Ezekiel 38–39

Gog as the Instrument of God

38The Lord spoke to me. ^2*“Mortal man,” he said, “denounce Gog, chief ruler of the nations of Meshech and Tubal in the land of Magog. Denounce him, ³and tell him that I, the Sovereign Lord, am his enemy. ⁴I will turn him round, put hooks in his jaws, and drag him and all his troops away. His army, with its horses and uniformed riders, is enormous, and every soldier carries a shield and is armed with a sword. ⁵Men from Persia, Ethiopia,^j and Libya are with him, and all have shields and helmets. ⁶All the fighting men of the lands of Gomer and Beth Togarmah in the north are with him, and so are men from many other nations. ⁷Tell him to get ready and have all his troops ready at his command. ⁸After many years I will order him to invade a country where the people were brought back together from many nations and have lived without fear of war. He will invade the mountains of Israel, which were desolate and deserted so long, but where all the people now live in safety. ⁹He and his army and the many nations with him will attack like a storm and cover the land like a cloud.”

¹⁰This is what the Sovereign Lord says to Gog: “When that time comes, you will start thinking up an evil plan. ¹¹You will decide to invade a helpless country where the people live in peace and security in unwalled towns that have no defences. ¹²You will plunder and loot the people who live in cities that were once in ruins. They have been gathered from the nations, and now they have livestock and property and live at the crossroads of the world. ¹³The people of Sheba and Dedan and the merchants from the towns of Spain will ask you, ‘Have you assembled your army and attacked in order to loot and plunder? Do you intend to get silver and gold, livestock and property, and to march off with all those spoils?’ ”

¹⁴So the Sovereign Lord sent me to tell Gog what he was saying to him: “Now while my people Israel live in security, you will set out^{k 15}from your place in the far north, leading a large, powerful army of soldiers from many nations, all of them on horseback. ¹⁶You will attack my people Israel like a storm moving across the land. When the time comes, I will send you to invade my land in order to show the nations who I am, to show my holiness by what I do through you. ¹⁷You are the one I was talking about long ago, when I announced through my servants, the prophets of Israel, that in days to come I would bring someone to attack Israel.” The Sovereign Lord has spoken.

God’s Punishment of Gog

¹⁸The Sovereign Lord says, “On the day when Gog invades Israel, I will be furious. ¹⁹I declare in the heat of my anger that on that day there will be a severe earthquake in the land of Israel. ²⁰Every fish and bird, every animal large and small, and every human being on the face of the earth will tremble for fear of me. Mountains will fall, cliffs will crumble, and every wall will collapse. ²¹I will terrify Gog with all sorts of calamities.^l I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. His men will turn their swords against one another. ²²I will punish him with disease and bloodshed. Torrents of rain and hail, together with fire and sulphur, will pour down on him and his army and on the many nations that are on his side. ²³In this way I will show all the nations that I am great and that I am holy. They will know then that I am the Lord.”

The Defeat of Gog

39The Sovereign Lord said, “Mortal man, denounce Gog, the chief ruler of the nations of Meshech and Tubal, and tell him that I am his enemy. ²I will turn him in a new direction and lead him out of the far north until he comes to the mountains of Israel. ³Then I will knock his bow out of his left hand and his arrows out of his right hand. ⁴Gog and his army and his allies will fall dead on the mountains of Israel, and I will let their bodies be food for all the birds and wild animals. ⁵They will fall dead in the open field. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. ⁶I will start a fire in the land of Magog and along all the coasts where people live undisturbed, and everyone will know that I am the Lord. ⁷I will make sure that my people Israel know my holy name, and I will not let my name be disgraced any more. Then the nations will know that I, the Lord, am the Holy God of Israel.”

⁸The Sovereign Lord said, “The day I spoke about is certain to come. ⁹The people who live in the cities of Israel will go out and collect the abandoned weapons for firewood. They will build fires with the shields, bows, arrows, spears, and clubs, and will have enough to last for seven years. ¹⁰They will not have to gather firewood in the fields or cut down trees in the forest, because they will have the abandoned weapons to burn. They will loot and plunder those who looted and plundered them.” The Sovereign Lord has spoken.

The Burial of Gog

¹¹The Lord said, “When all this happens, I will give Gog a burial ground there in Israel, in Travellers’ Valley, east of the Dead Sea.^m Gog and all his army will be buried there, and the valley will be called ‘The Valley of Gog’s Army’. ¹²It will take the Israelites seven months to bury all the corpses and make the land clean again. ¹³Everyone in the land will help to bury them, and they will be honoured for this on the day of my victory. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken. ¹⁴After the seven months are over, men will be chosen to travel through the land in order to find and bury those bodiesⁿ remaining on the ground, so that they can make the land clean. ¹⁵As they go up and down the country, every time they find a human bone, they will put a marker beside it so that the grave diggers can come and bury it in the Valley of Gog’s Army. ¹⁶(There will be a town near by named after the army.) And so the land will be made clean again.”

^17*The Sovereign Lord said to me, “Mortal man, call all the birds and animals to come from all round to eat the sacrifice I am preparing for them. It will be a huge feast on the mountains of Israel, where they can eat meat and drink blood. ^18*They are to eat the bodies of soldiers and drink the blood of the rulers of the earth, all of whom will be killed like rams or lambs or goats or fat bulls. ^19*When I kill these people like sacrifices, the birds and animals are to eat all the fat they can hold and to drink blood until they are drunk. ^20*At my table they will eat all they can hold of horses and their riders and of soldiers and fighting men. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.”

The Restoration of Israel

²¹The Lord said, “I will let the nations see my glory and show them how I use my power to carry out my just decisions. ²²The Israelites will know from then on that I am the Lord their God. ²³And the nations will know that the Israelites went into exile because of the sins which they committed against me. I turned away from them and let their enemies defeat them and kill them in battle. ²⁴I gave them what they deserved for their uncleanness and their wickedness, and I turned away from them.”

²⁵The Sovereign Lord said, “But now I will be merciful to Jacob’s descendants, the people of Israel, and make them prosperous again. I will protect my holy name. ²⁶When they are once more living in safety in their own land, with no one to threaten them, they will be able to forget how they were disgraced for having betrayed me. ²⁷In order to show the many nations that I am holy, I will bring my people back from all the countries where their enemies live. ²⁸Then my people will know that I am the Lord their God. They will know this, because I sent them into captivity and now gather them and bring them back into their own land, not leaving even one of them behind. ²⁹I will pour out my spirit on the people of Israel and never again turn away from them. I, the Sovereign Lord, have spoken.”