the Fourth Week of Advent
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New Century Version
Joel 3
Punishment for Judah's Enemies
1 "In those days and at that time,
when I will make things better for Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will gather all the nations together
and bring them down into the Valley Where the Lord Judges.
There I will judge them,
because those nations scattered my own people Israel
and forced them to live in other nations.
They divided up my land
3 and threw lots for my people.
They traded boys for prostitutes,
and they sold girls to buy wine to drink.
4 "Tyre and Sidon and all of you regions of Philistia! What did you have against me? Were you punishing me for something I did, or were you doing something to hurt me? I will very quickly do to you what you have done to me. 5 You took my silver and gold, and you put my precious treasures in your temples. 6 You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks so that you could send them far from their land.
7 "You sent my people to that faraway place, but I will get them and bring them back, and I will do to you what you have done to them. 8 I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabean people far away." The Lord said this.
God Judges the Nations
9 Announce this among the nations:
Prepare for war!
Wake up the soldiers!
Let all the men of war come near and attack.
10 Make swords from your plows,
and make spears from your hooks for trimming trees.
Let even the weak person say,
"I am a soldier."
11 All of you nations, hurry,
and come together in that place.
Lord, send your soldiers
to gather the nations.
12 "Wake up, nations,
and come to attack in the Valley Where the Lord Judges.
There I will sit to judge
all the nations on every side.
13 Swing the cutting tool,
because the harvest is ripe.
Come, walk on them as you would walk on grapes to get their juice,
because the winepress is full
and the barrels are spilling over,
because these people are so evil!"
14 There are huge numbers of people
in the Valley of Decision,[a]
because the Lord's day of judging is near
in the Valley of Decision.
15 The sun and the moon will become dark,
and the stars will stop shining.
16 The Lord will roar like a lion from Jerusalem;
his loud voice will thunder from that city,
and the sky and the earth will shake.
But the Lord will be a safe place for his people,
a strong place of safety for the people of Israel.
17 "Then you will know that I, the Lord your God,
live on my holy Mount Zion.
Jerusalem will be a holy place,
and strangers will never even go through it again.
A New Life Promised for Judah
18 "On that day wine will drip from the mountains,
milk will flow from the hills,
and water will run through all the ravines of Judah.
A fountain will flow from the Temple of the Lord
and give water to the valley of acacia trees.
19 But Egypt will become empty,
and Edom an empty desert,
because they were cruel to the people of Judah.
They killed innocent people in that land.
20 But there will always be people living in Judah,
and people will live in Jerusalem from now on.
21 Egypt and Edom killed my people,
so I will definitely punish them."
The Lord lives in Jerusalem!
New Century Version
The Holy Bible, New Century Version®. Copyright © 2005 by Thomas Nelson, Inc.
