Joel 3

1For 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. There I will enter into judgment with them on behalf of my people, my inheritance Israel, whom they scattered among the nations; and they divided up my land.

3They cast lots for my people; they traded a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine, and they drank it.

4What are you to me, Tyre and Sidon and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will swiftly and speedily bring your deeds back on your own heads.

5For you took my silver and my gold and carried off my finest treasures into your temples.

6You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to send them far from their own territory.

7Now I am going to rouse them from the place where you sold them, and I will bring your deeds back on your own heads.

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

9Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the soldiers draw near and advance!

10Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, “I am a warrior.”

11Hurry and come, all you nations around; gather there. Bring down your warriors, Yahweh!

12Let the nations rouse themselves and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations around.

13Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread the grapes, for the winepress is full. The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.

14Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Yahweh is near in the valley of decision.

15The sun and the moon grow dark, and the stars withdraw their shining.

16Yahweh roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; the heavens and the earth shake. But Yahweh is a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the people of Israel.

17Then you will know that I am Yahweh your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, and foreigners will never again pass through it.

18On that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk; all the streambeds of Judah will flow with water. A spring will flow out from the house of Yahweh and water the Valley of Acacias.

19Egypt will become a desolation, and Edom a desolate wilderness, because of the violence done to the people of Judah, for they shed innocent blood in their land.

20But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

21I will pardon their bloodguilt, which I had not pardoned. Yahweh dwells in Zion.