Joel 3

New Life Version

The Nations Will Be Judged

3 “In those days and at that time, I will return the riches of Judah and Jerusalem. ² I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will judge them for what they did to My people Israel. They have sent My people out among the different nations, and have divided up My land. ³ They have drawn names to see who would get My people. They have traded a boy for a woman who sells the use of her body. And they have sold a girl for wine to drink. ⁴ What are you to Me, O Tyre, Sidon, and all the lands of Philistia? Are you paying Me back for something? If you are, I will be quick to pay you back! ⁵ You have taken My silver and My gold, and brought My riches to your places of worship. ⁶ You have sold the sons of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, sending them far from their land. ⁷ So I am going to move them from the place where you have sold them, and do to you what you have done to them. ⁸ I will sell your sons and daughters to the sons of Judah. And they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away.” The Lord has spoken.

⁹ Make this known among the nations: Get ready for war! Call your strong men! Gather all the soldiers and let them come up! ¹⁰ Beat your plows into swords, and your vine hooks into spears. Let the weak say, “I am a powerful soldier.” ¹¹ Hurry and come, all you nations on every side, and gather yourselves there. Bring down Your men of war, O Lord. ¹² Let the nations get ready and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat. For there I will sit to judge all the nations on every side. ¹³ Use the long, sharp knife, for the fruit is full-grown. Come and crush the grapes, for the crushing-place is full. They flow over, for their sins are many. ¹⁴ Thousands and thousands are in the valley of God’s punishment. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of God’s punishment. ¹⁵ The sun and moon become dark, and the stars stop shining. ¹⁶ The Lord makes a loud noise from Zion. He lets His voice be heard from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shake. But the Lord is a safe place for His people, a strong place to the sons of Israel.

¹⁷ “Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, living in Zion My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, and strangers will never pass through it again.

God Brings Good to His People

¹⁸ “In that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine and the hills will flow with milk. All the rivers of Judah will flow with water. And a river will go out from the house of the Lord to water the valley of Shittim. ¹⁹ Egypt will be destroyed and Edom will become a desert waste, because of the bad things done to the sons of Judah. They have killed people in the land of Judah who were not guilty of wrong-doing. ²⁰ But people will live in Judah and Jerusalem forever. ²¹ I will punish the ones who killed them, whom I have not yet punished, for the Lord lives in Zion.”