Joel 3

¹For 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 Jehoshaphat . And I will enter into judgment with them there , on behalf 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 traded a boy for a prostitute , and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.

⁴What 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 return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily .

⁵For you have taken my silver and my gold , and have carried my rich treasures into your temples .

⁶You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border .

⁷Behold , I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your own head .

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 nation far away , for the Lord has spoken .

⁹Proclaim this among the nations : Consecrate for 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 surrounding nations , and gather yourselves there . Bring down your warriors , O Lord.

¹²Let the nations stir themselves up and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat ; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations .

¹³Put in the sickle , for the harvest is ripe . Go in, tread , for the winepress is full . The vats overflow , for their evil 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 .

¹⁶The Lord roars from Zion , and utters his voice from Jerusalem , and the heavens and the earth quake . But the Lord is a refuge to his people , a stronghold to the people of Israel .

¹⁷So you shall know that I am the Lord your God , who dwells in Zion , my holy mountain . And Jerusalem shall be holy , and strangers shall never again pass through it.

¹⁸And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine , and the hills shall flow with milk , and all the streambeds of Judah shall flow with water ; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the Valley of Shittim .

¹⁹Egypt 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 forever , and Jerusalem to all generations .

²¹I will avenge their blood , blood I have not avenged , for the Lord dwells in Zion .