Joel 3

The LORD Judges the Nations

¹ “Yes, in those days and at that time, when I restore Judah and Jerusalem from captivity,¹

² I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.² There I will enter into judgment against them concerning My people, My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations as they divided up My land.

³ They cast lots for My people; they bartered a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine to drink.

⁴ Now what do you have against Me, O Tyre, Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you rendering against Me a recompense? If you retaliate against Me, I will swiftly and speedily return your recompense upon your heads.

⁵ For you took My silver and gold and carried off My finest treasures to your temples.³

⁶ You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks,⁴ to send them far from their homeland.

⁷ Behold, I will rouse them from the places to which you sold them; I will return your recompense upon your heads.

⁸ I will sell your sons and daughters into the hands of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans—to a distant nation.” Indeed, the LORD has spoken.

⁹ Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for war; rouse the mighty men; let all the men of war advance and attack!

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

¹¹ Come quickly, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves. Bring down Your mighty ones, O LORD.

¹² Let the nations be roused and advance to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit down to judge all the nations on every side.

¹³ Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.⁵ Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full; the wine vats overflow because their wickedness is great.

¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the Day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

¹⁵ The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will no longer shine.

¹⁶ The LORD will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will tremble. But the LORD will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.

Blessings for God’s People

¹⁷ Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, never again to be overrun by foreigners.

¹⁸ And in that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk. All the streams of Judah will run with water, and a spring will flow from the house of the LORD to water the Valley of Acacias.⁶

¹⁹ Egypt will become desolate, and Edom a desert wasteland, because of the violence done to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood.

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

²¹ For I will avenge their blood, which I have not yet avenged.⁷” For the LORD dwells in Zion.