Study

3. The Nations Judged

    ⁴ “Now what have you against me, Tyre and Sidon and all you regions of Philistia? Are you repaying me for something I have done? If you are paying me back, I will swiftly and speedily return on your own heads what you have done. ⁵ For you took my silver and my gold and carried off my finest treasures to your temples. Or palaces ⁶ You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, that you might send them far from their homeland.

    ⁷ “See, I am going to rouse them out of the places to which you sold them, and I will return on your own heads what you have done. ⁸ I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away.” The LORD has spoken.

    ⁹ Proclaim this among the nations:
   Prepare for war!
Rouse the warriors!
   Let all the fighting men draw near and attack.
¹⁰ Beat your plowshares into swords
   and your pruning hooks into spears.
Let the weakling say,
   “I am strong!”
¹¹ Come quickly, all you nations from every side,
   and assemble there.

   Bring down your warriors, LORD!

    ¹² “Let the nations be roused;
   let them advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat,
for there I will sit
   to judge all the nations on every side.
¹³ Swing the sickle,
   for the harvest is ripe.
Come, trample the grapes,
   for the winepress is full
   and the vats overflow—
so great is their wickedness!”

    ¹⁴ Multitudes, multitudes
   in the valley of decision!
For the day of the LORD is near
   in the valley of decision.
¹⁵ The sun and moon will be darkened,
   and the stars no longer shine.
¹⁶ The LORD will roar from Zion
   and thunder from Jerusalem;
   the earth and the heavens will tremble.
But the LORD will be a refuge for his people,
   a stronghold for the people of Israel.

Blessings for God’s People

    ¹⁷ “Then you will know that I, the LORD your God,
   dwell in Zion, my holy hill.
Jerusalem will be holy;
   never again will foreigners invade her.

    ¹⁸ “In that day the mountains will drip new wine,
   and the hills will flow with milk;
   all the ravines of Judah will run with water.
A fountain will flow out of the LORD’s house
   and will water the valley of acacias. Or Valley of Shittim
¹⁹ But Egypt will be desolate,
   Edom a desert waste,
because of violence done to the people of Judah,
   in whose land they shed innocent blood.
²⁰ Judah will be inhabited forever
   and Jerusalem through all generations.
²¹ Shall I leave their innocent blood unavenged?
   No, I will not.”

   The LORD dwells in Zion!