Prophecy Against Gog

1 The word of the Lord came to me: 2 ^k“Son of man, ^lset your face toward ^mGog, of the land of ⁿMagog, the ^ochief prince of ^pMeshech¹ and ^pTubal, and ^qprophesy against him 3 and say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, ^rI am against you, O Gog, chief prince of Meshech² and Tubal. 4 ^sAnd I will turn you about and ^tput hooks into your jaws, and I will bring you out, and ^uall your army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed in full armor, a great host, all of them with buckler and shield, wielding swords. 5 ^vPersia, ^wCush, and ^vPut are with them, all of them with shield and helmet; 6 ^xGomer and all his ^yhordes; ^zBeth-togarmah from ^athe uttermost parts of the north with all his hordes—^umany peoples are with you.

7 ^b“Be ready and keep ready, you and all your hosts that are assembled about you, and be a guard for them. 8 ^cAfter many days you will be mustered. ^dIn the latter years you will go against ^dthe land that is restored from war, the land whose people ^ewere gathered from many peoples upon ^fthe mountains of Israel, which had been a continual waste. Its people were brought out from the peoples and ^gnow dwell securely, all of them. 9 You will advance, coming on ^hlike a storm. You will be ⁱlike a cloud covering the land, you and all your ^yhordes, and many peoples with you.

10 “Thus says the Lord God: On that day, ^jthoughts will come into your mind, and you will devise an evil scheme 11 and say, ‘I will go up against ^kthe land of unwalled villages. I will fall upon ^lthe quiet people who dwell securely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having no bars or gates,’ 12 to seize spoil and carry off plunder, to turn your hand against ^mthe waste places that are now inhabited, and ^mthe people who were gathered from the nations, who have acquired livestock and goods, ⁿwho dwell at the center of the earth. 13 ^oSheba and ^pDedan and the merchants of Tarshish and all ^qits leaders³ will say to you, ‘Have you come to seize spoil? Have you assembled your hosts to carry off plunder, to carry away silver and gold, to take away livestock and goods, to seize great spoil?’

14 “Therefore, ^rson of man, prophesy, and say to ^sGog, Thus says the Lord God: On that day when my people Israel are ^gdwelling securely, ^twill you not know it? 15 You will come from your place out of ^uthe uttermost parts of the north, you and ^vmany peoples with you, ^wall of them riding on horses, a great host, a mighty army. 16 You will come up against my people Israel, ⁱlike a cloud covering the land. ^xIn the latter days I will bring you against my land, that the nations may know me, when through you, O Gog, ^yI vindicate my holiness before their eyes.

17 “Thus says the Lord God: Are you ^zhe of whom I spoke in former days by my servants the prophets of Israel, who in those days prophesied for years that I would bring you against them? 18 But on that day, the day that Gog shall come against the land of Israel, declares the Lord God, ^amy wrath will be roused in my anger. 19 For ^bin my jealousy and in my blazing wrath I declare, On that day ^cthere shall be a great earthquake in the land of Israel. 20 ^dThe fish of the sea and the birds of the heavens and the beasts of the field and all creeping things that creep on the ground, and all the people who are on the face of the earth, ^eshall quake at my presence. And ^fthe mountains shall be thrown down, and the cliffs shall fall, and every wall shall tumble to the ground. 21 ^gI will summon a sword against Gog⁴ on all my mountains, declares the Lord God. ^hEvery man’s sword will be against his brother. 22 With pestilence and bloodshed ⁱI will enter into judgment with him, and ^jI will rain upon him and ^khis hordes and the many peoples who are with him ^ltorrential rains and hailstones, ^mfire and sulfur. 23 So I will show my greatness and my ⁿholiness and ^omake myself known in the eyes of many nations. Then ^pthey will know that I am the Lord.

