Joel 3:9-15

Declaration of war

9 Announce this among the nations: Prepare a holy war, wake up the warriors; let all the soldiers draw near, let them come up!
10 Beat the iron tips of your plows into swords and your pruning tools into spears; let the weakling say, "I am mighty."
11 Come quickly, all you surrounding nations; gather yourselves there; bring your mighty ones, LORD.
12 Let the nations prepare themselves, and come up to the Jehoshaphat Valley; for there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.
13 Cut with the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Go and crush grapes, for the winepress is full. The jars overflow with wine, for their wickedness is great.
14 Crowd after crowd fills the valley of judgment, for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of judgment.
15 The sun and the moon are darkened; the stars have ceased shining.

Joel 3:9-15 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOEL 3

This chapter, which some make the fourth, contains a prophecy of God's judgments on all the antichristian nations at the time of the Jews' conversion, and the reasons of them, Joe 3:1-3; a threatening of Tyre and Zidon, by way of retaliation, for carrying the riches of the Jews into their temples, and selling their persons to the Greeks, Joe 3:4-8; an alarm to prepare for the battle of Armageddon, or the destruction that shall be made in the valley of Jehoshaphat, Joe 3:9-15; and after that an account of the happy state of the church of Christ, their safety and security, plenty, prosperity, and purity, to the end of the world, Joe 3:16-21.

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