3 Of the judgment of God against the enemies of his people.
1 For behold, in [a]those days and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the [b]valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people, and for mine heritage Israel: whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
3 And they have cast lots for my people, and have given the child [c]for the harlot, and sold the girl for wine, that they might drink.
4 Yea, and [d]what have you to do with me, O Tyre and Sidon, and all the coasts of Philistia? will ye render me [e]a recompense? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I render your recompense upon your head:
5 For ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly and pleasant things.
6 The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have you sold unto the Grecians, that ye might send them far from their border.
7 Behold, I will raise them out of the place where ye have sold them, and will render your reward upon your own head.
8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they [f]shall send them to the Sabeans, to a people far off, for the Lord hath spoken it.
9 Publish this among the Gentiles: prepare war, wake up the mighty men: let all the men of war draw near and come up.
10 [g]Break your plowshares into swords, and your scythes into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
11 Assemble yourselves, and come all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: there shall the Lord cast down the mighty men.
12 Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
13 Put in your [h]scythes, for the harvest is ripe, come, get you down, for the winepress is full: yea, the winepresses run over, for their wickedness is great.
14 O multitude, O multitude, come into the valley of threshing: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of threshing.
15 The sun and moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their light.
16 The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth shall shake, but the Lord will be the [i]hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
17 So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, mine holy Mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers go [j]through her anymore.
18 And in that day shall the mountains [k]drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall run with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the House of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim.
19 [l]Egypt shall be waste, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the injuries of the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
20 But Judah shall dwell forever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21 For I will [m]cleanse their blood, that I have not cleansed, and the Lord will dwell in Zion.
Footnotes
- Joel 3:1 When I shall deliver my Church, which standeth of the Jews and of the Gentiles.
- Joel 3:2 It appeareth that he alludeth to that great victory of Jehoshaphat, when as God without man’s help destroyed the enemies, 2 Chron. 20:26, also he hath respect to this word Jehoshaphat which signifieth pleading or judgment, because God would judge the enemies of his Church, as he did there.
- Joel 3:3 That which the enemy gat for the sale of my people, he bestowed upon harlots and drink.
- Joel 3:4 He taketh the cause of his Church in hand against the enemy, as though the injury were done to himself.
- Joel 3:4 Have I done you wrong, that ye will render me the like?
- Joel 3:8 For afterward God sold them by Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander the great, for the love he bare to his people, and thereby they were comforted, as though the price had been theirs.
- Joel 3:10 When I shall execute my judgments against mine enemies, I will cause everyone to be ready, and to prepare their weapons to destroy one another for my Church’s sake.
- Joel 3:13 Thus he shall encourage the enemies when their wickedness is full ripe, to destroy one another, which he calleth the valley of God’s judgment.
- Joel 3:16 God assureth his against all trouble, that when he destroyeth his enemies, his children shall be delivered.
- Joel 3:17 The strangers shall no more destroy his Church: which if they do, it is the people, which by their sins make the breach for the enemy.
- Joel 3:18 He promiseth to his Church abundance of graces, read Ezek. 47:1, which should water and comfort the most barren places, Amos 9:13.
- Joel 3:19 The malicious enemies shall have no part of his graces.
- Joel 3:21 He had suffered his Church hitherto to lie in their filthiness, but now he promiseth to cleanse them and to make them pure unto him.