1
Yahweh said to me, “Son of man, speak for me about the terrible things that will happen to Gog. Say this to him: ’Gog, I am your enemy, you who rule Meshech and Tubal.
2
I will turn you around and drag you and your armies from far north of Israel and send you to fight on the mountains of Israel.
3
When you are there, I will snatch your bows from your left hands and cause your arrows to fall from your right hands.
4
You and all the soldiers that are with you will die on the mountains of Israel. I will give your corpses to be food for the birds that eat dead flesh, and to the wild animals.
5
You will die in the open fields. This will certainly happen because I, Yahweh the Lord, have said that it will happen.
6
I will cause many fires to burn in Magog and to all those who live safely in the areas along their coasts, and they will know that it is I, Yahweh, who have the power to do what I say that I will do.
7
I will enable my Israelite people to know that I am holy. I will no longer allow them to mock me, and the people groups in the other lands will know that I am Yahweh, the God whom Israel worships and honors.
8
That day is fast approaching. I, Yahweh the Lord, declare that those things will happen soon.
9
At that time, the people who live in the cities of Israel will go out and gather the weapons from the dead soldiers, and will use them to make fires to cook their food. They will burn the small and large shields, the bows and arrows, the war clubs, and spears. There will be enough weapons to use as firewood for seven years.
10
They will not need to gather firewood in the fields or cut wood from trees in the forests, because those weapons will be all the firewood that they will need. And they will take valuable things from those who took valuable things from them, and steal things from people who stole things from them. That is what I, Yahweh the Lord, declare will happen.
11
At that time I will create a graveyard for you, Gog, and your soldiers, in the valley east of the Dead Sea. That graveyard will block the road that travelers usually walk on, because you, Gog and all the soldiers of your huge army will be buried there. So it will be named the Valley of Hamon Gog.
12
For seven months the people of Israel will be burying your corpses. It will be necessary to bury all of them, in order that the land will not be defiled because of any unburied corpses.
13
All the people of Israel will do the work of burying them. The day when I win that victory they will honor me, and they will remember that day forever.
14
After those seven months are ended, the Israelite people will designate men to go throughout the land to bury any remaining corpses, in order that the land might not remain defiled.
15
When they go through the land, whenever one of them sees a human bone, he will set up a marker beside it. When the gravediggers see the markers, they will pick up the bones and bury them in the Valley of Hamon Gog.
16
There will be a city there named Hamonah. And by doing this work of burying the corpses, they will cleanse the land.’”
17
Yahweh said to me, “Son of man, this is what I, Lord Yahweh, say: Summon every kind of bird and wild animal. Say to them, ’Gather together from everywhere and come to the feast that Yahweh is preparing for you. It will be a great feast on the mountains of Israel. There you will eat men’s flesh and drink their blood.
18
You will eat the flesh of strong soldiers and drink the blood of kings as if they were fat animals from the region of Bashan, as if they were male sheep, lambs, goats, and bulls.
19
At the feast that Yahweh is preparing for you, you will eat fat until your stomachs are full, and you will drink blood until it is as though you are drunk.
20
It will be as though you are eating at a table that I have set up for you. You will eat all you want of the flesh of horses and their riders, strong soldiers of every kind.’ That is what I, Yahweh the Lord, declare.
Israel to Be Restored
21
’I will show people of the nations that I am powerful, and all the nations will see how I punish them.
22
At that time, the Israelite people will learn that I, Yahweh their God, have the power to do what I say that I will do.
23
And the people of the other lands will know that the Israelites had been forced to go to other countries because they sinned by not being faithful to me. I turned away from them, and I allowed their enemies to capture them and kill many of them.
24
I punished them as they deserved because of their disgusting behavior and sins, and I turned away from them.
25
Therefore, this is now what I, Lord Yahweh say: I will now bring back from exile the descendants of Jacob; I will have mercy on all the Israelite people, and I will also make sure that they honor me.
26
When the Israelite people are back in their own country, they will live safely in their land, with no one to cause them to be afraid. They will forget about the disgraceful and unfaithful things that they did previously.
27
When I have brought them back from their enemies’ countries and gathered them together in Israel, the people of many nations will know how holy I am because of what I did for my people.
28
The Israelite people will know that I, Yahweh, have done this. They will know that because I forced them to go to other countries, and then I gathered them together in their own country. I will not leave any of them in those countries.
29
I will no longer turn away from them; I will give my Spirit to the Israelite people. This will certainly happen because I, Yahweh the Lord, have said it.”
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