Joel 4

1For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,

2I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and there I will enter into judgment with them on behalf of my people and my inheritance, Israel, whom they scattered among the nations and divided up my land.

3And they cast lots for my people; they gave a boy for a prostitute, and sold a girl for wine, and drank it.

4And also, what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you repaying me with recompense? If you are dealing out repayment against me, swiftly and quickly I will return your repayment on your own head.

5because you took my silver and my gold, and brought my precious things into your temples.

6And the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem you sold to the sons of the Greeks, in order to remove them far from their border.

7Look, I am stirring them up from the place where you sold them, and I will return your recompense on your own head.

8And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation; for Yahweh has spoken.

9Proclaim this among the nations: Consecrate war; stir up the warriors. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up.

10Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, “I am a warrior.”

11Hasten and come, all you nations from every side, and gather yourselves there. Bring down your mighty ones, O Yahweh.

12Let the nations awaken and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.

13Send in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, go down, for the winepress is full; the vats overflow, for their evil is great.

14Multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Decision! For the day of Yahweh is near in the Valley of Decision.

15The sun and the moon grow dark, and the stars withdraw their brightness.

16And Yahweh roars from Zion and gives his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake; but Yahweh is a refuge for his people, and a stronghold for the sons of Israel.

17Then you will know that I am Yahweh your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem will be holy, and strangers will pass through her no more.

18And in that day the mountains will drip sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah will flow with water; and a spring will come out from the house of Yahweh and will water the Valley of Shittim.

19Egypt will become a desolation, and Edom a desolate wilderness, because of the violence done to the sons of Judah, whose innocent blood they shed in their land.

20But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

21I will avenge their blood that I have not avenged, and Yahweh dwells in Zion.