Judging the Nations

¹In 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 Jehoshaphat.

I will enter into judgment with them there

regarding My people and My inheritance Israel,

whom they have scattered among the nations;

they have also divided up My land.

³They have cast lots for My people,[#Ob 11]

and have traded a boy for a prostitute;

they have sold a girl for wine,

that they might drink.

⁴Also, what are you to Me, Tyre and Sidon and all the regions of Philistia? Are you repaying Me for something? If you are repaying Me, I will return your payment swiftly and speedily on your head.[#Isa 34:8; 59:18]

⁵For you have taken My silver and My gold, and you have carried off My finest treasures to your temples.[#2Ki 12:18; 2Ch 21:16–17]

⁶You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their border.[#Eze 27:13; Joel 3:3]

⁷Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your head.[#Isa 43:5–6; Jer 23:8]

⁸I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans —to a distant nation, for the Lord has spoken.[#Isa 60:14; #Job 1:15]

⁹Proclaim this among the nations:

Consecrate a war!

Stir up the mighty men!

Let all the men of war draw near and rise.

¹⁰Beat your plowshares into swords

and your pruning hooks into spears;

let the weakling say,

“I am a warrior!”

¹¹Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations,

and gather there.

Bring down Your warriors, O Lord .

¹²Let the nations be roused,

and go up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;

for there I will sit

to judge all the surrounding nations.

¹³Swing the sickle,

for the harvest is ripe.

Come and tread,

for the winepress is full.

The wine vats overflow,

because their evil is great.

¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes,

in the valley of decision!

For the day of the Lord is near

in the valley of the decision.

¹⁵The sun and moon darken,

and the stars withdraw their radiance.

¹⁶The Lord roars from Zion,

and sounds His voice from Jerusalem,

and heaven and earth quake.

But the Lord is a refuge for His people,

and a stronghold for the Israelites.

The Lord Dwells in Zion

¹⁷Then you will know that I am the Lord your God,

who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain.

And Jerusalem will be holy,

and invaders will never again pass through her.

¹⁸And it will be that in that day the mountains will drip sweet wine,

and the hills will flow with milk,

and all the streambeds of Judah will flow with water;

a spring will proceed from the house of the Lord

and will water the Valley of Shittim.

¹⁹Egypt will become a desolation,[#Isa 19:1–15]

and Edom a desolate wasteland,

because of the violence done to the people of Judah—

they shed innocent blood in their land.

²⁰But Judah will be inhabited forever,

and Jerusalem for generations and generations.

²¹I will avenge their blood,

which I have not yet avenged.

The Lord dwells in Zion!