Joel 3: The LORD Judges the Nations

Joel 3

¹ “For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

² I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment on them there for my people, and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations. They have divided my land,

³ and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.

⁴ “Yes, and what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Will you repay me? And if you repay me, I will swiftly and speedily return your repayment on your own head.

⁵ Because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my finest treasures into your temples,

⁶ and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, that you may remove them far from their border.

⁷ Behold, I will stir them up out of the place where you have sold them, and will return your repayment on your own head;

⁸ and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the men of Sheba, to a faraway nation, for Yahweh has spoken it.”

⁹ Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war! Stir up the mighty men. Let all the warriors draw near. Let them come up.

¹⁰ Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’

¹¹ Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves together.” Cause your mighty ones to come down there, Yahweh.

¹² “Let the nations arouse themselves, 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 harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the wine press is full, the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.”

¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Yahweh is near in the valley of decision.

¹⁵ The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.

¹⁶ Yahweh will roar from Zion, and thunder from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will shake; but Yahweh will be a refuge to his people, and a stronghold to the children of Israel.

¹⁷ “So you will know that I am Yahweh, your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Then Jerusalem will be holy, and no strangers will pass through her any more.

¹⁸ It will happen in that day, that the mountains will drop down sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk, all the brooks of Judah will flow with waters; and a fountain will flow out from Yahweh’s house, and will water the valley of Shittim.

¹⁹ Egypt will be a desolation and Edom will be a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

²⁰ But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

²¹ I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed, for Yahweh dwells in Zion.”