Old Testament · Joel

Joel 4

The LORD Judges the Nations

1For behold, in those days and in that time, when I shall bring back the captivity 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 over my people and my inheritance Israel, whom they scattered among the nations, and my land they divided.
3And over my people they cast a lot, and they gave a boy for a harlot, and a girl they sold for wine, and they drank.

4And also, what are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon and all the regions of Philistia? Are you rendering a recompense to me? And if you are dealing out to me, swiftly, speedily I will return your recompense upon your head. 5Because my silver and my gold you have taken, and my goodly treasures you have brought into your temples; 6and the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem you have sold to the sons of the Greeks^a, in order to remove them far from their territory.

7Behold, I am rousing them from the place to which you sold them, and I will return your recompense upon your head. 8And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far off; for the LORD has spoken.

9Proclaim this among the nations: Sanctify war; rouse the mighty men; let all the men^b 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 mighty."
11Hasten and come, all the nations from around, and gather yourselves there; bring down, O LORD, your mighty men.
12Let the nations be roused and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the nations from around.
13Send forth the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come, go down, 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 gather in their brightness.
16And the LORD roars from Zion, and from Jerusalem he gives his voice; and the heavens and the earth tremble; but the LORD is a refuge for his people, and a stronghold for the sons of Israel.

Blessings for God’s People

17And you shall know that I am the LORD your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain; and Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall not pass through it again.
18And it shall come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the channels of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall go out from the house of the LORD and water the valley of Shittim.
19Egypt shall become a desolation, and Edom shall become a desolate wilderness, because of the violence done to the sons of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood.
20But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem to generation and generation.
21And I will hold innocent their blood that I had not held innocent; and the LORD dwells in Zion.