Joel 3

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Joel 3

1a"For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 2I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehosh'aphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations, and have divided up my land, 3and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a harlot, 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 requite your deed upon your own head swiftly and speedily. 5For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.b 6You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, removing them far from their own border. 7But now I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will requite your deed upon your own head. 8I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabe'ans, to a nation far off; for the Lord has spoken."

Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat

9Proclaim this among the nations:

Prepare war,

stir up the mighty men.

Let all the men of war draw near,

let them come up.

10Beat your plowshares into swords,

and your pruning hooks into spears;

let the weak say, "I am a warrior."

11Hasten and come,

all you nations round about,

gather yourselves there.

Bring down thy warriors, O Lord.

12Let the nations bestir themselves,

and come up to the valley of Jehosh'aphat;

for there I will sit to judge

all the nations round about.

13Put in the sickle,

for the harvest is ripe.

Go in, tread,

for the wine press is full.

The vats overflow,

for their wickedness is great.

14Multitudes, multitudes,

in the valley of decision!

For the day of the Lord is near

in the valley of decision.

15The sun and the moon are darkened,

and the stars withdraw their shining.

16And the Lord roars from Zion,

and utters his voice from Jerusalem,

and the heavens and the earth shake.

But the Lord is a refuge to his people,

a stronghold to the people of Israel.

The Glorious Future of Judah

17"So you shall know that I am the Lord your God,

who dwell in Zion, my holy mountain.

And Jerusalem shall be holy

and strangers shall never again pass through it.

18"And in that day

the mountains shall drip sweet wine,

and the hills shall flow with milk,

and all the stream beds of Judah

shall flow with water;

and a 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,

for the violence done to the people of Judah,

because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

20But Judah shall be inhabited for ever,

and Jerusalem to all generations.

21I will avenge their blood, and I will not clear the guilty,c

for the Lord dwells in Zion."