Joel 3:1-21
1 For, behold, in 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 valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my 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 a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.
4 Yea, and what 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, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;
5 Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:
6 The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians,a that ye might remove them far from their border.
7 Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will 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 Sabeans, to a people far off: for the LORD hath spoken it.
9 Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepareb war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooksc into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
11 Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.
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 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 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision:d for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
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 hopee 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, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy,f and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.
18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flowg with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.
19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
20 But Judah shall dwellh for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21 For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.
The Day of the Lord
Joel
Roy Rohu
Chapter 3
The *Lord *judges the nations
v1 ‘One day, at that time, I will make *Judah and Jerusalem great again.
v2 Then I will bring all the nations together.
I will bring them down to the valley called Jehoshaphat.
There I will *judge against them.
I am angry for my children, my people from *Israel.
Those other people pushed my people out into other countries.
They broke up my country and each took pieces.
v3 They played games against each other.
In that way, they discovered which one would win my people.
(The people who won those games would own God’s people.)
They gave boys to buy women. They bought those women to have sex with them.
They sold girls so that they could get *wine to drink.
v4 Tell me something, you people in Tyre, Sidon and all the country where the *Philistines live. Tell me if I have done anything wrong to you. You want to punish me. If you do that, I will soon do the same to you. v5 You took my *silver and my gold, and you put all my riches in your *temples. v6 You sold the people who were in *Judah and Jerusalem. You sold them to the people from Greece. You wanted to send them a long way from their own country.
v7 Now I will bring them back from the places to which you sold them. I will do to you what you have done to them. v8 I will sell your sons and daughters to the people from *Judah. And they will sell them to the people from Sheba, who live far away. I, the *Lord, have spoken.’
The *Philistines and the people in Sidon did not love the true God. And they did not obey him. They also did bad things to God’s people. But now they have to learn that God loves his people. He will punish anyone who fights against his people. Look also at Joel 3:19 and Matthew 25:31-46.
In verses 4 and 5, God speaks like a human person. He wants to help us to understand. But God does not need *silver and gold. He has made all the silver and gold. His silver and gold are not for false gods.
Verse 8: This did happen later. An army from Persia was fighting against the *Philistines then. And an army from Greece was fighting against the people in Tyre.
v9 Tell this news to all the countries.
Get ready for war!
Shout to the soldiers.
Tell all the men that fight. Make them get ready to attack.
v10 Get the tools that you dig with. Make them into sharp knives.
Get the tools that you use on the farm. Make them into long sticks that have points on the end. These sticks are to fight with.
Let the weak man say, ‘I am strong!’
v11 Come quickly, you people who live round *Israel.
Get together in the valley.
*Lord, send your army down to attack them.
v12 Wake up the people in all the countries!
Bring them into the valley called Jehoshaphat.
I will sit there to *judge the people from every country.
v13 Now is the time to cut down the fruits.
They are ready for you to bring them in.
Walk all over the *grapes.
The *winepress is full of them.
The *grapes come out over the top.
The nations have done so many bad things.
v14 Many, many people are in the Valley of Decision.
It is there that the Day of the *Lord will soon come.
v15 The sun and moon will grow dark
and the stars will not shine.
The Valley of Decision (verse 14) is a special name for the valley called Jehoshaphat (verses 2 and 12). In this valley, God will carry out his decision.
Verse 15: Look also at Joel 2:10; Joel 2:30-31.
God will do good things for his people
v16 The *Lord will shout from *Zion.
He will make a great noise from *Jerusalem.
The earth and the sky will move about.
But the *Lord will keep his people safe.
v17 ‘Then you will know that I am your God.
You will know that I live in *Zion, my *holy hill.
*Jerusalem will be *holy.
Strangers will never again come in to control it.’
God is ready to be kind to his people now because they have changed their attitude. And they have started to obey him again. He will protect *Jerusalem. And he will protect the people who live there.
v18 ‘At that time, new *wine will flow from the mountains
and milk will flow from the hills.
All the valleys in *Judah will have rivers of water.
Water will come from the *Lord’s house.
And it will water the Valley of Acacias (special trees).
There will be many places on the mountains where they grow *grapes. From those *grapes, people will be able to make a lot of *wine. On the hills, there will be cows and goats that produce a lot of milk.
At that time, God will send to his people all that they need. He will send water to make things grow. He will even send water to the Valley of Acacias and other such places. That valley was a dry valley where trees called acacias grew. It was right on the edge of the country called *Judah. In this way, the writer is saying that plants will be able to grow everywhere in *Judah.
v19 Egypt’s people and *Edom’s people hurt people who lived in *Judah.
And they killed innocent people there.
So Egypt will be an empty place and *Edom will become an empty desert.’
*Judah’s people had done nothing wrong to Egypt’s people or *Edom’s people. But people from Egypt and *Edom had killed many people who lived in *Judah.
Joel mentions ‘innocent people’. The people in *Judah had done wrong things against God’s law. But they had not done wrong things against the people in Egypt and *Edom.
v20 ‘My people will always live in *Jerusalem and in *Judah.
v21 I will forgive all the wrong things that they have done.
The *Lord lives in *Zion!’
Lord ~ a name that we call God when we obey him.judge ~ to say what is good or bad.
Judah ~ after Israel split into two nations, the south part was called Judah.
Israel ~ the country where the Israelites (God’s people) live; or, sometimes the north part of that country.
Israelites ~ people who live in Israel; people who come from Jacob’s family.
Israel ~ the country where the Israelites (God’s people) live; or, sometimes the north part of that country.
Israelites ~ people who live in Israel; people who come from Jacob’s family.
Philistines ~ a group of people who lived to the west of Israel. Often, they were enemies of the Israelites.
Israel ~ the country where the Israelites (God’s people) live; or, sometimes the north part of that country.
Israelites ~ people who live in Israel; people who come from Jacob’s family.
silver ~ a shiny white metal with great value.
temple ~ a building where people *worship their god and they say good things about him.
grape ~ a fruit that people make a drink from.
Zion ~ a hill where the Israelites built the Lord’s temple at Jerusalem. Sometimes the people in Jerusalem called themselves ‘Zion’.
Israelites ~ people who live in Israel; people who come from Jacob’s family.
Lord ~ a name that we call God when we obey him.
temple ~ a building where people *worship their god and they say good things about him.
Jerusalem ~ the city where God’s temple was.
Israel ~ the country where the Israelites (God’s people) live; or, sometimes the north part of that country.
Jerusalem ~ the city where God’s temple was.
temple ~ a building where people *worship their god and they say good things about him.
holy ~ very, very good; only God is really holy; the place where he lives with his people is also holy because he is there.
Edom ~ a country near Israel.
Israel ~ the country where the Israelites (God’s people) live; or, sometimes the north part of that country.
Israelites ~ people who live in Israel; people who come from Jacob’s family.