The Lord Plans to Judge the Nations

1 For look! In those days and at that time

I will return the exiles to Judah and Jerusalem.

2Then I will gather all the nations,

and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.

I will enter into judgment against them there

concerning my people Israel who are my inheritance,

whom they scattered among the nations.

They partitioned my land,

3and they cast lots for my people.

They traded a boy for a prostitute;

they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink.

4Why are you doing these things to me, Tyre and Sidon?

Are you trying to get even with me, land of Philistia?

I will very quickly repay you for what you have done!

5For you took my silver and my gold

and brought my precious valuables to your own palaces.

6You sold Judeans and Jerusalemites to the Greeks,

removing them far from their own country.

7Look! I am rousing them from that place to which you sold them.

I will repay you for what you have done!

8I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah.

They will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away.

Indeed, the Lord has spoken!

Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat

9Proclaim this among the nations:

“Prepare for a holy war!

Call out the warriors!

Let all these fighting men approach and attack!

10Beat your plowshares into swords,

and your pruning hooks into spears!

Let the weak say, ‘I too am a warrior!’

11Lend your aid and come,

all you surrounding nations,

and gather yourselves to that place.”

Bring down, O Lord, your warriors!

12Let the nations be roused and let them go up

to the valley of Jehoshaphat,

for there I will sit in judgment on all the surrounding nations.

13Rush forth with the sickle, for the harvest is ripe!

Come, stomp the grapes, for the winepress is full!

The vats overflow.

Indeed, their evil is great!

14Crowds, great crowds are in the valley of decision,

for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision!

15The sun and moon are darkened;

the stars withhold their brightness.

16The Lord roars from Zion;

from Jerusalem his voice bellows out.

The heavens and the earth shake.

But the Lord is a refuge for his people;

he is a stronghold for the citizens of Israel.

The Lord’s Presence in Zion

17You will be convinced that I the Lord am your God,

dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain.

Jerusalem will be holy –

conquering armies will no longer pass through it.

18On that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine,

and the hills will flow with milk.

All the dry stream beds of Judah will flow with water.

A spring will flow out from the temple of the Lord,

watering the Valley of Acacia Trees.

19Egypt will be desolate

and Edom will be a desolate wilderness,

because of the violence they did to the people of Judah,

in whose land they shed innocent blood.

20But Judah will reside securely forever,

and Jerusalem will be secure from one generation to the next.

21I will avenge their blood which I had not previously acquitted.

It is the Lord who dwells in Zion!