The Lord’s Great Victory Over the Nations

38 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 “Son of man, set your face against Gog,r of the land of Magog,s the chief prince ofa Meshek and Tubal;t prophesy against him 3 and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Gog, chief prince ofb Meshek and Tubal.u 4 I will turn you around, put hooksv in your jaws and bring you out with your whole army—your horses, your horsemen fully armed, and a great horde with large and small shields, all of them brandishing their swords.w 5 Persia, Cushc x and Puty will be with them, all with shields and helmets, 6 also Gomerz with all its troops, and Beth Togarmaha from the far northb with all its troops—the many nations with you.

7 “ ‘Get ready; be prepared,c you and all the hordes gathered about you, and take command of them. 8 After many daysd you will be called to arms. In future years you will invade a land that has recovered from war, whose people were gathered from many nationse to the mountains of Israel, which had long been desolate. They had been brought out from the nations, and now all of them live in safety.f 9 You and all your troops and the many nations with you will go up, advancing like a storm;g you will be like a cloudh covering the land.i

10 “ ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: On that day thoughts will come into your mindj and you will devise an evil scheme.k 11 You will say, “I will invade a land of unwalled villages; I will attack a peaceful and unsuspecting peoplel—all of them living without walls and without gates and bars.m 12 I will plunder and loot and turn my hand against the resettled ruins and the people gathered from the nations, rich in livestock and goods, living at the center of the land.d” 13 Sheban and Dedano and the merchants of Tarshishp and all her villagese will say to you, “Have you come to plunder? Have you gathered your hordes to loot, to carry off silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods and to seize much plunder?q” ’

14 “Therefore, son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: In that day, when my people Israel are living in safety,r will you not take notice of it? 15 You will come from your place in the far north,s you and many nations with you, all of them riding on horses, a great horde, a mighty army.t 16 You will advance against my people Israel like a cloudu that covers the land.v In days to come, Gog, I will bring you against my land, so that the nations may know me when I am proved holyw through you before their eyes.x

17 “ ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: You are the one I spoke of in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel. At that time they prophesied for years that I would bring you against them. 18 This is what will happen in that day: When Gog attacks the land of Israel, my hot anger will be aroused, declares the Sovereign Lord. 19 In my zeal and fiery wrath I declare that at that time there shall be a great earthquakey in the land of Israel.z 20 The fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the beasts of the field, every creature that moves along the ground, and all the people on the face of the earth will tremblea at my presence. The mountains will be overturned,b the cliffs will crumblec and every wall will fall to the ground.d 21 I will summon a sworde against Gog on all my mountains, declares the Sovereign Lord. Every man’s sword will be against his brother.f 22 I will execute judgmentg on him with plague and bloodshed;h I will pour down torrents of rain, hailstonesi and burning sulfurj on him and on his troops and on the many nations with him.k 23 And so I will show my greatness and my holiness, and I will make myself known in the sight of many nations. Then they will know that I am the Lord.l’

39 “Son of man, prophesy against Gogm and say: ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: I am against you, Gog, chief prince ofa Meshekn and Tubal.o 2 I will turn you around and drag you along. I will bring you from the far northp and send you against the mountains of Israel.q 3 Then I will strike your bowr from your left hand and make your arrowss drop from your right hand. 4 On the mountains of Israel you will fall, you and all your troops and the nations with you. I will give you as food to all kinds of carrion birdst and to the wild animals.u 5 You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Sovereign Lord.v 6 I will send firew on Magogx and on those who live in safety in the coastlands,y and they will knowz that I am the Lord.

7 “ ‘I will make known my holy name among my people Israel. I will no longer let my holy name be profaned,a and the nations will knowb that I the Lord am the Holy One in Israel.c 8 It is coming! It will surely take place, declares the Sovereign Lord. This is the dayd I have spoken of.

