Joel 3

Yahweh Will Judge the Nations

¹“For behold, in those days and at that time,[#3:1 Ch 4:1 in Heb]

When I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

²I will gather all the nations

And bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.

Then I will enter into judgment with them there

On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel,

Whom they have scattered among the nations;

And they have divided up My land.

³“They have also cast lots for My people,

Traded a boy for a harlot,

And sold a girl for wine that they may drink.

⁴Moreover, what are you to Me, O Tyre, Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you rendering Me a recompense? But if you do recompense Me, swiftly and speedily I will return your recompense on your head.

⁵Since you have taken My silver and My gold, brought My desirable treasures to your temples,[#3:5 Lit good things]

⁶and sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks in order to remove them far from their borders,[#3:6 Lit Javan]

⁷behold, I am going to rouse them from the place where you have sold them and return your recompense on your head.

⁸Also I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation,” for Yahweh has spoken.

⁹¶Call out this message among the nations:

Set yourselves apart for a war; rouse the mighty men!

Let all the men of war approach, let them come up!

¹⁰Beat your plowshares into swords

And your pruning hooks into spears;

Let the weak say, “I am a mighty man.”

¹¹Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations,[#3:11 Or Lend aid]

And gather yourselves.

There, bring down, O Yahweh, Your mighty ones.

¹²Let the nations be roused up

And come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat,

For there I will sit to judge

All the surrounding nations.

¹³Send in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe.

Come, tread, for the wine press is full;

The vats overflow, for their evil is great.

¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision![#3:14 God’s verdict]

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

¹⁵The sun and moon grow dark,

And the stars lose their brightness.

¹⁶And Yahweh roars from Zion

And gives forth His voice from Jerusalem,

And the heavens and the earth quake.

But Yahweh is a refuge for His people

And a strong defense to the sons of Israel.

¹⁷Then you will know that I am Yahweh your God,

Dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain.

So Jerusalem will be holy,

And strangers will pass through it no more.

Yahweh Dwells in Zion

¹⁸¶And it will be in that day,

That the mountains will drip with sweet wine,

And the hills will flow with milk,

And all the brooks of Judah will flow with water;

And a spring will go out from the house of Yahweh

To water the valley of Shittim.

¹⁹Egypt will become a desolation,

And Edom will become a desolate wilderness,

Because of the violence done to the sons of Judah,

In whose land they have shed innocent blood.

²⁰But Judah will be inhabited forever

And Jerusalem from generation to generation.

²¹And I will avenge their blood which I have not avenged,

Indeed, Yahweh dwells in Zion.