Joel 3

1 “For behold, in those days and at that time, when I qrestore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the rValley of Jehoshaphat. And I will senter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, 3 and have tcast lots for my people, and have utraded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.

4 “What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. 5 For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.1 6 You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. 7 Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head. 8 I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the vSabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.”

9  Proclaim this among the nations:

Consecrate for war;2

stir up the mighty men.

Let all the men of war draw near;

let them come up.

10  Beat your wplowshares into swords,

and your pruning hooks into spears;

let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”

11  Hasten and come,

all you surrounding nations,

and gather yourselves there.

Bring down your warriors, O Lord.

12  Let the nations stir themselves up

and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;

for there I will sit to judge

all the surrounding nations.

13  Put in the sickle,

for the xharvest is ripe.

Go in, tread,

for the ywinepress is full.

The vats overflow,

for their evil is great.

14  Multitudes, multitudes,

in the valley of decision!

For the zday of the Lord is near

in the valley of decision.

15  aThe sun and the moon are darkened,

and the stars withdraw their shining.

16  bThe Lord roars from Zion,

and utters his voice from Jerusalem,

and cthe heavens and the earth quake.

But the Lord is a drefuge to his people,

a stronghold to the people of Israel.

17  “So eyou shall know that I am the Lord your God,

fwho dwells in Zion, gmy holy mountain.

And Jerusalem shall be holy,

and hstrangers shall never again pass through it.

18  “And in that day

ithe mountains shall drip sweet wine,

and the hills shall flow with milk,

and all the streambeds of Judah

shall flow with water;

and ja fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord

and water the Valley of Shittim.

19  “Egypt shall become a desolation

and Edom a desolate wilderness,

kfor the violence done to the people of Judah,

because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

20  But lJudah shall be inhabited forever,

and Jerusalem to all generations.

21  I will avenge their blood,

blood I have not avenged,3

for the Lord dwells in Zion.”

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2 View All Leviticus 19:27
ch. 21:5; [Isa. 15:2; Jer. 9:26; 48:37]