Fragmenda

Scripture

Ezechiel 38–40

Ezechiel 38

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

1 

And the word of the Lord came to me, saying:

2 

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

3 

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

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 horsemen all clothed with coats of mail, a great multitude, armed with spears and shields and swords.

5 

The Persians, Ethiopians, and Libyans with them, all with shields and helmets.

6 

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

7 

Prepare and make thyself ready, and all thy multitude that is assembled about thee, and be thou commander over them.

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.

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.

10 

Thus saith the Lord God: In that day projects shall enter into thy heart, and thou shalt conceive a mischievous design.

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:

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.

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 multitude to take a prey, to take silver, and gold, and to carry away goods and substance, and to take rich spoils.

14 

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

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.

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.

17 

Thus saith the Lord God: 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.

18 

And it shall come to pass in that day, in the day of the coming of Gog upon the land of Israel, saith the Lord God, that my indignation shall come up in my wrath.

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:

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.

21 

And I will call in the sword against him in all my mountains, saith the Lord God: every man’s sword shall be pointed against his brother.

22 

And I will judge him with pestilence, and with blood, and with violent rain, and vast hailstones: I will rain fire and brimstone upon him, and upon his army, and upon the many nations that are with him.

23 

And I will be magnified, and I will be sanctified: and I will be known in the eyes of many nations and they shall know that I am the Lord.


Ezechiel 39

God’s judgments upon Gog. God’s people were punished for their sins: but shall be favoured with everlasting kindness.

1 

And thou, son of man, prophesy against Gog, and say: Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I come against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Mosoch and Thubal.

2 

And I will turn thee round, and I will lead thee out, and will make thee go up from the northern parts: and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel.

3 

And I will break thy bow in thy left hand, and I will cause thy arrows to fall out of thy right hand.

4 

Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou and all thy bands, and thy nations that are with thee: I have given thee to the wild beasts, to the birds, and to every fowl, and to the beasts of the earth to be devoured.

5 

Thou shalt fall upon the face of the field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord God.

6 

And I will send a fire on Magog, and on them that dwell confidently in the islands: and they shall know that I am the Lord.

7 

And I will make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel, and my holy name shall be profaned no more: and the Gentiles shall know that I am the Lord, the Holy One of Israel.

8 

Behold it cometh, and it is done, saith the Lord God: this is the day whereof I have spoken.

9 

And the inhabitants shall go forth of the cities of Israel, and shall set on fire and burn the weapons, the shields, and the spears, the bows and the arrows, and the handstaves and the pikes: and they shall burn them with fire seven years.

10 

And they shall not bring wood out of the countries, nor cut down out of the forests: for they shall burn the weapons with fire, and shall make a prey of them to whom they had been a prey, and they shall rob those that robbed them, saith the Lord God.

11 

And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will give Gog a noted place for a sepulchre in Israel: the valley of the passengers on the east of the sea, which shall cause astonishment in them that pass by: and there shall they bury Gog, and all his multitude, and it shall be called the valley of the multitude of Gog.

12 

And the house of Israel shall bury them for seven months to cleanse the land.

13 

And all the people of the land shall bury him, and it shall be unto them a noted day, wherein I was glorified, saith the Lord God.

14 

And they shall appoint men to go continually about the land, to bury and to seek out them that were remaining upon the face of the earth, that they may cleanse it: and after seven months they shall begin to seek.

15 

And they shall go about passing through the land: and when they shall see the bone of a man, they shall set up a sign by it, till the buriers bury it in the valley, of the multitude of Gog.

16 

And the name of the city shall be Amona, and they shall cleanse the land.

17 

And thou, O son of man, saith the Lord God, say to every fowl, and to all the birds, and to all the beasts of the field: Assemble yourselves, make haste, come together from every side to my victim, which I slay for you, a great victim upon the mountains of Israel: to eat flesh, and drink blood.

18 

You shall eat the flesh of the mighty, and you shall drink the blood of the princes of the earth, of rams, and of lambs, and of he goats, and bullocks, and of all that are well fed and fat.

19 

And you shall eat the fat till you be full, and shall drink blood till you be drunk of the victim which I shall slay for you.

20 

And you shall be filled at my table with horses, and mighty horsemen, and all the men of war, saith the Lord God.

21 

And I will set my glory among the nations: and all nations shall see my judgment that I have executed, and my hand that I have laid upon them.

22 

And the house of Israel shall know that I am the Lord their God from that day and forward.

23 

And the nations shall know that the house of Israel were made captives for their iniquity, because they forsook me, and I hid my face from them: and I delivered them into the hands of their enemies, and they fell all by the sword.