9 “ ‘Then those who live in the towns of Israel will go out and use the weapons for fuel and burn them up—the small and large shields, the bows and arrows,e the war clubs and spears. For seven years they will use them for fuel.f 10 They will not need to gather wood from the fields or cut it from the forests, because they will use the weapons for fuel. And they will plunderg those who plundered them and loot those who looted them, declares the Sovereign Lord.h

11 “ ‘On that day I will give Gog a burial place in Israel, in the valley of those who travel east of the Sea. It will block the way of travelers, because Gog and all his hordes will be buriedi there. So it will be called the Valley of Hamon Gog.b j

12 “ ‘For seven months the Israelites will be burying them in order to cleanse the land.k 13 All the people of the land will bury them, and the day I display my gloryl will be a memorable day for them, declares the Sovereign Lord. 14 People will be continually employed in cleansing the land. They will spread out across the land and, along with others, they will bury any bodies that are lying on the ground.

“ ‘After the seven months they will carry out a more detailed search. 15 As they go through the land, anyone who sees a human bone will leave a marker beside it until the gravediggers bury it in the Valley of Hamon Gog, 16 near a town called Hamonah.c And so they will cleanse the land.’

17 “Son of man, this is what the Sovereign Lord says: Call out to every kind of birdm and all the wild animals: ‘Assemble and come together from all around to the sacrifice I am preparing for you, the great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat flesh and drink blood.n 18 You will eat the flesh of mighty men and drink the blood of the princes of the earth as if they were rams and lambs, goats and bulls—all of them fattened animals from Bashan.o 19 At the sacrificep I am preparing for you, you will eat fat till you are glutted and drink blood till you are drunk. 20 At my table you will eat your fill of horses and riders, mighty men and soldiers of every kind,’ declares the Sovereign Lord.q

21 “I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the punishment I inflict and the hand I lay on them.r 22 From that day forward the people of Israel will know that I am the Lord their God. 23 And the nations will know that the people of Israel went into exile for their sin, because they were unfaithful to me. So I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, and they all fell by the sword.s 24 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their offenses, and I hid my face from them.t

25 “Therefore this is what the Sovereign Lord says: I will now restore the fortunes of Jacobd u and will have compassionv on all the people of Israel, and I will be zealous for my holy name.w 26 They will forget their shame and all the unfaithfulness they showed toward me when they lived in safetyx in their land with no one to make them afraid.y 27 When I have brought them back from the nations and have gathered them from the countries of their enemies, I will be proved holy through them in the sight of many nations.z 28 Then they will know that I am the Lord their God, for though I sent them into exile among the nations, I will gather thema to their own land, not leaving any behind.b 29 I will no longer hide my facec from them, for I will pour out my Spiritd on the people of Israel, declares the Sovereign Lord.e”

The Temple Area Restored

40 In the twenty-fifth year of our exile, at the beginning of the year, on the tenth of the month, in the fourteenth year after the fall of the cityf—on that very day the hand of the Lord was on meg and he took me there. 2 In visionsh of God he took me to the land of Israel and set me on a very high mountain,i on whose south side were some buildings that looked like a city. 3 He took me there, and I saw a man whose appearance was like bronze;j he was standing in the gateway with a linen cord and a measuring rodk in his hand. 4 The man said to me, “Son of man, look carefully and listen closely and pay attention to everything I am going to show you,l for that is why you have been brought here. Tellm the people of Israel everything you see.n”

The East Gate to the Outer Court

5 I saw a wall completely surrounding the temple area. The length of the measuring rod in the man’s hand was six long cubits,a each of which was a cubit and a handbreadth. He measuredo the wall; it was one measuring rod thick and one rod high.

6 Then he went to the east gate.p He climbed its steps and measured the threshold of the gate; it was one rod deep. 7 The alcovesq for the guards were one rod long and one rod wide, and the projecting walls between the alcoves were five cubitsb thick. And the threshold of the gate next to the portico facing the temple was one rod deep.

8 Then he measured the portico of the gateway; 9 itc was eight cubitsd deep and its jambs were two cubitse thick. The portico of the gateway faced the temple.

