Joel 3

God says this: “At that time, I will bring back the people whom their enemies took away from Jerusalem and from {other places in} Judah. 2 Then in the Valley of Jehoshaphat I will gather together {the people of} all of the other nations; there I will judge {and punish} them because they scattered my Israelite people and forced them to go to other countries, and because they divided up my land {among themselves}. 3 {I will judge them} also {because} they played games of chance to determine who would get {each of} my people. They traded {some of the} Israelite boys for prostitutes, and they sold {some of the} Israelite girls to get {money to buy} wine, and they drank {it}. \*

You people of the cities of Tyre and Sidon, and you people of Philistia—you have no reason to be angry with me. You are behaving as if you are trying to avenge yourselves on me for something. If that is what you are doing, I will very quickly do the same thing to you.

You took the silver and gold and other valuable things from my temple and put them into your own temples.

You dragged away the people of Jerusalem and {other places in} Judah, and you took them far away from their homes and sold them to Greek traders. \*

But I will make it possible for my people to return from the places to which you sold them, and I will do to you what you did to them.

Then I will cause people to take {some of} your sons and your daughters and sell them to the people of Judah! And then they will sell {some of} them to the Sabean people, who live far away. {That will certainly happen} because I, God, have said it.” \* 9 Proclaim to {the people of} all nations, “Prepare for a war! Summon your soldiers; tell them to stand in their battle positions. 10 Take your plows and make swords from them; take your pruning knives and make spears from them. {Even} the weak {people} must {also} act like {they are} strong {soldiers}. \* 11 All of {you people from} the nations that are near Judah must come quickly and gather there.” But God, {when that happens,} send your army {of angels to attack them}! \* 12 God says, “The {people in the} nations near Judah must get ready and come to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will sit as a judge, and I will punish them. 13 {They are like} crops that are ready for farmers to harvest them; so {strike them as a farmer} swings his sickle to cut the grain. {They are like} large piles of grapes in the pits where farmers will press them; {so crush them as a farmer tramples on the grapes.} {Punish them severely} because they are very wicked. {If all of the wicked things that they have done became grape juice,} they are so wicked that the juice would make the vats overflow.” \* 14 There will be huge crowds of people in that Valley of Judgment. It will soon be the time that God will punish them in that Valley of Judgment. 15 At that time there will be no light from the sun or moon, and the stars will not shine. \* 16 From Mount Zion in Jerusalem, God will speak forcefully; his voice will be like thunder, and his voice will cause the sky and the earth to shake. But God will protect his people; he will be like a strong wall around the people of Israel. 17 God says, “At that time, you {Israelite people} will know that I am God, your God. I live on Zion, my holy hill. Jerusalem will be a holy city, and soldiers from other countries will never conquer it again. \* 18 At that time, there will be vineyards bearing sweet grapes on the mountains, and your cattle and goats on those hills will produce plenty of milk. The streams in Judah will have abundant water, and a stream will flow from my temple into the Valley of Shittim {northeast of the Salt Sea}. 19 {The armies of} Egypt and Edom attacked the people of Judah and killed many people there who had not done anything that was wrong. As a result, those countries will become wastelands, with no one living there any longer. \* 20 But there will always be people living throughout Judea and in Jerusalem, forever.

I, God, live on Mount Zion {in Jerusalem}, and I will not punish people {further} for killing my people, for which I {previously} punished them.”