Joel 3:1-16

The Lord Judges the Nations

1
Ch 4:1 in Hebrew
For behold, bin those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 cI will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And dI will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land, 3and ehave cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.

4What are you to me, fO Tyre and Sidon, and all gthe regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, hI will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily. 5For iyou have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.
Or palaces
6You have sold kthe people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border. 7Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and lI will return your payment on your own head. 8I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the mSabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken.”

9 Proclaim this among the nations:
nConsecrate for war;
Or  Consecrate a war

stir up the mighty men.
Let all the men of war draw near;
let them come up.
10 pBeat your plowshares into swords,
and qyour pruning hooks into spears;
let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”
11 rHasten and come,
all you surrounding nations,
and gather yourselves there.
sBring down your warriors, O Lord.
12Let the nations stir themselves up
and come up to tthe Valley of Jehoshaphat;
ufor there I will sit to judge
all the surrounding nations.
13 vPut in the sickle,
wfor the harvest is ripe.
xGo in, tread,
yfor the winepress is full.
The vats overflow,
for their evil is great.
14 Multitudes, multitudes,
in the valley of decision!
For zthe day of the Lord is near
in the valley of decision.
15 aaThe sun and the moon are darkened,
and the stars withdraw their shining.
16 abThe Lord roars from Zion,
and acutters his voice from Jerusalem,
adand the heavens and the earth quake.
But the Lord is aea refuge to his people,
a stronghold to the people of Israel.
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