Joel - The Old Testament

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

² I shall gather all the nations together and take them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; there I shall put them on trial because of Israel, my people and my heritage, for having scattered them among the nations and having divided my land among themselves.

³ They drew lots for my people, bartering a boy for a whore and selling a girl for wine to drink.

⁴ 'And what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon and all you regions of Philistia? Can you take revenge on me? If you take revenge on me, I shall quickly, instantly, make your revenge recoil on your own heads

⁵ for having taken my silver and gold away and carried off my valuable treasures to your temples,

⁶ and for having sold the children of Judah and Jerusalem to the Ionians, to be taken far away from their own frontiers.

⁷ Look, I shall rouse them from the places to which you have sold them; I shall make your actions recoil on your own heads

⁸ by selling your sons and daughters to the sons of Judah, who in turn will sell them to the Sabaeans, to a nation far away- Yahweh has spoken!'

⁹ Proclaim this among the nations. Prepare for war! Rouse the champions! All you troops, advance, march!

¹⁰ Hammer your ploughshares into swords, your bill-hooks into spears; let the weakling say, 'I am tough!'

¹¹ Hurry and come, all the nations around, and assemble there! (Yahweh, send down your champions!)

¹² 'Let the nations rouse themselves and march to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I shall sit in judgement on all the nations around.

¹³ Ply the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come and tread, for the winepress is full; the vats are overflowing, so great is their wickedness!'

¹⁴ Multitude on multitude in the Valley of Decision! For the Day of Yahweh is near in the Valley of the Verdict!

¹⁵ Sun and moon grow dark, the stars lose their brilliance.

¹⁶ Yahweh roars from Zion, he thunders from Jerusalem; heaven and earth tremble. But Yahweh will be a shelter for his people, a stronghold for the Israelites.

¹⁷ 'Then you will know that I am Yahweh your God residing on Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will then be a sanctuary, no foreigners will overrun it ever again.'

¹⁸ When that Day comes, the mountains will run with new wine and the hills will flow with milk, and all the stream-beds of Judah will run with water. A fountain will spring from Yahweh's Temple and water the Gorge of the Acacias.

¹⁹ Egypt will become a desolation, and Edom a desert waste on account of the violence done to the children of Judah whose innocent blood they shed in their country.

²⁰ But Judah will be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation!

²¹ 'I shall avenge their blood and let none go unpunished,' and Yahweh will dwell in Zion.