3 “At that time, when I restore the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem,” says the Lord, ² “I will gather the armies of the world into the ‘Valley Where Jehovah Judges’^[a] and punish them there for harming my people, for scattering my inheritance among the nations and dividing up my land.

³ “They divided up my people as their slaves; they traded a young lad for a prostitute, and a little girl for wine enough to get drunk. ⁴ Tyre and Sidon, don’t you try to interfere! Are you trying to take revenge on me, you cities of Philistia? Beware, for I will strike back swiftly and return the harm to your own heads.

⁵ “You have taken my silver and gold and all my precious treasures and carried them off to your heathen temples. ⁶ You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, who took them far from their own land. ⁷ But I will bring them back again from all these places you have sold them to, and I will pay you back for all that you have done. ⁸ I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans far away. This is a promise from the Lord.”

⁹ Announce this far and wide: Get ready for war! Conscript your best soldiers; collect all your armies. ¹⁰ Melt your plowshares into swords, and beat your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak be strong. ¹¹ Gather together and come, all nations everywhere. And now, O Lord, bring down your warriors!

¹² “Collect the nations; bring them to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to pronounce judgment on them all. ¹³ Now let the sickle do its work; the harvest is ripe and waiting. Tread the winepress, for it is full to overflowing with the wickedness of these men.”

¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes waiting in the valley for the verdict of their doom! For the Day of the Lord is near, in the Valley of Judgment. ¹⁵ The sun and moon will be darkened and the stars withdraw their light. ¹⁶ The Lord shouts from his Temple in Jerusalem, and the earth and sky begin to shake. But to his people Israel, the Lord will be very gentle. He is their Refuge and Strength.

¹⁷ “Then you shall know at last that I am the Lord your God in Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem shall be mine forever; the time will come when no foreign armies will pass through her anymore.

¹⁸ “Sweet wine will drip from the mountains, and the hills shall flow with milk. Water will fill the dry streambeds of Judah, and a fountain will burst forth from the Temple of the Lord to water Acacia Valley. ¹⁹ Egypt will be destroyed, and Edom, too, because of their violence against the Jews, for they killed innocent people in those nations.

²⁰ “But Israel will prosper forever, and Jerusalem will thrive as generations pass. ²¹ For I will avenge the blood of my people; I will not clear their oppressors of guilt. For my home is in Jerusalem with my people.”