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Judging the Nations

In those days and at that time,
    when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will gather all the nations,
    and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
I will enter into judgment with them there
    regarding My people and My heritage Israel,
whom they have scattered among the nations;
    they have also divided up My land.
They have cast lots for My people,
    and have traded a boy for a prostitute;
they have sold a girl for wine,
    that they might drink.

Also, what are you to Me, Tyre and Sidon and all the regions of Philistia? Are you repaying Me for something? If you are repaying Me, I will return your payment swiftly and speedily on your head. For you have taken My silver and My gold, and you have carried off My finest treasures to your temples. You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their border.

I am about to rouse them from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your payment on your head. I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans—to a distant nation, for the Lord has spoken.

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Yahweh’s Judgment on the Nations

[a] For look! In those days, and in that time, when I will return[b] the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, 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[c] there concerning my people and my inheritance Israel whom they have scattered among the nations, and my land that they have divided. For my people they cast lots,[d] and they traded[e] the male child for the prostitute, and the female child they sold for wine and they drank it.

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! For you have taken my silver and my gold, and my beautiful treasures you have carried into your temples. And the sons of Judah and Jerusalem you sold to the sons of the Greeks, in order to remove them from their border. Look! I am rousing them from the place where you have sold them, and I will return what you deserve on your head! 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.

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Footnotes

  1. Joel 3:1 Joel 3:1–21 in the English Bible is 4:1–21 in the Hebrew Bible
  2. Joel 3:1 Or “restore”
  3. Joel 3:2 Literally “a matter with them”
  4. Joel 3:3 Hebrew “lot”
  5. Joel 3:3 Literally “gave”