Joel 3:9-16

New International Reader's Version

⁹ Announce this among the nations.
    Tell them to prepare for battle.
Nations, get your soldiers ready!
    Bring all your fighting men together
    and march out to attack.
¹⁰ Hammer your plows into swords.
    Hammer your pruning tools into spears.
Let anyone who is weak say,
    “I am strong!”
¹¹ Come quickly, all you surrounding nations.
    Gather together in the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

Lord, send down your soldiers from heaven!

“Stir up the nations into action!
    Let them march into the valley
    where I will judge them.
I will take my seat in court.
    I will judge all the surrounding nations.
¹³ My soldiers, swing your blades.
    The nations are ripe for harvest.
Come and stomp on them as if they were grapes.
    Crush them until the winepress of my anger is full.
Do it until the wine spills over
    from the places where it is stored.
    The nations have committed far too many sins!”

¹⁴ Huge numbers of soldiers are gathered in the valley
    where the Lord will hand down his sentence.
    The day of the Lord is near in that valley.
¹⁵ The sun and moon will become dark.
    The stars won’t shine anymore.
¹⁶ The Lord will roar like a lion from Jerusalem.
    His voice will sound like thunder from Zion.
    The earth and the heavens will tremble.
But the Lord will keep the people of Israel safe.
    He will be a place of safety for them.