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Judgement in the Valley of Jehoshaphat

Proclaim this among the nations:
Prepare war,[a]
    stir up the warriors.
Let all the soldiers draw near,
    let them come up.
10 Beat your ploughshares into swords,
    and your pruning-hooks into spears;
    let the weakling say, ‘I am a warrior.’

11 Come quickly,[b]
    all you nations all around,
    gather yourselves there.
Bring down your warriors, O Lord.
12 Let the nations rouse themselves,
    and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat;
for there I will sit to judge
    all the neighbouring nations.

13 Put in the sickle,
    for the harvest is ripe.
Go in, tread,
    for the wine 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 are darkened,
    and the stars withdraw their shining.

16 The Lord roars from Zion,
    and utters his voice from Jerusalem,
    and the heavens and the earth shake.
But the Lord is a refuge for his people,
    a stronghold for the people of Israel.

The Glorious Future of Judah

17 So you shall know that I, the Lord your God,
    dwell in Zion, my holy mountain.
And Jerusalem shall be holy,
    and strangers shall never again pass through it.

18 On that day
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
    the hills shall flow with milk,
and all the stream beds of Judah
    shall flow with water;
a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord
    and water the Wadi Shittim.

19 Egypt shall become a desolation
    and Edom a desolate wilderness,
because of the violence done to the people of Judah,
    in whose land they have shed innocent blood.
20 But Judah shall be inhabited for ever,
    and Jerusalem to all generations.
21 I will avenge their blood, and I will not clear the guilty,[c]
    for the Lord dwells in Zion.

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Footnotes

  1. Joel 3:9 Heb sanctify war
  2. Joel 3:11 Meaning of Heb uncertain
  3. Joel 3:21 Gk Syr: Heb I will hold innocent their blood that I have not held innocent

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