God Judges the Nations

3 “For behold, ain those days and at that time,

When I bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem,

2 bI will also gather all nations,

And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;

And I cwill enter into judgment with them there

On account of My people, My heritage Israel,

Whom they have scattered among the nations;

They have also divided up My land.

3 They have dcast lots for My people,

Have given a boy as payment for a harlot,

And sold a girl for wine, that they may drink.

4 “Indeed, what have you to do with Me,

eO Tyre and Sidon, and all the coasts of Philistia?

Will you 1retaliate against Me?

But if you 2retaliate against Me,

Swiftly and speedily I will return your 3retaliation upon your own head;

5 Because you have taken My silver and My gold,

And have carried into your temples My 4prized possessions.

6 Also the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem

You have sold to the Greeks,

That you may remove them far from their borders.

7 “Behold, fI will raise them

Out of the place to which you have sold them,

And will return your 5retaliation upon your own head.

8 I will sell your sons and your daughters

Into the hand of the people of Judah,

And they will sell them to the gSabeans, 6

To a people hfar off;

For the Lord has spoken.”

9 iProclaim this among the nations:

“Prepare for war!

Wake up the mighty men,

Let all the men of war draw near,

Let them come up.

10 jBeat your plowshares into swords

And your 7pruning hooks into spears;

kLet the weak say, ‘I am strong.’ ”

11 Assemble and come, all you nations,

And gather together all around.

Cause lYour mighty ones to go down there, O Lord.

12 “Let the nations be wakened, and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat;

For there I will sit to mjudge all the surrounding nations.

13 nPut in the sickle, for othe harvest is ripe.

Come, go down;

For the pwinepress is full,

The vats overflow—

For their wickedness is great.”

14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!

For qthe day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and moon will grow dark,

And the stars will diminish their brightness.

16 The Lord also will roar from Zion,

And utter His voice from Jerusalem;

The heavens and earth will shake;

rBut the Lord will be a shelter for His people,

And the strength of the children of Israel.

17 “So you shall know that I am the Lord your God,

Dwelling in Zion My sholy mountain.

Then Jerusalem shall be holy,

And no aliens shall ever pass through her again.”

God Blesses His People

18 And it will come to pass in that day

That the mountains shall drip with new wine,

The hills shall flow with milk,

And all the brooks of Judah shall be flooded with water;

A tfountain shall flow from the house of the Lord

And water the Valley of 8Acacias.

19 “Egypt shall be a desolation,

And Edom a desolate wilderness,

Because of violence against the people of Judah,

For they have shed innocent blood in their land.

20 But Judah shall abide forever,

And Jerusalem from generation to generation.

21 For I will uacquit them of the guilt of bloodshed, whom I had not acquitted;

For the Lord dwells in Zion.