Joel 3

3 ¹ For look, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, ² I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will judge them on behalf of my people, my inheritance Israel, whom they scattered among the nations for they divided up my land, ³ and they cast lots for my people. They traded a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine to drink.

⁴ Now what do you have against me, Tyre and Sidon and all the regions of Philistia? Are you repaying me for something I have done? If you are paying me back, I will swiftly and speedily bring what you have done back on your own heads. ⁵ For you took my silver and my gold and carried my finest treasures into your temples. ⁶ You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, to send them far away from their own land.

⁷ But look, I am rousing them from the place to which you sold them and I will bring what you have done back on your own heads. ⁸ I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away for our Father has spoken.

⁹ Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men draw near and come up. ¹⁰ Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears let the weakling say, "I am a warrior." ¹¹ Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations and gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, our Father.

¹² Let the nations rouse themselves and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations. ¹³ Swing the sickle for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample for the winepress is full and the vats overflow for their wickedness is great.

¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of our Father is near in the valley of decision. ¹⁵ The sun and the moon grow dark and the stars hold back their light. ¹⁶ Our Father roars from Zion and raises his voice from Jerusalem the heavens and the earth tremble. But our Father is a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the children of Israel.

The Father Restores His People

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

¹⁸ And in that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, the hills will flow with milk and all the streambeds of Judah will run with water. A spring will flow from my house and water the Valley of Acacias. ¹⁹ Egypt will become a wasteland and Edom a desolate wilderness because of the violence done to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood. ²⁰ But Judah will be inhabited forever and Jerusalem through all generations. ²¹ I will cleanse the guilt of the blood shed against them which I have not yet cleansed for our Father dwells in Zion.