3:1 | * For look! In those* days and at that time I will return the exiles* to Judah and Jerusalem.* |
3:2 | Then 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, |
3:3 | and they cast lots for my people. They traded* a boy for a prostitute; they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink.* |
3:4 | Why 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!* |
3:5 | For you took my silver and my gold and brought my precious valuables to your own palaces.* |
3:6 | You sold Judeans and Jerusalemites to the Greeks, removing them far from their own country.* |
3:7 | Look! I am rousing them from that place to which you sold them. I will repay you for what you have done!* |
3:8 | I 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! |
3:9 | Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for a holy war! Call out the warriors! Let all these fighting men approach and attack!* |
3:10 | Beat your plowshares* into swords, and your pruning hooks* into spears!* Let the weak say, ‘I too am a warrior!’* |
3:11 | Lend your aid* and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves* to that place.” Bring down, O Lord, your warriors!* |
3:12 | Let 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. |
3:13 | Rush 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!* |
3:14 | Crowds, great crowds are in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision!* |
3:15 | The sun and moon are darkened; the stars withhold* their brightness. |
3:16 | The 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. |
3:17 | You 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. |
3:18 | On 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.* |
3:19 | Egypt 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. |
3:20 | But Judah will reside securely forever, and Jerusalem will be secure* from one generation to the next. |
3:21 | I will avenge* their blood which I had not previously acquitted. It is the Lord who dwells in Zion! |