1 “And you, ^qson of man, ^rprophesy against ^sGog and say, Thus says the Lord God: Behold, ^tI am against you, O Gog, ^uchief prince of ^vMeshech⁵ and ^vTubal. 2 ^wAnd I will turn you about and drive you forward,⁶ and bring you up from ^xthe uttermost parts of the north, and lead you against the ^ymountains of Israel. 3 Then ^zI will strike your bow from your left hand, and ^zwill make your arrows drop out of your right hand. 4 ^aYou shall fall on ^ythe mountains of Israel, you and all your ^bhordes and the peoples who are with you. ^cI will give you to birds of prey of every sort and to the beasts of the field to be devoured. 5 You shall fall in the open field, for ^dI have spoken, declares the Lord God. 6 ^eI will send fire on ^fMagog and on those ^gwho dwell securely in ^hthe coastlands, and ⁱthey shall know that I am the Lord.

7 “And ^jmy holy name I will make known in the midst of my people Israel, and ^kI will not let my holy name be profaned anymore. And ^lthe nations shall know that I am ^mthe Lord, the Holy One in Israel. 8 ⁿBehold, it is coming and it will be brought about, declares the Lord God. That is the day ^oof which I have spoken.

9 “Then those who dwell in the cities of Israel will go out and ^pmake fires of the weapons and burn them, shields and bucklers, bow and arrows, ^qclubs⁷ and spears; and they will make fires of them for seven years, 10 so that they will not need to take wood out of the field or cut down any out of the forests, for ^pthey will make their fires of the weapons. ^rThey will seize the spoil of those who despoiled them, and plunder those who plundered them, declares the Lord God.

11 “On that day I will give to ^sGog a place for burial in Israel, the Valley of the Travelers, east of the sea. It will block the travelers, for there Gog and all his multitude will be buried. It will be called the Valley of ^tHamon-gog.⁸ 12 For ^useven months the house of Israel will be burying them, in order ^vto cleanse the land. 13 All the people of the land will bury them, and it will bring them renown on the day that ^wI show my glory, declares the Lord God. 14 They will set apart men to travel through the land regularly and bury those travelers remaining on the face of the land, so as ^vto cleanse it. At⁹ the end of ^xseven months they will make their search. 15 And when these travel through the land and anyone sees a human bone, then he shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers have buried it in the Valley of ^yHamon-gog. 16 (Hamonah¹⁰ is also the name of the city.) Thus shall they cleanse the land.

17 “As for you, ^zson of man, thus says the Lord God: ^aSpeak to ^bthe birds of every sort and to ^ball beasts of the field: ‘Assemble and come, gather from all around to ^cthe sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you, a great sacrificial feast on the mountains of Israel, and you shall eat flesh and drink blood. 18 ^dYou shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and drink the blood of the princes of the earth—of rams, of lambs, and of he-goats, of bulls, all of them ^efat beasts of Bashan. 19 And you shall eat fat till you are filled, and drink blood till you are drunk, at the sacrificial feast that I am preparing for you. 20 And you shall be filled at my table with horses and charioteers, with mighty men and all kinds of warriors,’ declares the Lord God.

21 “And ^fI will set my glory among the nations, and all the nations shall see ^gmy judgment that I have executed, and ^gmy hand that I have laid on them. 22 ^hThe house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God, from that day forward. 23 And ⁱthe nations shall know that the house of Israel went into captivity for their iniquity, because they dealt so treacherously with me that ^jI hid my face from them and ^kgave them into the hand of their adversaries, and they all fell by the sword. 24 I dealt with them ^laccording to their uncleanness and their transgressions, and hid my face from them.

The Lord Will Restore Israel

25 “Therefore thus says the Lord God: Now ^mI will restore the fortunes of Jacob and have mercy on ⁿthe whole house of Israel, and ^oI will be jealous for my holy name. 26 They shall ^pforget their shame and all the treachery they have practiced against me, when ^qthey dwell securely in their land with ^rnone to make them afraid, 27 ^swhen I have brought them back from the peoples and gathered them from their enemies’ lands, ^tand through them have vindicated my holiness in the sight of many nations. 28 ^hThen they shall know that I am the Lord their God, because I sent them into exile among the nations and then assembled them into their own land. I will leave none of them remaining among the nations anymore. 29 ^uAnd I will not hide my face anymore from them, when ^vI pour out my Spirit upon the house of Israel, declares the Lord God.”

