Ezekiel 39

1 ‘Son of man, you must tell my message to Gog to warn him. Say to him, “This is what the Almighty Lord says: Listen! I am your enemy, Gog, prince of Meshech and Tubal. 2 I will turn you around and I will pull you along. I will bring you from the far away places in the north to attack the mountains of Israel. 3 Then I will knock your bow out of your left hand. I will cause your arrows to fall out of your right hand. 4 You will fall to the ground on Israel's mountains. You, your soldiers and the people who are with you will all die there. Vultures and wild animals will eat your dead bodies. 5 Your bodies will lie in the fields. I, the Almighty Lord, have said that this will happen.

6 I will send fires to burn in Magog. They will burn the people who live safely in towns on the coast of the sea. Then they will know that I am the Lord.

7 My people, Israel will know that my name is holy. No longer will I let them say bad things about me. And the nations round you will know that I, the Lord am the holy God in Israel. 8 I promise that I will cause this to happen. You can be sure that this day will come, says the Lord God.

I told you that this day would come.

9 Then those who live in Israel's towns will go out. They will pick up the weapons and they will burn them. They will burn the small and large shields, the heavy sticks, the throwing sticks and the sharp pointed sticks (swords). They will use them to make their fires. They will have enough wood for seven years of fires. 10 They will not have to go into the fields or forests to find wood. They will take away the things from those who took their things, says the Lord God.

11 They will bury Gog in the valley east of the sea. They will bury Gog and all his armies there. So men will not be able to walk through this valley. They will call it the valley of Hamon Gog (Gog's army).

12 Israel's people will need seven months to bury all the dead bodies. Then the land will be clean. 13 All the people in the country will bury the dead bodies. They will always remember that day, the day that I won the fight. They will give me glory, says the Lord God.

14 They will choose some men to clean the land. They will travel through all the country. Other men will bury the dead bodies that remain on the ground. They will begin to do this at the end of the seven months. 15 The men who walk through the country will find dead men's bones. They will put a sign by each one. Then the men who bury the bodies will bury them in the valley of Hamon Gog. 16 (A town called Hamonah is also there.) That is how they will make the land clean.”

17 Son of man, this is what the Lord God says: Shout to all kinds of birds and wild animals, “Come here from all the country to eat the meal that I have prepared for you. It is a great sacrifice on Israel's mountains. There you will eat meat and you will drink blood. 18 You will eat the meat of great men and you will drink the blood of kings. You will eat them like the fat sheep, cows and animals from Bashan that you eat. 19 At this sacrifice, you will eat so much fat that you cannot eat any more. You will drink so much blood that you become drunk. 20 I will give you horses and their riders to eat. I will give you great men and many kinds of soldiers to eat,” says the Lord God.

21 I will show my glory to all the nations. They will see that I can punish people. And they will know that I decide how and when to punish them. 22 From that time and for all the time after that, Israel's people will know that I am the Lord their God. 23 And the nations will know that I sent Israel's people away from their country. They will know that I punished my people because of their sin. They had not been faithful to me so I turned away from them. I let their enemies take them and kill them with swords. 24 I punished them because they had not kept themselves clean from sin. I hid myself from them because they had done so many evil things.’

25 So this is what the Lord God says. ‘Now I will bring back Jacob (Israel) from the countries where his people are prisoners. I will be kind to all Israel's people. And I will make them see that I am holy. 26 They will forget that they were ashamed. They will forget that they failed to keep their promises to me. That was when they lived in a safe country. In that country, nobody made them afraid. 27 I will bring them back from the lands where their enemies took them. The nations will see what I have done. So all the nations will know that I am holy. 28 Then Israel will know that I am the Lord their God. I sent my people away to far countries. But I will bring them all back to their own country. I will not leave any behind. 29 No longer will I turn away from them. I will pour my Spirit over Israel's people, says the Lord God.’