Joel 3 :: Christian Standard Bible (CSB)

I will gather all the nations

and take them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.[fn]

I will enter into judgment with them there

because of my people, my inheritance Israel.

The nations have scattered the Israelites

in foreign countries

and divided up my land.

They cast lots for my people;

they bartered a boy for a prostitute

and sold a girl for wine to drink.

And also: Tyre, Sidon, and all the territories of Philistia ​— ​what are you to me? Are you paying me back or trying to get even with me? I will quickly bring retribution on your heads.

For you took my silver and gold and carried my finest treasures to your temples.

You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks to remove them far from their own territory.

Look, I am about to rouse them up from the place where you sold them; I will bring retribution on your heads.

I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans,[fn] to a distant nation, for the LORD has spoken.

Proclaim this among the nations:

Prepare for holy war;

rouse the warriors;

let all the men of war advance and attack!

Beat your plows into swords

and your pruning knives into spears.

Let even the weakling say, “I am a warrior.”

Come quickly,[fn] all you surrounding nations;

gather yourselves.

Bring down your warriors there, LORD.

Let the nations be roused

and come to the Valley of Jehoshaphat,

for there I will sit down

to judge all the surrounding nations.

Swing the sickle

because the harvest is ripe.

Come and trample the grapes

because the winepress is full;

the wine vats overflow

because the wickedness of the nations is extreme.

Multitudes, multitudes

in the valley of decision!

For the day of the LORD is near

in the valley of decision.

The sun and moon will grow dark,

and the stars will cease their shining.

The LORD will roar from Zion

and make his voice heard from Jerusalem;

heaven and earth will shake.

But the LORD will be a refuge for his people,

a stronghold for the Israelites.

Then you will know

that I am the LORD your God,

who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain.

Jerusalem will be holy,

and foreigners will never overrun it again.

In that day

the mountains will drip with sweet wine,

and the hills will flow with milk.

All the streams of Judah will flow with water,

and a spring will issue from the LORD’s house,

watering the Valley of Acacias.[fn]

Egypt will become desolate,

and Edom a desert wasteland,

because of the violence done to the people of Judah

in whose land they shed innocent blood.

But Judah will be inhabited forever,

and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

I will pardon their bloodguilt,[fn]

which I have not pardoned,

for the LORD dwells in Zion.