The Bible, Douay-Rheims Part 558

37:3. And he said to me: Son of man, dost thou think these bones shall live and I answered: O Lord G.o.d, thou knowest.

37:4. And he said to me: Prophesy concerning these bones; and say to them: Ye dry bones, hear the word of the Lord.

37:5. Thus saith the Lord G.o.d to these bones: Behold, I will send spirit into you, and you shall live.

Spirit... That is, soul, life, and breath.

37:6. And I will lay sinews upon you, and will cause flesh to grow over you, and will cover you with skin: and I will give you spirit and you shall live, and you shall know that I am the Lord.

37:7. And I prophesied as he had commanded me: and as I prophesied there was a noise, and behold a commotion: and the bones came together, each one, its joint.

37:8. And I saw, and behold the sinews, and the flesh came up upon them: and the skin was stretched out over them, but there was no spirit in them.

37:9. And he said to me: Prophesy to the spirit, prophesy, O son of man, and say to the spirit: Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Come, spirit, from the four winds, and blow upon these slain, and let them live again.

37:10. And I prophesied as he had commanded me: and the spirit came into them, and they lived: and they stood up upon their feet, an exceeding great army.

37:11. And he said to me: Son of man: All these bones are the house of Israel: they say: Our bones are dried up, and our hope is lost, and we are cut off.

37:12. Therefore prophesy, and say to them: Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Behold I will open your graves, and will bring you out of your sepulchres, O my people: and will bring you into the land of Israel.

37:13. And you shall know that I am the Lord, when I shall have opened your sepulchres, and shall have brought you out of your graves, O my people:

37:14. And shall have put my spirit in you, and you shall live, and I shall make you rest upon your own land: and you shall know that I the Lord have spoken, and done it, saith the Lord G.o.d:

37:15. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

37:16. And thou son of man, take thee a stick: and write upon it: Of Juda, and of the children of Israel his a.s.sociates: and take another stick and write upon it: For Joseph the stick of Ephraim, and for all the house of Israel, and of his a.s.sociates.

37:17. And join them one to the other into one stick, and they shall become one in thy hand.

37:18. And when the children of thy people shall speak to thee, saying: Wilt thou not tell us what thou meanest by this?

37:19. Say to them: Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel that are a.s.sociated with him, and I will put them together with the stick of Juda, and will make them one stick: and they shall be one in his hand.

37:20. And the sticks whereon thou hast written, shall be in thy hand, before their eyes.

37:21. And thou shalt say to them: Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Behold, I will take of the children of Israel from the midst of the nations whither they are gone: and I will gather them on every side, and will bring them to their own land.

37:22. And I will make them one nation in the land on the mountains of Israel, and one king shall be king over them all: and they shall no more be two nations, neither shall they be divided any more into two kingdoms.

37:23. Nor shall they be defiled any more with their idols, nor with their abominations, nor with all their iniquities: and I will save them out of all the places in which they have sinned, and I will cleanse them: and they shall be my people, and I will be their G.o.d.

37:24. And my servant David shall be king over them, and they shall have one shepherd: they shall walk in my judgments, and shall keep my commandments, and shall do them.

37:25. And they shall dwell in the land which I gave to my servant Jacob, wherein your fathers dwelt, and they shall dwell in it, they and their children, and their children's children, for ever: and David my servant shall be their prince for ever.

37:26. And I will make a covenant of peace with them, it shall be an everlasting covenant with them: and I will establish them, and will multiply them, and will set my sanctuary in the midst of them for ever.

37:27. And my tabernacle shall be with them: and I will be their G.o.d, and they shall be my people.

37:28. And the nations shall know that I am the Lord the sanctifier of Israel, when my sanctuary shall be in the midst of them for ever.

Ezechiel Chapter 38

Gog shall persecute the church in the latter days. He shall be overthrown.

38:1. And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

38:2. Son of man, set thy face against Gog, the land of Magog, the chief prince of Mosoch and Thubal: and prophesy of him,

Gog... This name, which signifies hidden or covered, is taken in this place, either for the persecutors of the church of G.o.d in general, or some arch-persecutor in particular: such as Antichrist shall be in the latter days. See Apoc. 20.8. And what is said of the punishment of Gog, is verified by the unhappy ends of persecutors.-Ibid. Magog... Scythia or Tartary, from whence the Turks, and other enemies of the church of Christ, originally sprung.

38:3. And say to him: Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Behold, I come against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Mosoch and Thubal.

38:4. And I will turn thee about, and I will put a bit in thy jaws: and I will bring thee forth, and all thy army, horses and hors.e.m.e.n all clothed with coats of mail, a great mult.i.tude, armed with spears and s.h.i.+elds and swords.

38:5. The Persians, Ethiopians, and Libyans with them, all with s.h.i.+elds and helmets.

38:6. Gomer, and all his bands, the house of Thogorma, the northern parts and all his strength, and many peoples with thee.

38:7. Prepare and make thyself ready, and all thy mult.i.tude that is a.s.sembled about thee, and be thou commander over them.

38:8. After many days thou shalt be visited: at the end of years thou shalt come to the land that is returned from the sword, and is gathered out of many nations, to the mountains of Israel which have been continually waste: but it hath been brought forth out of the nations, and they shall all of them dwell securely in it.

38:9. And thou shalt go up and come like a storm, and like a cloud to cover the land, thou and all thy bands and many people with thee.

38:10. Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: In that day projects shall enter into thy heart, and thou shalt conceive a mischievous design.

38:11. And thou shalt say: I will go up to the land which is without a wall, I will come to them that are at rest, and dwell securely: all these dwell without a wall, they have no bars nor gates:

38:12. To take spoils, and lay hold on the prey, to lay thy hand upon them that had been wasted, and afterwards restored, and upon the people that is gathered together out of the nations, which hath begun to possess and to dwell in the midst of the earth.

38:13. Saba, and Dedan, and the merchants of Tharsis, and all the lions thereof shall say to thee: Art thou come to take spoils? behold, thou hast gathered thy mult.i.tude to take a prey, to take silver, and gold, and to carry away goods and substance, and to take rich spoils.

38:14. Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy and say to Gog: Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Shalt thou not know, in that day, when my people of Israel shall dwell securely?

38:15. And thou shalt come out of thy place from the northern parts, thou and many people with thee, all of them riding upon horses, a great company and a mighty army.

38:16. And thou shalt come upon my people of Israel like a cloud, to cover the earth. Thou shalt be in the latter days, and I will bring thee upon my land: that the nations may know me, when I shall be sanctified in thee, O Gog, before their eyes.

38:17. Thus saith the Lord G.o.d: Thou then art he, of whom I have spoken in the days of old, by my servants the prophets of Israel, who prophesied in the days of those times that I would bring thee upon them.

38:18. And it shall come to pa.s.s in that day, in the day of the coming of Gog upon the land of Israel, saith the Lord G.o.d, that my indignation shall come up in my wrath.

38:19. And I have spoken in my zeal, and in the fire of my anger, that in that day there shall be a great commotion upon the land of Israel:

38:20. So that the fishes of the sea, and the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field, and every creeping thing that creepeth upon the ground, and all men that are upon the face of the earth, shall be moved at my presence: and the mountains shall be thrown down, and the hedges shall fall, and every wall shall fall to the ground.