Joel 2:28-3:21

Good News Translation

The Day of the Lord

²⁸“Afterward I will pour out my Spirit on everyone:
    your sons and daughters will proclaim my message;
    your old people will have dreams,
    and your young people will see visions.
²⁹At that time I will pour out my Spirit
    even on servants, both men and women.

³⁰“I will give warnings of that day
    in the sky and on the earth;
    there will be bloodshed, fire, and clouds of smoke.
³¹^(A)The sun will be darkened,
    and the moon will turn red as blood
    before the great and terrible day of the Lord comes.
³²^(B)But all who ask the Lord for help will be saved.
As the Lord has said,
    ‘Some in Jerusalem will escape;
    those whom I choose will survive.’”

God Will Judge the Nations

3 The Lord says,
“At that time I will restore
    the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem.
²I will gather all the nations
    and bring them to the Valley of Judgment.
There I will judge them
    for all they have done to my people.
They have scattered the Israelites in foreign countries
    and divided Israel, my land.
³They threw dice to decide
    who would get the captives.
They sold boys and girls into slavery
    to pay for prostitutes and wine.

⁴^(C)“What are you trying to do to me, Tyre, Sidon, and all of Philistia? Are you trying to pay me back for something? If you are, I will quickly pay you back! ⁵You have taken my silver and gold and carried my rich treasures into your temples. ⁶You have taken the people of Judah and Jerusalem far from their own country and sold them to the Greeks. ⁷Now I am going to bring them out of the places to which you have sold them. I will do to you what you have done to them. ⁸I will let your sons and daughters be sold to the people of Judah; they will sell them to the far-off Sabeans. I, the Lord, have spoken.

⁹“Make this announcement among the nations:
    ‘Prepare for war;
    call your warriors;
    gather all your soldiers and march!
¹⁰^(D)Hammer the points of your plows into swords
    and your pruning knives into spears.
Even the weak must fight.
¹¹Hurry^[a] and come,
    all you surrounding nations,
    and gather in the valley.’”

Send down, O Lord, your army to attack them!

¹²“The nations must get ready
    and come to the Valley of Judgment.
There I, the Lord, will sit to judge
    all the surrounding nations.
¹³^(E)They are very wicked;
cut them down like grain
    at harvest time;
crush them as grapes are crushed
    in a full wine press
    until the wine runs over.”

¹⁴Thousands and thousands
    are in the Valley of Judgment.
It is there that the day of the Lord
    will soon come.
¹⁵The sun and the moon grow dark,
    and the stars no longer shine.

God Will Bless His People

¹⁶^(F)The Lord roars from Mount Zion;
    his voice thunders from Jerusalem;
    earth and sky tremble.
But he will defend his people.
¹⁷“Then, Israel, you will know that I am the Lord your God.
    I live on Zion, my sacred hill.
Jerusalem will be a sacred city;
    foreigners will never conquer it again.
¹⁸At that time the mountains will be covered with vineyards,
    and cattle will be found on every hill;
    there will be plenty of water for all of Judah.
A stream will flow from the Temple of the Lord,
    and it will water Acacia Valley.

¹⁹“Egypt will become a desert,
    and Edom a ruined waste,
because they attacked the land of Judah
    and killed its innocent people.
^20-21I will avenge^[b] those who were killed;
    I will not spare the guilty.
But Judah and Jerusalem will be inhabited forever,
    and I, the Lord, will live on Mount Zion.”