RSV Joel 3 Chapter
1 2 3
3:1
'For behold, in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
3:2
I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehosh'aphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations, and have divided up my land,
3:3
and have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a harlot, and have sold a girl for wine, and have drunk it.
3:4
'What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, I will requite your deed upon your own head swiftly and speedily.
3:5
For you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.
3:6
You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, removing them far from their own border.
3:7
But now I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and I will requite your deed upon your own head.
3:8
I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabe'ans, to a nation far off;for the LORD has spoken.'
3:9
Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare war, stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.
3:10
Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears;let the weak say, 'I am a warrior.'
3:11
Hasten and come, all you nations round about, gather yourselves there. Bring down thy warriors, O LORD.
3:12
Let the nations bestir themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehosh'aphat;for there I will sit to judge all the nations round about.
3:13
Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go in, tread, for the wine press is full. The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.
3:14
Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
3:15
The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars withdraw their shining.
3:16
And the LORD roars from Zion, and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shake. But the LORD is a refuge to his people, a stronghold to the people of Israel.
3:17
'So you shall know that I am the LORD your God, who dwell in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem shall be holy and strangers shall never again pass through it.
3:18
'And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the stream beds of Judah shall flow with water;and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the LORD and water the valley of Shittim.
3:19
'Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a desolate wilderness, for the violence done to the people of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
3:20
But Judah shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to all generations.
3:21
I will avenge their blood, and I will not clear the guilty, for the LORD dwells in Zion.'