Joel 3:1–21

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¹“For, look! in those days and in that time, when I shall bring back the captive ones of Judah and Jerusalem,²I will also collect together all the nations and bring them down to the low plain of Je‧hosh′a‧phat; and I will put myself on judgment with them there on account of my people and my inheritance Israel, whom they scattered among the nations; and they apportioned out my own land.³And for my people they kept casting lots; and they would give the male child for a prostitute, and the female child they sold for wine, that they might drink.

⁴“And, also, what do YOU have to do with me, O Tyre and Si′don and all YOU regions of Phi‧lis′ti‧a? Is it the treatment that YOU are giving me as a reward? And if YOU are giving such treatment to me, swiftly, speedily I shall pay back YOUR treatment upon YOUR heads.⁵Because YOU men have taken my own silver and my own gold, and YOU have brought my own desirable good things into YOUR temples;⁶and the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem YOU have sold to the sons of the Greeks, for the purpose of removing them far from their own territory;⁷here I am arousing them [to come] from the place where YOU have sold them, and I will pay back YOUR treatment upon YOUR own heads.⁸And I will sell YOUR sons and YOUR daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they must sell them to the men of She′ba, to a nation far away; for Jehovah himself has spoken [it].

⁹“Proclaim this, YOU people, among the nations, ‘Sanctify war! Arouse the powerful men! Let them draw near! Let them come up, all the men of war!¹⁰Beat YOUR plowshares into swords and YOUR pruning shears into lances. As for the weak one, let him say: “I am a powerful man.”¹¹Lend YOUR aid and come, all YOU nations round about, and collect yourselves together.’”

To that place, O Jehovah, bring your powerful ones down.

¹²“Let the nations be aroused and come up to the low plain of Je‧hosh′a‧phat; for there I shall sit in order to judge all the nations round about.

¹³“THRUST in a sickle, for harvest has grown ripe. Come, descend, for [the] winepress has become full. The press vats actually overflow; for their badness has become abundant.¹⁴Crowds, crowds are in the low plain of the decision, for the day of Jehovah is near in the low plain of the decision.¹⁵Sun and moon themselves will certainly become dark, and the very stars will actually withdraw their brightness.¹⁶And out of Zion Jehovah himself will roar, and out of Jerusalem he will give forth his voice. And heaven and earth certainly will rock; but Jehovah will be a refuge for his people, and a fortress for the sons of Israel.¹⁷And YOU people will have to know that I am Jehovah YOUR God, residing in Zion my holy mountain. And Jerusalem must become a holy place; and as regards strangers, they will no more pass through her.

¹⁸“And it must occur in that day that the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the very hills will flow with milk, and the very streambeds of Judah will all flow with water. And out of the house of Jehovah there will go forth a spring, and it must irrigate the torrent valley of the Acacia Trees.¹⁹As regards Egypt, a desolate waste it will become; and as regards E′dom, a wilderness of desolate waste it will become, because of the violence to the sons of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood.²⁰But as for Judah, to time indefinite it will be inhabited, and Jerusalem to generation after generation.²¹And I will consider innocent their blood that I had not considered innocent; and Jehovah will be residing in Zion.”