A prophecy about Gog

38 Yahweh gave me another message. He said to me, 2 “You human, turn and face Magog, the country where Gog is the king. He is also the ruler of the nations of Meshech and Tubal. Prophesy about the terrible things that will happen to him, 3 and say, ‘This is what Yahweh the Lord says: Gog, you who rule Meshech and Tubal, I am opposed to you. 4 It will be as though I will turn you around and put hooks in your jaws and bring you to Israel—you and all of your army, including your horses and men carrying weapons who ride the horses, and many other soldiers carrying large shields and small shields, all of them carrying swords. 5 Armies from Persia, Ethiopia, and Put/Libya will also come, all of them with shields and helmets. 6 An army from Gomer north of Israel will come, and an army from Togarmah far north of Israel will come. Armies of many nations will accompany you.’

7 Tell Gog, ‘Get ready and be prepared to be the commander of all those groups of soldiers. 8 At some future time, I will command you to lead those armies to attack Israel, a country whose buildings have been rebuilt after they were destroyed in wars. Their people will have been brought back from many nations to live again on the hills of Israel, which had been deserted for a long time. They had been brought back from other nations and will be living peacefully. 9 You and all those armies from many nations will go up to Israel, advancing like [SIM] a big storm. Your army will be like a huge cloud that covers the land.

10 But this is what I, Yahweh the Lord, say: On that day, you will have an idea about [DOU] doing an evil thing. 11 You will say to yourself, “My army will invade a country where the villages do not have walls around them. We will attack people who are peaceful and do not suspect/think that they will be attacked. Their towns and villages do not have walls with gates and bars. 12 So it will be easy for us to attack the people who are living again in those towns that were previously destroyed. They are people who have been gathered from many countries where they had lived for many years, people who now live safely in their land with all their livestock and other possessions. They are living in the country that is in the middle of the most important countries (OR, that they think is [IRO] the most important country) in the world. Our soldiers will take away [DOU] all their valuable possessions.” 13 Then people of Sheba and Dedan and the merchants of Tarshish and nearby villages will come and say to you, “Are you gathering all your soldiers in order to attack Israel and take away all their silver and gold? Do you plan to take away their livestock and all their other valuable possessions [DOU]?” ’

14 Therefore, you human, prophesy about Gog and say to him, ‘This is what Yahweh the Lord says: At that time, when my people of Israel are living safely, you will certainly think about that. 15 So you will come from your place far north of Israel, with the armies of many other nations, all riding horses, a huge army. 16 You will march toward my Israeli people, and your soldiers will cover the land like a huge cloud. Gog, I will bring your army to attack the country that belongs to me, but what I do for you will show the people of other nations that I am holy.

17 This is what I, Yahweh the Lord, say to Gog: In past years, when I gave messages to my servants, the prophets in Israel, there were messages [RHQ] about you. At that time, they prophesied for many years that I would bring your armies to attack my people. 18 So this is what I, Yahweh the Lord, say will happen: When your army attacks Israel, I will be very angry with you. 19 I will be very furious, and to show that I am angry, there will be a great earthquake in Israel, where your armies will be. 20 The fish in the sea, the birds, the wild animals, and the animals/creatures that crawl on the ground, and all the people on the earth will tremble because of what I am doing. Mountains will fall down, cliffs will crumble, and walls everywhere will fall to the ground. 21 Gog, on all the mountains in the country that belongs to me I will cause your soldiers to fight against each other with their swords. 22 I will punish [MTY] you and your soldiers with plagues and murders [MTY]. And I will send down from the sky, on you and your troops that have come from many nations, huge amounts of rain and hail and burning sulfur. 23 By doing that, I will cause the people of many nations to know that I am very great and holy, and they will know that I, Yahweh, have the power to do the things that I say that I will do.’ ”

39 Yahweh said to me, “You human, prophesy about more terrible things that will happen to Gog, and say this to him: ‘Gog, I am opposed to 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 in 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 in 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. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh the Lord, have said that it will happen. 6 I will cause many fires to burn in Magog and among 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 Israeli people to know that I am holy. I will no longer allow people to damage my reputation, and people in other nations will know that I, Yahweh the Lord, am the Holy One in Israel. 8 I, Yahweh the Lord, declare that it will soon be the day that those things will happen. It will be the day that I have spoken to you about.

9 At that time, those Israelis who live in the towns will go out and gather the weapons from your dead soldiers, and 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 Gog’s Huge Army’.

12 For seven months the people of Israel will be burying those corpses. It will be necessary to bury all of them, in order that the land will not be ◄defiled/considered unacceptable to me► 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.

14 After those seven months are ended, the Israeli people will appoint men to go throughout the land to bury corpses, in order that the land will not remain defiled. 15 When they go through the land, when 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 Gog’s Huge Army. 16 There will be a city there named Hamonah, which means ‘huge army’. And by doing this work of burying the corpses, they will ◄cleanse the land/cause the land to be acceptable to me again►.’ ”

17 Yahweh said to me, “You human, this is what I, Yahweh the Lord, 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 in 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—rams and lambs, goats and bulls—from the Bashan region. 19 At that 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 [DOU] of every kind.’ That is what I, Yahweh the Lord, declare.

21 I will show people of many nations that I am glorious, and all those nations will see how I punish them [DOU]. 22 After that time, the Israeli people will know that I, Yahweh their God, have the power to do what I say that I will do. 23 And the people of other nations will know that the Israeli people had been forced to go to other countries because they sinned by not being faithful to me. I ◄turned away from/abandoned► them, and allowed their enemies to capture them [IDM], and many [HYP] of them were killed by their enemies’ swords. 24 I punished them like they deserved to be punished because of their disgusting behavior and sins, and I turned away from them [MTY].

25 Therefore, this is now what I, Yahweh the Lord, say: I will now bring back from exile/Babylonia the descendants of Jacob; I will pity all the Israeli people, and I will also jealously protect my reputation. 26 When the Israeli people are back in their own country, they will live safely in their land, with no one to cause them to be afraid, but they will be ashamed when they think 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 that I am holy. 28 And the Israeli people will know that I, Yahweh their Lord, have the power to do what I say that I will do. They will know that because even though I forced them to go to other countries, I will gather 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 pour out my Spirit on the Israeli people. That will surely happen because I, Yahweh, have said it.”