24 

I have dealt with them according to their uncleanness, and wickedness, and hid my face from them.

25 

Therefore, thus saith the Lord God: Now will I bring back the captivity of Jacob, and will have mercy on all the house of Israel and I will be jealous for my holy name.

26 

And they shall bear their confusion, and all the transgressions wherewith they have transgressed against me, when they shall dwell in their land securely fearing no man:

27 

And I shall have brought them back from among the nations, and shall have gathered them together out of the lands of their enemies, and shall be sanctified in them, in the sight of many nations.

28 

And they shall know that I am the Lord their God, because I caused them to be carried away among the nations; and I have gathered them together unto their own land, and have not left any of them there.

29 

And I will hide my face no more from them, for I have poured out my spirit upon all the house of Israel, saith the Lord God.


Ezechiel 40

The prophet sees in a vision the rebuilding of the temple: the dimensions of several parts thereof.

1 

In the five and twentieth year of our captivity, in the beginning of the year, the tenth day of the month, the fourteenth year after the city was destroyed: in the selfsame day the hand of the Lord was upon me, and he brought me thither.

2 

In the visions of God he brought me into the land of Israel, and set me upon a very high mountain: upon which there was as the building of a city, bending towards the south.

3 

And he brought me in thither, and behold a man, whose appearance was like the appearance of brass, with a line of flax in his hand, and a measuring reed in his hand, and he stood in the gate.

4 

And this man said to me: Son of man, see with thy eyes, and hear with thy ears, and set thy heart upon all that I shall shew thee: for thou art brought hither that they may be shewn to thee: declare all that thou seest, to the house of Israel.

5 

And behold there was a wall on the outside of the house round about, and in the man’s hand a measuring reed of six cubits and a handbreadth: and he measured the breadth of the building one reed, and the height one reed.

6 

And he came to the gate that looked toward the east, and he went up the steps thereof: and he measured the breadth of the threshold of the gate one reed, that is, one threshold was one reed broad;

7 

And every little chamber was one reed long, and one reed broad: and between the little chambers were five cubits:

8 

And the threshold of the gate by the porch of the gate within, was one reed.

9 

And he measured the porch of the gate eight cubits, and the front thereof two cubits: and the porch of the gate was inward.

10 

And the little chambers of the gate that looked eastward were three on this side, and three on that side: all three were of one measure, and the fronts of one measure, on both parts.

11 

And he measured the breadth of the threshold of the gate ten cubits: and the length of the gate thirteen cubits:

12 

And the border before the little chambers one cubit: and one cubit was the border on both sides: and the little chambers were six cubits on this side and that side.

13 

And he measured the gate from the roof of one little chamber to the roof of another, in breadth five and twenty cubits: door against door.

14 

He made also fronts of sixty cubits: and to the front the court of the gate on every side round about.

15 

And before the face of the gate which reached even to the face of the porch of the inner gate, fifty cubits.

16 

And slanting windows in the little chambers, and in their fronts, which were within the gate on every side round about: and in like manner there were also in the porches windows round about within, and before the fronts the representation of palm trees.

17 

And he brought me into the outward court, and behold there were chambers, and a pavement of stone in the court round about: thirty chambers encompassed the pavement.

18 

And the pavement in the front of the gates according to the length of the gates was lower.

19 

And he measured the breadth from the face of the lower gate to the front of the inner court without, a hundred cubits to the east, and to the north.

20 

He measured also both the length and the breadth of the gate of the outward court, which looked northward.

21 

And the little chambers thereof three on this side, and three on that side: and the front thereof, and the porch thereof according to the measure of the former gate, fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad.

22 

And the windows thereof, and the porch, and the gravings according to the measure of the gate that looked to the east, and they went up to it by seven steps, and a porch was before it.

23 

And the gate of the inner court was over against the gate of the north, and that of the east: and he measured from gate to gate a hundred cubits.

24 

And he brought me out to the way of the south, and behold the gate that looked to the south: and he measured the front thereof, and the porch thereof according to the former measures.

25 

And the windows thereof, and the porches round about, as the other windows: the length was fifty cubits, and the breadth five and twenty cubits.

26 

And there were seven steps to go up to it: and a porch before the doors thereof: and there were graven palm trees, one on this side, and another on that side in the front thereof.

27 

And there was a gate of the inner court towards the south: and he measured from gate to gate towards the south, a hundred cubits.

28 

And he brought me into the inner court at the south gate: and he measured the gate according to the former measures.

29 

The little chamber thereof, and the front thereof, and the porch thereof with the same measures: and the windows thereof, and the porch thereof round about it was fifty cubits in length, and five and twenty cubits in breadth.

