Joel

Joel 3 ©

1 God's judgments against the enemies of his people: 18 his blessing upon the church.

1

FOR, behold, ain those days, and in that time, when bI shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

2

I will also cgather all nations, and will bring them down into the dvalley of Jehoshaphat, and will eplead with them there ffor my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.

3

And they have gcast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

4

Yea, and hwhat have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the *coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, iswiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;

5

Because ye jhave taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly 1pleasant things:

6

The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye ksold unto 2the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.

7

Behold, lI will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and mwill return your recompence upon your own head:

8

And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the nSabeans, to a people far off: for the LORD hath spoken it.

9

oProclaim ye this among the Gentiles; 3Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:

10

pBeat your *plowshares into swords, and your 4pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

11

qAssemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither 5cause thy rmighty ones to come down, O LORD.

12

Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the svalley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to tjudge all the heathen round about.

13

uPut ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.

14

vMultitudes, multitudes win the valley of 6decision: for the xday of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

w v.2,12.
15

The ysun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

16

The LORD also shall zroar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and athe heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the 7hope of his people, and the bstrength of the children of Israel.

17

So cshall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, dmy holy mountain: ethen shall Jerusalem be 8holy, and there shall fno strangers pass through her any more.

d Ob. 16.
18

¶And it shall come to pass gin that day, that the hmountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and iall the rivers of Judah shall 9flow with waters, and ja fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the kvalley of Shittim.

19

lEgypt shall be a desolation, and mEdom shall be a desolate wilderness, for nthe violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

20

But oJudah shall 10dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

21

For pI will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: 11for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.