THE BOOK OF JOEL

 

Joel Chapter 3

1 ¶ For, behold, in those days, and at that time, when I restore Judah and Jerusalem,

2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there because of what they have done to my people and my heritage Israel, for they have scattered them among the nations, and divided my land.

3 And they have cast lots for my people; and have bartered a boy for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, that they might get drunk.

4 Now what do you have to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the districts of Philistia? are you trying to get even with me? for if you try to pay me back, I will swiftly and speedily bring retribution down upon your own heads;

5 Because you have taken my silver and my gold, and carried my good and pleasant things into your temples:

6 You have also sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the Greeks, that you might remove them far from their border.

7 Behold, I will stir them up to leave the place where you sold them, and will bring retribution down on your own heads:

8 And I will put your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation: for the LORD has spoken.

9 ¶ Proclaim this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:

10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

11 Gather yourselves together, and come, all you heathen, come together from every direction: O LORD, let your mighty ones come down.

12 Let the heathen be awakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there I will sit to judge all the nations coming from every direction.

13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get down; for the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great.

14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and the moon will be darkened, and the stars will stop their shining.

16 The LORD will also roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

17 And you will know that I the LORD your God am living in Zion, my holy mountain: then Jerusalem will be holy, and no foreigner will pass through it again.

18 ¶ And it will come to pass in that day, that the mountains will drop down new wine, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah will flow with water, and a fountain will come out of the house of the LORD, and it will water the valley of Shittim.

19 Egypt will be laid waste, and Edom will be a barren desert, because of the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

20 But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem through all generations.

21 For I will wash away their bloody guilt, which I have not avenged: for the LORD dwells in Zion.