30 

And the porch round about was five and twenty cubits long, and five cubits broad.

31 

And the porch thereof to the outward court, and the palm trees thereof in the front: and there were eight steps to go up to it.

32 

And he brought me into the inner court by the way of the east: and he measured the gate according to the former measures.

33 

The little chamber thereof, and the front thereof, and the porch thereof as before: and the windows thereof, and the porches thereof round about it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad.

34 

And the porch thereof, that is, of the outward court: and the graven palm trees in the front thereof on this side and on that side: and the going up thereof was by eight steps.

35 

And he brought me into the gate that looked to the north: and he measured according to the former measures.

36 

The little chamber thereof, and the front thereof, and the porch thereof, and the windows thereof round about it was fifty cubits long, and five and twenty cubits broad.

37 

And the porch thereof looked to the outward court: and the graving of palm trees in the front thereof was on this side and on that side: and the going up to it was by eight steps.

38 

And at every chamber was a door in the forefronts of the gates: there they washed the holocaust.

39 

And in the porch of the gate were two tables on this side, and two tables on that side: that the holocaust, and the sin offering, and the trespass offering might be slain thereon.

40 

And on the outward side, which goeth up to the entry of the gate that looketh toward the north, were two tables: and at the other side before the porch of the gate were two tables,

41 

Four tables were on this side, and four tables on that side at the sides of the gate were eight tables, upon which they slew the victims.

42 

And the four tables for the holocausts were made of square stones: one cubit and a half long, and one cubit and a half broad, and one cubit high: to lay the vessels upon, in which the holocaust and the victim is slain.

43 

And the borders of them were of one handbreadth, turned inwards round about: and upon the tables was the flesh of the offering.

44 

And without the inner gate were the chambers of the singing men in the inner court, which was on the side of the gate that looketh to the north: and their prospect was towards the south, one at the side of the east gate, which looketh toward the north.

45 

And he said to me: This chamber, which looketh toward the south shall be for the priests that watch in the wards of the temple.

46 

But the chamber that looketh towards the north shall be for the priests that watch over the ministry of the altar. These are the sons of Sadoc, who among the sons of Levi, come near to the Lord, to minister to him.

47 

And he measured the court a hundred cubits long, and a hundred cubits broad foursquare: and the altar that was before the face of the temple.

48 

And he brought me into the porch of the temple: and he measured the porch five cubits on this side, and five cubits on that side: and the breadth of the gate three cubits on this side, and three cubits on that side.

49 

And the length of the porch was twenty cubits, and the breadth eleven cubits, and there were eight steps to go up to it. And there were pillars in the fronts: one on this side, and another on that side.

Catechism

An Explanation of the Baltimore Catechism of Christian Doctrine, Lesson 34, Question 380

380 Q. What is forbidden by the Eighth Commandment?

A. The Eighth Commandment forbids all rash judgments, backbiting, slanders, and lies.

"Rash judgment"—that is, having in your mind and really believing that a person is guilty of a certain sin when you have no reason for thinking so, and no evidence that he is guilty. "Backbiting"—that is, talking evil of persons behind their backs. You would not like your neighbor to backbite you, and you have no right to do to him what you would not wish him to do to you. Besides, everyone hates and fears a backbiter; because as he brings to you a bad story about another, he will in the same manner bring to someone else a bad story about you. It is certainly an honor to be able to say of a person: "He never has a bad word of anyone"; while on the other hand, he must be a despicable creature who never speaks of others except to censure or revile them. Never listen to a backbiter, detractor, or slanderer—it is sinful. Another way of injuring your neighbor is revealing the secrets he has confided to you. You will tell one friend perhaps and caution him not to repeat it to another; but if you cannot keep the secret yourself, how can you expect others to keep it? Again you may injure your neighbor by reading his letters without his consent when you have no authority to do so. This is considered a crime in the eyes even of the civil law, and anyone who opens and reads the letters of another can be punished by imprisonment. It is a kind of theft, for it is stealing secrets and information that you have no right to know. It is dishonorable to read another's letter without his consent, even when you find it open. To carry to persons the evil things said about them by others so as to bring about disputes between them is very sinful. The Holy Scripture (Rom. 1:29) calls this class of sinners whisperers, and says that they will not enter into Heaven—that is, as long as they continue in the habit. If ever, then, you hear one person saying anything bad about another, never go and tell it to the person of whom it was said. If you do, you will be the cause of all the sin that follows from it—of the anger, hatred, revenge, and probably murder itself, as sometimes happens.