Open English Translation JOEL Chapter 3

3 Because listen, in those days and at that time

when I return those who were taken away as captives from Yehudah and Yerushalem,

2 then I’ll gather all the nations,

and bring them down to Yehoshafat’s valley.

Then I’ll judge them there

because they scattered my people, Israel my inheritance, among the nations

and they divided up my land.

3 Then they threw dice to decide who’d get my people—

they traded a boy for a prostitute,

≈and sold a girl for wine so they could drink.

4 Tyre, Sidon, and all of the regions of Philistia, what are you to me?

Are you trying to get even with me?

If you are, I’ll very quickly deflect your actions back on yourselves,[ref]

5 because you took my gold and silver,

and you took my precious treasures into your temples.

6 Then you sold the people of Yehudah and Yerushalem to the Greeks,

so that they’d be taken far away from their homeland.

7 Listen, I’ll stir them up there in the place where you sold them,

and I’ll deflect your behaviour back on yourselves,

8 because I’ll sell your sons and daughters to the people of Yehudah,

and they’ll sell them to the Sabeans—to a faraway nation.”

Yes, Yahweh has spoken.

9 Proclaim this among the nations:

“Prepare for war.

≈Arm the warriors!

Let them approach.

≈Let all the men of war start coming.

10 Hammer your plough blades into swords

≈and your pruning hooks into spears.

Let the weak say, ‘I am strong.’[ref]

11 Hurry and come all you surrounding nations,

and gather yourselves there.”

Yahweh, send down your warriors.

12 “Let the nations rouse themselves

and come to Yehoshafat’s valley,

because I’ll sit there to judge all the surrounding nations.

13 Swing the sickle because the harvest has ripened.

Come on, go down, because the winepress is full.

The vats overflow, because their wickedness is great.”

14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision,

because Yahweh’s day is near in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and the moon become dark,

and the stars withheld their brightness.

16 Yahweh will roar from Tsiyyon (Zion),

≈and from Yerushalem he’ll utter his voice,

and the heavens and the earth will shake.

But Yahweh will be a shelter for his people

and a stronghold for the Israelis.[ref]

17 “Then you will know that I’m your God Yahweh,

living in Tsiyyon, on my sacred mountain.

Then Yerushalem will be sacred,

and foreign warriors won’t pass through it again.

18 Then at that time, the mountains will drip sweet wine,

≈and the hills will flow with milk,

and all of Yehudah’s streams will flow with water,

≈and a spring will go forth from Yahweh’s residence and water the Shittim valley.

19 Egypt will become uninhabited,

and Edom will become a lonely wilderness

because of the violence of the people of Yehudah—

they shed innocent blood in their country.

20 But Yehudah will remain forever,

and Yerushalem will continue throughout the generations,

21 and I will declare their blood to be innocent (which I hadn’t done previously),

because Yahweh resides in Tsiyyon.”