Ezekiel 39

¹ ‘Son of man, prophesy against Gog. Say, “The Lord Yahweh says this: Now I set myself against you, Gog, prince of Rosh, Meshech and Tubal.

² I will turn you round, lead you on, and bring you from the farthest north to attack the mountains of Israel.

³ I will break the bow in your left hand and dash the arrows out of your right.

⁴ You will be killed on the mountains of Israel, you and all your hordes, and the nations with you. I shall make you food for carrion birds and wild beasts.

⁵ You will fall in the open countryside. I have spoken – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks.

⁶ I will send fire to Magog and on those living undisturbed on islands, and they will learn that I am Yahweh.

⁷ I am going to see that my holy name is known among my people Israel, and I will no longer allow my holy name to be profaned; the nations shall learn that I am Yahweh, holy in Israel.

⁸ All this is going to happen, all this is going to take place – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks. This is the day I predicted.

⁹ The citizens of the towns of Israel will go out and use these arms for firewood: shields and bucklers, bows and arrows, clubs and javelins. For seven years they will feed the fire with them.

¹⁰ Men will stop looking for wood in the countryside or cutting it in the forest; they will be feeding the fire with arms. They will plunder those who plundered them, and take spoil from those who despoiled them – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks.

¹¹ On that day, I shall give Gog a famous spot in Israel for his grave – the valley of the Abarim,[*a] on the east of the Sea – the valley that turns back the traveller – and there Gog and his whole army will be buried, and it shall be called the Valley of Hamon-gog.

¹² The House of Israel will take seven months to bury them and cleanse the country.

¹³ All the people of the country will dig their graves, and be honoured for this on the day when I reveal my glory – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks.

¹⁴ Men will be selected to go continually up and down the country to bury those left on the ground and cleanse it. For seven months they will go searching.

¹⁵ If one of them sees any human bones as they go up and down the country he will put a mark beside them until the gravediggers have buried them in the valley of Hamon-gog –

¹⁶ the name of the town is to be Hamonah – and so have cleansed the country.”

¹⁷ ‘Son of man, the Lord Yahweh says this. Speak to every kind of bird and to all wild beasts, “Muster, come here, meet from everywhere around for the sacrifice I am making for you, a great sacrifice on the mountains of Israel; you will eat flesh and drink blood.

¹⁸ You will eat the flesh of heroes, you will drink the blood of the princes of the world. They are all rams and lambs, goats and fat bulls of Bashan.

¹⁹ You will feed full on fat, drink yourselves drunk with blood, at this sacrifice I am making for you.

²⁰ You will glut yourselves at my table on horses and chargers, on heroes and common soldiers – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks.”

²¹ ‘That is how I shall display my glory to the nations, and all nations will feel my sentence when I judge, and feel my hand when I strike them.

²² The House of Israel will know that I am Yahweh their God, from that day forward for ever.

²³ And the nations will learn that the House of Israel was exiled for their sin in behaving so treacherously to me that I had to avert my face from them because they had rebelled against me, and to hand them over to their enemies; and they all perished by the sword.

²⁴ I treated them as their filthy sins deserved and hid my face from them.

²⁵ And so, thus says the Lord Yahweh: Now I am going to bring back the captives of Jacob, now I am going to take pity on the whole House of Israel and show myself jealous for my holy name.

²⁶ ‘They will forget the disgrace of having so often betrayed me when they were living safely in their own land, with no one to disturb them.

²⁷ When I bring them home from the peoples, when I bring them back from the countries of their enemies, when I reveal my holiness in them for many nations to see,

²⁸ they will know that I am Yahweh their God, when I rescue the captives from the pagans and reunite them in their own country, not leaving a single one behind.

²⁹ I shall never hide my face from them again, since I shall pour out my spirit on the House of Israel – it is the Lord Yahweh who speaks.’