Joel 3

Joel 3

¹“For, behold, in those days,

and in that time,

when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

²I 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,

³and 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.

⁵Because you have taken my silver and my gold,

and have carried my finest treasures into your temples,

⁶and 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.

⁷Behold, I will stir them up out of the place where you have sold them,

and will return your repayment on your own head;

⁸and 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.”

⁹Proclaim this among the nations:

“Prepare for war!

Stir up the mighty men.

Let all the warriors draw near.

Let them come up. ¹⁰Beat your plowshares into swords,

and your pruning hooks into spears.

Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’

¹¹Hurry 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 will I sit to judge all the surrounding nations.

¹³Put in the sickle;

for the harvest is ripe.

Come, tread, for the winepress is full,

the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.”

¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!

For the day of Yahweh is near, in the valley of decision.

¹⁵The sun and the moon are darkened,

and the stars withdraw their shining.

¹⁶Yahweh 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.

¹⁸It 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 come forth from the house of Yahweh,

and will water the valley of Shittim.

¹⁹Egypt 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.

²⁰But Judah will be inhabited forever,

and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

²¹I will cleanse their blood,

that I have not cleansed:

for Yahweh dwells in Zion.”