Joel 3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
3 [a]For then, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,(A) 2 I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations. They have divided my land(B) 3 and cast lots for my people and traded boys for prostitutes and sold girls for wine and drunk it down.(C)
4 What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will turn your deeds back upon your own heads swiftly and speedily.(D) 5 For you have taken my silver and my gold and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.[b] 6 You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, removing them far from their own border. 7 But now I will rouse them to leave the places to which you have sold them, and I will turn your deeds back upon your own heads.(E) 8 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 nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.(F)
Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat
9 Proclaim this among the nations:
Consecrate yourselves for war;
stir up the warriors.
Let all the soldiers draw near;
let them come up.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords
and your pruning hooks into spears;
let the weakling say, “I am a warrior.”(G)
11 Come quickly,[c]
all you nations all around;
gather yourselves there.
Bring down your warriors, O Lord.(H)
12 Let the nations rouse themselves
and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat,
for there I will sit to judge
all the neighboring nations.(I)
13 Put in the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe.
Go in, tread,
for the winepress is full.
The vats overflow,
for their wickedness is great.(J)
14 Multitudes, multitudes,
in the valley of decision!
For the day of the Lord is near
in the valley of decision.(K)
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.(L)
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.(M)
18 In that day
the mountains shall drip sweet wine,
the hills shall flow with milk,
and all the streambeds of Judah
shall flow with water;
a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord
and water the Wadi Shittim.(N)
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.(O)
20 But Judah shall be inhabited forever
and Jerusalem to all generations.(P)
21 I will avenge their blood, and I will not clear the guilty,[d]
for the Lord dwells in Zion.(Q)
Amos 3
New Revised Standard Version Updated Edition
Israel’s Guilt and Punishment
3 Hear this word that the Lord has spoken against you, O people of Israel, against the whole family that I brought up out of the land of Egypt:(A)
2 You only have I known
of all the families of the earth;
therefore I will punish you
for all your iniquities.(B)
3 Do two walk together
unless they have made an appointment?(C)
4 Does a lion roar in the forest
when it has no prey?
Does a young lion cry out from its den
if it has caught nothing?(D)
5 Does a bird fall into a snare on the earth
when there is no trap for it?
Does a snare spring up from the ground
when it has taken nothing?
6 Is a trumpet blown in a city,
and the people are not afraid?
Does disaster befall a city
unless the Lord has done it?(E)
7 Surely the Lord God does nothing
without revealing his secret
to his servants the prophets.(F)
8 The lion has roared;
who will not fear?
The Lord God has spoken;
who can but prophesy?(G)
9 Proclaim to the strongholds in Ashdod
and to the strongholds in the land of Egypt,
and say, “Assemble yourselves on Mount[a] Samaria,
and see what great tumults are within it
and what oppressions are in its midst.”(H)
10 They do not know how to do right, says the Lord,
those who store up violence and robbery in their strongholds.(I)
11 Therefore thus says the Lord God:
An adversary shall surround the land
and strip you of your defense,
and your strongholds shall be plundered.(J)
12 Thus says the Lord: As the shepherd rescues from the mouth of the lion two legs or a piece of an ear, so shall the people of Israel who live in Samaria be rescued, with the corner of a couch and part[b] of a bed.(K)
13 Hear and testify against the house of Jacob,
says the Lord God, the God of hosts:(L)
14 On the day I punish Israel for its transgressions,
I will punish the altars of Bethel,
and the horns of the altar shall be cut off
and fall to the ground.
15 I will tear down the winter house as well as the summer house,
and the houses of ivory shall perish,
and the great houses[c] shall come to an end,
says the Lord.(M)
New Revised Standard Version, Updated Edition. Copyright © 2021 National Council of Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.