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JoelChapter 4

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For look — in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
I 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, my inheritance Israel, whom they scattered among the nations, and over my land, which they divided up.
They cast lots for my people; they traded a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine, and drank it down.
And what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon, and all you regions of Philistia? Would you repay me for something? If you repay me, I will swiftly and speedily turn your payment back on your own heads.
For you took my silver and my gold, and carried my finest treasures into your temples.
You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, to remove them far from their own land.
Now I am rousing them from the place where you sold them, and I will turn your payment back on your own heads.
I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away — for the LORD has spoken.
Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war! Rouse the warriors! Let all the fighting men advance and march up.
Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weakling say, "I am a warrior."
Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations; gather yourselves there. Bring down your warriors, O LORD!
Let the nations rouse themselves and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.
Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the winepress is full; the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.
Crowds upon crowds in the Valley of Decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the Valley of Decision.
The sun and moon grow dark, and the stars withhold their shining.
The LORD roars from Zion and thunders from Jerusalem; heaven and earth tremble. But the LORD is a refuge for his people, a stronghold for the children of Israel.
Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, and strangers will never overrun her again.
On that day the mountains will drip with new wine, the hills will flow with milk, and all the streambeds of Judah will run with water. A spring will flow from the house of the LORD and water the Valley of Acacias.[^1] [^1]: Hebrew *Nahal ha-Shittim*, "the wadi of the acacias," a dry desert ravine — a striking image of barren land made fruitful.
Egypt will become a wasteland and Edom a desolate desert, because of the violence they did to the people of Judah, shedding innocent blood in their land.
But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem through all generations.
I will avenge their blood, which I have not yet avenged. And the LORD dwells in Zion.
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