Joel 3

Judgment on the Nations

1 In those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

2 I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put them on trial for what they did to My people, My inheritance Israel, because they scattered them among the nations and divided up My land.

3 They cast lots for My people. They traded boys for prostitutes and sold girls for wine so they could drink.

4 What you got against Me, Tyre and Sidon, and all you regions of Philistia, You trying to get back at Me, If you are, I will pay you back fast and on your own heads.

5 You took My silver and gold and carried My treasures into your temples.

6 You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks so you could move them far from their homeland.

7 Look, I am about to stir them up from the places you sold them to, and I will turn what you did back on your own 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 nation far away. The LORD has spoken.

The Day of the LORD

9 Announce this among the nations: Prepare for war. Wake up the warriors. Let all the soldiers come near and go up to fight.

10 Turn your plow blades into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, “I am strong.”

11 Hurry and come, all you nations around, gather yourselves there. Bring down Your warriors, LORD.

12 Let the nations get ready and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, because that is where I will sit to judge all the nations around.

13 Swing the sickle, because the harvest is ripe. Come and stomp the grapes, because the winepress is full and the vats overflow. Their evil is huge.

14 Crowds on top of crowds in the Valley of Decision, because the day of the LORD is near in the Valley of Decision.

15 The sun and moon go dark, and the stars stop shining.

16 The LORD roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem. Heaven and earth shake. But the LORD will be a shelter for His people and a stronghold for the people of Israel.

The LORD Dwells in Zion

17 Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, living in Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, and foreigners will not pass through it anymore.

18 On that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk, and all the streams of Judah will run with water. A fountain will flow from the house of the LORD and water the Valley of Acacias.

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

20 But Judah will be lived in forever, and Jerusalem for all generations.

21 I will wipe away their bloodguilt, which I have not wiped away yet, because the LORD lives in Zion.