14 But if you have bitter jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry, selfish ambition) in your hearts, do not pride yourselves on it and thus be in defiance of and false to the Truth.
15 This [superficial] wisdom is not such as comes down from above, but is earthly, unspiritual (animal), even devilish (demoniacal).
16 For wherever there is jealousy (envy) and contention (rivalry and selfish ambition), there will also be confusion (unrest, disharmony, rebellion) and all sorts of evil and vile practices.
17 But the wisdom from above is first of all pure (undefiled); then it is peace-loving, courteous (considerate, gentle). [It is willing to] yield to reason, full of compassion and good fruits; it is wholehearted and straightforward, impartial and unfeigned (free from doubts, wavering, and insincerity).
18 And the harvest of righteousness (of conformity to God’s will in thought and deed) is [the fruit of the seed] sown in peace by those who work for and make peace [in themselves and in others, that peace which means concord, agreement, and harmony between individuals, with undisturbedness, in a peaceful mind free from fears and agitating passions and moral conflicts].
Psalm 118
1 O give thanks to the Lord, for He is good; for His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever!
2 Let Israel now say that His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever.
3 Let the house of Aaron [the priesthood] now say that His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever.
4 Let those now who reverently and worshipfully fear the Lord say that His mercy and loving-kindness endure forever.
5 Out of my distress I called upon the Lord; the Lord answered me and set me free and in a large place.
6 The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?(A)
7 The Lord is on my side and takes my part, He is among those who help me; therefore shall I see my desire established upon those who hate me.
8 It is better to trust and take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in man.
9 It is better to trust and take refuge in the Lord than to put confidence in princes.
10 All nations (the surrounding tribes) compassed me about, but in the name of the Lord I will cut them off!
11 They compassed me about, yes, they surrounded me on every side; but in the name of the Lord I will cut them off!
12 They swarmed about me like bees, they blaze up and are extinguished like a fire of thorns; in the name of the Lord I will cut them off!(B)
13 You [my adversary] thrust sorely at me that I might fall, but the Lord helped me.
14 The Lord is my Strength and Song; and He has become my Salvation.
15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents and private dwellings of the [uncompromisingly] righteous: the right hand of the Lord does valiantly and achieves strength!
16 The right hand of the Lord is exalted; the right hand of the Lord does valiantly and achieves strength!
17 I shall not die but live, and shall declare the works and recount the illustrious acts of the Lord.
18 The Lord has chastened me sorely, but He has not given me over to death.(C)
2 When a land transgresses, it has many rulers, but when the ruler is a man of discernment, understanding, and knowledge, its stability will long continue.
Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation