Joel 3

Joel 2 Amos 1

Joel 3 New Living Translation (NLT)

Judgment against Enemy Nations

3 ^[a]“At the time of those events,” says the Lord,
    “when I restore the prosperity of Judah and Jerusalem,
²I will gather the armies of the world
    into the valley of Jehoshaphat.^[b]
There I will judge them
    for harming my people, my special possession,
for scattering my people among the nations,
    and for dividing up my land.
³They threw dice^[c] to decide which of my people
    would be their slaves.
They traded boys to obtain prostitutes
    and sold girls for enough wine to get drunk.

⁴“What do you have against me, Tyre and Sidon and you cities of Philistia? Are you trying to take revenge on me? If you are, then watch out! I will strike swiftly and pay you back for everything you have done. ⁵You have taken my silver and gold and all my precious treasures, and have carried them off to your pagan temples. ⁶You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks,^[d] so they could take them far from their homeland.

⁷“But I will bring them back from all the places to which you sold them, and I will pay you back for everything you have done. ⁸I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the people of Arabia,^[e] a nation far away. I, the Lord, have spoken!”

⁹Say to the nations far and wide:
    “Get ready for war!
Call out your best warriors.
    Let all your fighting men advance for the attack.
¹⁰Hammer your plowshares into swords
    and your pruning hooks into spears.
    Train even your weaklings to be warriors.
¹¹Come quickly, all you nations everywhere.
    Gather together in the valley.”

And now, O Lord, call out your warriors!

¹²“Let the nations be called to arms.
    Let them march to the valley of Jehoshaphat.
There I, the Lord, will sit
    to pronounce judgment on them all.
¹³Swing the sickle,
    for the harvest is ripe.^[f]
Come, tread the grapes,
    for the winepress is full.
The storage vats are overflowing
    with the wickedness of these people.”

¹⁴Thousands upon thousands are waiting in the valley of decision.
    There the day of the Lord will soon arrive.
¹⁵The sun and moon will grow dark,
    and the stars will no longer shine.
¹⁶The Lord’s voice will roar from Zion
    and thunder from Jerusalem,
    and the heavens and the earth will shake.
But the Lord will be a refuge for his people,
    a strong fortress for the people of Israel.

Blessings for God’s People

¹⁷“Then you will know that I, the Lord your God,
    live in Zion, my holy mountain.
Jerusalem will be holy forever,
    and foreign armies will never conquer her again.
¹⁸In that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine,
    and the hills will flow with milk.
Water will fill the streambeds of Judah,
    and a fountain will burst forth from the Lord’s Temple,
    watering the arid valley of acacias.^[g]
¹⁹But Egypt will become a wasteland
    and Edom will become a wilderness,
because they attacked the people of Judah
    and killed innocent people in their land.

²⁰“But Judah will be filled with people forever,
    and Jerusalem will endure through all generations.
²¹I will pardon my people’s crimes,
    which I have not yet pardoned;
and I, the Lord, will make my home
    in Jerusalem^[h] with my people.”