Joel 3:10-20

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, 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.

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. 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.

Joel 3:10-20 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.