1
For behold in those days, and in that time when I shall bring back the captivity of Juda, and Jerusalem:
2
I will gather together all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat: and I will plead with them there for my people, and for my inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and have parted my land.
3
And they have cast lots upon my people: and the boy they have put in the stews, and the girl they have sold for wine, that they might drink.
4
But what have you to do with me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all the coast of the Philistines? will you revenge yourselves on me? and if you revenge yourselves on me, I will very soon return you a recompense upon your own head.
5
For you have taken away my silver, and my gold: and my desirable, and most beautiful things you have carried into your temples.
6
And the children of Juda, and the children of Jerusalem, you have sold to the children of the Greeks, that you might remove them far off from their own country.
7
Behold, I will raise them up out of the place wherein you have sold them: and I will return your recompense upon your own heads.
8
And I will sell your sons, and your daughters, by the hands of the children of Juda, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far off, for the Lord hath spoken it.
9
Proclaim ye this among the nations: Prepare war, raise up the strong: let them come, let all the men of war come up.
10
Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades into spears. Let the weak say: I am strong.
11
Break forth, and come, all ye nations from round about, and gather yourselves together: there will the Lord cause all thy strong ones to fall down.
12
Let them arise, and let the nations come up into the valley of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all nations round about.
13
Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe: come and go down, for the press is full, the fats run over: for their wickedness is multiplied.
14
Nations, nations in the valley of destruction: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of destruction.
15
The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining.
16
And the Lord shall roar out of Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem: and the heavens and the earth shall be moved, and the Lord shall be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.