Our Help Is in the Name of the Lord

A Song of ^mAscents. Of David.

Godlessness in the Last Days

1 But understand this, that ^yin the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be ^zlovers of self, ^alovers of money, ^bproud, ^barrogant, abusive, ^bdisobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 ^cheartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, ^dnot loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, ^eswollen with conceit, ^flovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but ^gdenying its power. ^hAvoid such people. 6 For among them are ⁱthose who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, 7 always learning and never able to ^jarrive at a knowledge of the truth. 8 Just as ^kJannes and Jambres ^lopposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, ^mmen corrupted in mind and ⁿdisqualified regarding the faith. 9 But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, ^oas was that of those two men.

All Scripture Is Breathed Out by God

10 ^pYou, however, have followed my teaching, my conduct, my aim in life, my faith, my patience, my love, my steadfastness, 11 my persecutions and sufferings that happened to me ^qat Antioch, ^rat Iconium, and ^sat Lystra—which persecutions I endured; yet ^tfrom them all ^uthe Lord rescued me. 12 Indeed, all who desire to ^vlive a godly life in Christ Jesus ^wwill be persecuted, 13 while ^xevil people and impostors will go on from bad to worse, deceiving and ^ybeing deceived. 14 But as for you, ^zcontinue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom¹ you learned it 15 and how ^afrom childhood you have been acquainted with ^bthe sacred writings, ^cwhich are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. 16 ^dAll Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, 17 that ^ethe man of God² may be complete, ^fequipped ^gfor every good work.

Preach the Word

1 ^hI charge you in the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, ⁱwho is to judge the living and the dead, and by ^jhis appearing and his kingdom: 2 preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; ^kreprove, rebuke, and ^lexhort, with complete patience and teaching. 3 ^mFor the time is coming when people will not endure ⁿsound³ teaching, but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their own passions, 4 and ^owill turn away from listening to the truth and ^pwander off into myths. 5 As for you, ^qalways be sober-minded, ^rendure suffering, do the work of ^san evangelist, ^tfulfill your ministry.

6 For ^uI am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my ^vdeparture has come. 7 ^wI have fought the good fight, ^xI have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is ^ylaid up for me ^zthe crown of righteousness, which the Lord, ^athe righteous judge, will award to me on ^bthat day, and not only to me but also to all ^cwho have loved his appearing.

Personal Instructions

9 ^dDo your best to come to me soon. 10 For ^eDemas, ^fin love with ^gthis present world, ^hhas deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia,^{4 i}Titus to Dalmatia. 11 ^hLuke alone is with me. Get ^jMark and bring him with you, for he is very useful to me for ministry. 12 ^kTychicus I have sent to Ephesus. 13 When you come, bring the cloak that I left with Carpus at Troas, also the books, and above all the parchments. 14 ^lAlexander the coppersmith did me great harm; ^mthe Lord will repay him according to his deeds. 15 Beware of him yourself, for he strongly opposed our message. 16 At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. ⁿMay it not be charged against them! 17 But ^othe Lord stood by me and ^pstrengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and ^qall the Gentiles might hear it. So ^rI was rescued ^sfrom the lion’s mouth. 18 The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. ^tTo him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.

Final Greetings

19 Greet ^uPrisca and Aquila, and ^vthe household of Onesiphorus. 20 Erastus remained at Corinth, and I left ^wTrophimus, who was ill, at Miletus. 21 ^xDo your best to come before winter. Eubulus sends greetings to you, as do Pudens and Linus and Claudia and all the brothers.⁵

22 The Lord be ^ywith your spirit. ^zGrace be with you.⁶