Joel, 3
The LORD shall judge all nations in the valley of Josaphat. The evils that shall fall upon the enemies of God's people: his blessing upon the church of the saints.
[1] For behold in those days, and in that time when I shall bring back the captivity of Juda, and Jerusalem: •
[2] I will gather together all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat: and I will plead with them there for my people, and for my inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and have parted my land. •
[3] And they have cast lots upon my people: and the boy they have put in the stews, and the girl they have sold for wine, that they might drink. •
[4] But what have you to do with me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all the coast of the Philistines? will you revenge yourselves on me? and if you revenge yourselves on me, I will very soon return you a recompense upon your own head. •
[5] For you have taken away my silver, and my gold: and my desirable, and most beautiful things you have carried into your temples. •
[6] And the children of Juda, and the children of Jerusalem, you have sold to the children of the Greeks, that you might remove them far off from their own country. •
[7] Behold, I will raise them up out of the place wherein you have sold them: and I will return your recompense upon your own heads. •
[8] And I will sell your sons, and your daughters, by the hands of the children of Juda, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far off, for the Lord hath spoken it. •
[9] Proclaim ye this among the nations: Prepare war, raise up the strong: let them come, let all the men of war come up. •
[10] Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades into spears. Let the weak say: I am strong.
[11] Break forth, and come, all ye nations from round about, and gather yourselves together: there will the Lord cause all thy strong ones to fall down. •
[12] Let them arise, and let the nations come up into the valley of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all nations round about.
[13] Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe: come and go down, for the press is full, the fats run over: for their wickedness is multiplied. •
[14] Nations, nations in the valley of destruction: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of destruction. •
[15] The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining. •
[16] And the Lord shall roar out of Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem: and the heavens and the earth shall be moved, and the Lord shall be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. •
[17] And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Sion, my holy mountain: and Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall pass through it no more. •
[18] And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk: and waters shall flow through all the rivers of Juda: and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord 1, and shall water the torrent of thorns. •
A fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord: That is, the fountain of grace in the church militant, and of glory in the church triumphant: which shall water the torrent or valley of thorns, that is, the souls that before, like barren ground brought forth nothing but thorns; or that were afflicted with the thorns of crosses and tribulations.
[19] Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom a wilderness destroyed: because they have done unjustly against the children of Juda, and have shed innocent blood in their land. •
[20] And Judea shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to generation and generation. •
And Jerusalem: That is, the spiritual Jerusalem, that is, the church of Christ.
[21] And I will cleanse their blood, which I had not cleansed: and the Lord will dwell in Sion. •