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Joel

The Judgment of the Nations in the Valley of Decision

3
Chapter 3
1 For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem. 2 I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. I will enter into judgment with them there concerning my people and my inheritance Israel, which they scattered among the nations. They divided my land. 3 They cast lots upon my people. They gave the boy for a prostitute, sold the girl for wine, and drank it. 4 What are you to me, Tyre and Sidon and all the districts of Philistia? Are you repaying a recompense to me? If you are recompensing me, swiftly and quickly I will return your recompense on your head. 5 You took my silver and my gold, and you brought my desirable good things to your temples. 6 And you sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks in order to remove them far from their border. 7 Behold, I am rousing them from the place where you yourselves sold them, and I am returning your reciprocation upon your head. 8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Shebaites, to a distant nation, for the LORD has spoken. 9 Proclaim among the nations: consecrate warfare, rouse the mighty ones, let them approach, let them go up, all men of the warfare. 10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your psalm-songs into spears; the weak shall say, "I am a mighty man." 11 Come quickly and gather, all you nations from all around, to the valley of the LORD, your mighty ones. 12 Let the nations wake up and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the nations around. 13 Send the sickle, for the harvest has ripened. Come, tread, for the winepress is full. Pour out the winepresses, for their evil has multiplied. 14 Multitudes, multitudes in the Valley of Decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the Valley of Decision. 15 The sun and moon have grown dark, and the stars have withdrawn their brightness. 16 And the LORD will roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem he will give his voice, and the heavens and the land will quake, and the LORD will be a refuge for his people and a stronghold for the sons of Israel.