December 7 – Joel 3 from the Old Testament
Joel 3 – TheLord Plans to Judge the Nations
3:1 (4:1) For look! In those days and at that time
I will return the exiles to Judah and Jerusalem.
3:2 Then I will gather all the nations,
and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.
I will enter into judgment against them there
concerning my people Israel who are my inheritance,
whom they scattered among the nations.
They partitioned my land,
3:3 and they cast lots for my people.
They traded a boy for a prostitute;
they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink.
3:4 Why are you doing these things to me, Tyre and Sidon?
Are you trying to get even with me, land of Philistia?
I will very quickly repay you for what you have done!
3:5 For you took my silver and my gold
and brought my precious valuables to your own palaces.
3:6 You sold Judeans and Jerusalemites to the Greeks,
removing them far from their own country.
3:7 Look! I am rousing them from that place to which you sold them.
I will repay you for what you have done!
3:8 I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah.
They will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away.
Indeed, theLord has spoken!
Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat
3:9 Proclaim this among the nations:
“Prepare for a holy war!
Call out the warriors!
Let all these fighting men approach and attack!
3:10 Beat your plowshares into swords,
and your pruning hooks into spears!
Let the weak say, ‘I too am a warrior!’
3:11 Lend your aid and come,
all you surrounding nations,
and gather yourselves to that place.”
Bring down, O Lord, your warriors!
3:12 Let the nations be roused and let them go up
to the valley of Jehoshaphat,
for there I will sit in judgment on all the surrounding nations.
3:13 Rush forth with the sickle, for the harvest is ripe!
Come, stomp the grapes, for the winepress is full!
The vats overflow.
Indeed, their evil is great!
3:14 Crowds, great crowds are in the valley of decision,
for the day of theLord is near in the valley of decision!
3:15 The sun and moon are darkened;
the stars withhold their brightness.
3:16 TheLord roars from Zion;
from Jerusalem his voice bellows out.
The heavens and the earth shake.
But theLord is a refuge for his people;
he is a stronghold for the citizens of Israel.
TheLord’s Presence in Zion
3:17 You will be convinced that I theLord am your God,
dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain.
Jerusalem will be holy –
conquering armies will no longer pass through it.
3:18 On that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine,
and the hills will flow with milk.
All the dry stream beds of Judah will flow with water.
A spring will flow out from the temple of theLord,
watering the Valley of Acacia Trees.
3:19 Egypt will be desolate
and Edom will be a desolate wilderness,
because of the violence they did to the people of Judah,
in whose land they shed innocent blood.
3:20 But Judah will reside securely forever,
and Jerusalem will be secure from one generation to the next.
3:21 I will avenge their blood which I had not previously acquitted.
It is theLord who dwells in Zion!