10 Inside the east gate were three alcoves on each side; the three had the same measurements, and the faces of the projecting walls on each side had the same measurements. 11 Then he measured the width of the entrance of the gateway; it was ten cubits and its length was thirteen cubits.f 12 In front of each alcove was a wall one cubit high, and the alcoves were six cubits square. 13 Then he measured the gateway from the top of the rear wall of one alcove to the top of the opposite one; the distance was twenty-five cubitsg from one parapet opening to the opposite one. 14 He measured along the faces of the projecting walls all around the inside of the gateway—sixty cubits.h The measurement was up to the porticoi facing the courtyard.j r 15 The distance from the entrance of the gateway to the far end of its portico was fifty cubits.k 16 The alcoves and the projecting walls inside the gateway were surmounted by narrow parapet openings all around, as was the portico; the openings all around faced inward. The faces of the projecting walls were decorated with palm trees.s

The Outer Court

17 Then he brought me into the outer court.t There I saw some rooms and a pavement that had been constructed all around the court; there were thirty roomsu along the pavement.v 18 It abutted the sides of the gateways and was as wide as they were long; this was the lower pavement. 19 Then he measured the distance from the inside of the lower gateway to the outside of the inner court;w it was a hundred cubitsl x on the east side as well as on the north.

The North Gate

20 Then he measured the length and width of the north gate, leading into the outer court. 21 Its alcovesy—three on each side—its projecting walls and its porticoz had the same measurements as those of the first gateway. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 22 Its openings, its porticoa and its palm tree decorations had the same measurements as those of the gate facing east. Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them.b 23 There was a gate to the inner court facing the north gate, just as there was on the east. He measured from one gate to the opposite one; it was a hundred cubits.c

The South Gate

24 Then he led me to the south side and I saw the south gate. He measured its jambs and its portico, and they had the same measurementsd as the others. 25 The gateway and its portico had narrow openings all around, like the openings of the others. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.e 26 Seven steps led up to it, with its portico opposite them; it had palm tree decorations on the faces of the projecting walls on each side.f 27 The inner courtg also had a gate facing south, and he measured from this gate to the outer gate on the south side; it was a hundred cubits.h

The Gates to the Inner Court

28 Then he brought me into the inner court through the south gate, and he measured the south gate; it had the same measurementsi as the others. 29 Its alcoves,j its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide.k 30 (The porticoesl of the gateways around the inner court were twenty-five cubits wide and five cubits deep.) 31 Its porticom faced the outer court; palm trees decorated its jambs, and eight steps led up to it.n

32 Then he brought me to the inner court on the east side, and he measured the gateway; it had the same measurementso as the others. 33 Its alcoves,p its projecting walls and its portico had the same measurements as the others. The gateway and its portico had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 34 Its porticoq faced the outer court; palm trees decorated the jambs on either side, and eight steps led up to it.

35 Then he brought me to the north gater and measured it. It had the same measurementss as the others, 36 as did its alcoves,t its projecting walls and its portico, and it had openings all around. It was fifty cubits long and twenty-five cubits wide. 37 Its porticom u faced the outer court; palm trees decorated the jambs on either side, and eight steps led up to it.v

The Rooms for Preparing Sacrifices

38 A room with a doorway was by the portico in each of the inner gateways, where the burnt offeringsw were washed. 39 In the portico of the gateway were two tables on each side, on which the burnt offerings,x sin offeringsn y and guilt offeringsz were slaughtered.a 40 By the outside wall of the portico of the gateway, near the steps at the entrance of the north gateway were two tables, and on the other side of the steps were two tables. 41 So there were four tables on one side of the gateway and four on the other—eight tables in all—on which the sacrifices were slaughtered. 42 There were also four tables of dressed stoneb for the burnt offerings, each a cubit and a half long, a cubit and a half wide and a cubit high.o On them were placed the utensils for slaughtering the burnt offerings and the other sacrifices.c 43 And double-pronged hooks, each a handbreadthp long, were attached to the wall all around. The tables were for the flesh of the offerings.

The Rooms for the Priests

44 Outside the inner gate, within the inner court, were two rooms, oneq at the side of the north gate and facing south, and another at the side of the southr gate and facing north. 45 He said to me, “The room facing south is for the priests who guard the temple,d 46 and the room facing northe is for the priests who guard the altar.f These are the sons of Zadok,g who are the only Levites who may draw near to the Lord to minister before him.h”

47 Then he measured the court: It was square—a hundred cubits long and a hundred cubits wide. And the altar was in front of the temple.i

The New Temple

48 He brought me to the portico of the templej and measured the jambs of the portico; they were five cubits wide on either side. The width of the entrance was fourteen cubitss and its projecting walls weret three cubitsu wide on either side. 49 The porticok was twenty cubitsv wide, and twelvew cubitsx from front to back. It was reached by a flight of stairs,y and there were pillarsl on each side of the jambs.