Joel 4

Multitudes in the Valley of Decision

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The Nations Brought to the Valley of Jehoshaphat

4:1“For look, in those days and at that time, when I turn back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

4:2I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment with them over My people and My inheritance Israel, who were scattered among the nations; and they divided up My land

4:3and cast lots over My people; they gave the boys to prostitutes and sold the girls for wine, which they drank.

4:4What are you to Me, Tyre and Sidon and all Galilee of foreigners? Are you repaying Me a recompense? Or do you bear a sharp grudge against Me? I will speedily repay your recompense upon your heads,

4:5because you took My silver and gold and brought My chosen and beautiful things into your temples,

4:6and sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, so as to thrust them out of their own borders.

4:7Look, I am rousing them from the place to which you sold them, and I will repay your recompense upon your heads,

4:8and I will sell your sons and daughters into the hands of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them into captivity to a nation far away, because the Lord has spoken.”

Consecrate War!

4:9Proclaim these things among the nations: Consecrate war! Rouse the fighters! Draw near and come up, all soldiers!

4:10Beat your plows into swords and your sickles into lances; let the powerless say, “I am strong!”

4:11Assemble and enter, all surrounding nations, and gather there! Let the meek become a fighter!

4:12Let all the nations be roused and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, because there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.

The Vintage Is at Hand

4:13Send out sickles, because the vintage is at hand! Enter and tread, because the winepress is full; the vats overflow, because their evils have multiplied.

4:14Sounds rang out in the Valley of Judgment, because the Lord’s day is near in the Valley of Judgment.

4:15The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will sink their brightness.

4:16The Lord will cry out from Zion and give His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will shake. But the Lord will spare His people, and the Lord will strengthen the sons of Israel.

4:17You will recognize that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion on My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be a holy city, and foreigners will no longer pass through her.

The Mountains Will Drip Sweetness

4:18On that day mountains will drip sweetness, hills flow with milk, and all Judah’s water outlets flow with water. A spring will come out of the Lord’s house and water the Wadi of Rushes.

4:19Egypt will become disappearance, and Idumea a plain of disappearance, because of injustices concerning the sons of Judah, because they poured out righteous blood in their land.

4:20But Judea will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem for generations upon generations.

4:21“I will avenge their blood, and I will certainly not acquit.” And the Lord will dwell in Zion.

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Saints Translation · Liturgical reading edition · V1 · working draft awaiting specialist review.