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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”

“For, behold, in those days,
    and in that time,
    when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
I will gather all nations,
    and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat;
    and I will execute judgment on them there for my people,
    and for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations.
    They have divided my land,
    and have cast lots for my people,
    and have given a boy for a prostitute,
    and sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.

“Yes, and what are you to me, Tyre, and Sidon,
    and all the regions of Philistia?
Will you repay me?
    And if you repay me,
    I will swiftly and speedily return your repayment on your own head.
Because you have taken my silver and my gold,
    and have carried my finest treasures into your temples,
    and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks,
    that you may remove them far from their border.
Behold, I will stir them up out of the place where you have sold them,
    and will return your repayment on your own head;
and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah,
    and they will sell them to the men of Sheba,
    to a faraway nation,
    for Yahweh has spoken it.”

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