Ezekiel 39
New Catholic Bible
Chapter 39
Third Prophecy against Gog. 1 Son of man, prophesy against Gog and say: Thus says the Lord God: Behold, I am coming against you, Gog, chief prince of Meshech and Tubal. 2 I will turn you around and drive you forward. I will lead you from the most remote recesses of the north and bring you to the mountains of Israel.
3 Then I will strike the bow from your left hand and cause your arrows to drop from your right hand. 4 You will fall upon the mountains of Israel, you and all your troops as well as the nations that are with you. I will give you as food to birds of prey of every kind and to the wild beasts.
5 You will fall in the open field, for I have spoken, declares the Lord God. 6 I will send fire on Magog and upon those who live undisturbed in the coastlands. Then they will know that I am the Lord.
7 I will make my holy name known among my people Israel, and I will not allow my holy name to be profaned. Thus the nations will know that I am the Lord, the Holy One in Israel. 8 All this will happen. All this will take place, says the Lord God. This is the day about which I have spoken.
9 Then those who dwell in the towns of Israel will go forth and set fire to the weapons to provide themselves with fuel—bucklers and shields, bows and arrows, clubs and spears—and they will make fires of them for seven years. 10 They will have no need to bring in wood from the fields or cut down any trees in the forests, inasmuch as they will use their weapons to make fires. They will despoil those who despoiled them and plunder those who plundered them, says the Lord God.
11 On that day I will give to Gog a well-known place in Israel for his grave, the Valley of Abarim east of the sea, a valley that is inaccessible to travelers. There Gog and all his horde will be buried. It will be called the Valley of Hamon-gog. 12 The house of Israel will spend seven months burying them in order to purify the land.
13 All the people of the land will bury them, thus gaining renown for doing so on the day that I reveal my glory, says the Lord God. 14 Some men will be designated for the assignment to pass through the land and bury any travelers who remain lying on the ground, so as to purify it. They will begin their search at the end of seven months.
15 As these searchers go through the country, if anyone sees a human bone, he must put up a marker beside it until the gravediggers have buried it in the Valley of Hamon-gog. 16 (A city named Hamonah is there also.) Thus the land will be purified.
17 As for you, son of man, the Lord God says this: Say to the wild birds of every kind and to all the wild animals: Assemble and come together. Gather from all sides for the sacrificial feast I am preparing for you, a magnificent sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel. 18 You will consume the flesh of the mighty, and you will drink the blood of the princes of the earth—of rams, lambs, goats, and bulls, all of them fatlings of Bashan.
19 At the sacrificial feast I am preparing for you, you will eat fat until you are filled and drink blood until you are drunk. 20 At my table you will be filled with horses and riders, with warriors and soldiers of every kind, says the Lord God.
21 Israel’s Reunion.[a] I will display my glory among the nations, and all the nations will see the punishment that I inflict and the hand that I lay upon them. 22 From that day forward, the house of Israel will know that I am the Lord, their God.
23 Furthermore, the nations will know that the people of the house of Israel were exiled because of their iniquity, inasmuch as they dealt treacherously with me. Therefore, I hid my face from them and handed them over to their enemies, so that they all fell by the sword. 24 I dealt with them according to their uncleanness and their offenses, and I hid my face from them.
25 Therefore, thus says the Lord God: Now I will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on the whole house of Israel, and I will be jealous for my holy name. 26 They will forget their disgrace and all the acts of infidelity they committed against me when they will live in security in their land, with no one to make them afraid.
27 When I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from the lands of their enemies, I will display through them my holiness in the sight of many nations. 28 Then they will know that I am the Lord, their God, because, having sent them into exile among the nations, I then reunited them into their own land and left none of them behind. 29 Never again will I hide my face from them, for I will pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, says the Lord God.
Footnotes
- Ezekiel 39:21 This is, in a way, the conclusion of all the preceding chapters. After punishing them, God will lead his people back to their country, since he is the God of Israel; his name will be made known to all through the covenant. These few verses summarize the teaching of Ezekiel: he is the prophet who in the midst of the passing events of history makes known, above all else, the glory of God.
