LEB - Joel - 3

3:1  For look! In those days, and in that time, when I will return the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

3:2  I will gather all the nations, and I will bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will argue ⌞a case against them⌟ there concerning my people and my inheritance Israel whom they have scattered among the nations, and my land that they have divided.

3:3  For my people they cast lots, and ⌞they traded⌟ the male child for the prostitute, and the female child they sold for wine and they drank it.

3:4  What are you to me, O Tyre and O Sidon, and all of the regions of Philistia? Are you repaying to me what is deserved? If you are recompensing me, I will return swiftly and quickly what you deserve on your head!

3:5  For you have taken my silver and my gold, and my beautiful treasures you have carried into your temples.

3:6  And the sons of Judah and Jerusalem you sold to the sons of the Greeks, in order to remove them from their border.

3:7  Look! I am rousing them from the place where you have sold them, and I will return what you deserve on your head!

3:8  I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans and to a nation far away, for Yahweh has spoken.

3:9  Proclaim this among the nations: ⌞Prepare for war⌟! Stir up the mighty warriors; let them approach and come up; let all the men of war approach.

3:10  Beat your cutting tools of iron into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weakling say, ‘I am a mighty warrior!’

3:11  Hurry and come, all the nations, from all around, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your mighty warriors, O Yahweh!

3:12  Let the nations be roused and let them come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations from all around.

3:13  Send forth the sickle, for the harvest is ripe! Go tread, for the winepress is full! The vats overflow, because their evil is great!

3:14  Commotion, commotion in the valley of decision! For the day of Yahweh is near in the valley of decision!

3:15  The sun and the moon grow dark, and the stars ⌞have withheld⌟ their splendor.

3:16  And Yahweh roars from Zion; from Jerusalem he utters his voice, and the heavens and the earth shake. But Yahweh is a refuge for his people, and a protection for the children of Israel.

3:17  And you will know that I, Yahweh your God, am dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem will be a place of holiness, and strangers will pass through it no longer.

3:18  And it will happen on that day; the mountains will drip new wine, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the channels of Judah will flow with water. A spring from the house of Yahweh will come forth, and it will water the valley of Acacia Trees.

3:19  Egypt will become a desolation, and Edom will become a ⌞desolate desert⌟, because of the violence they did against the children of Judah, in whose land they have shed innocent blood.

3:20  But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem ⌞for all generations⌟.

3:21  ⌞I will cleanse their bloodguilt⌟ that ⌞I did not cleanse⌟, for Yahweh is dwelling in Zion.