3
📚“For, see, in those days, and at that time 📖,
when I reverse the captivity of 📖
Judah and Jerusalem,
2 📚I will also gather all nations,
and will bring them down
into the valley of Jehoshaphat 📖,
and will enter into judgment
with them there for my people
and for my inheritance Israel 📖.
They scattered 📖 them
among the nations,
and divided up my land 📖.
Judgment on those who cause Israel’s suffering
3 📚And they cast lots for my people 📖,
and traded a boy for a prostitute,
and sold a girl for wine,
that they might drink.
4 📚“Yes, and what have you
to do with me,
O Tyre, and Sidon, and all
the coasts of Palestine?
Will you retaliate against me?
And if you retaliate against me,
swiftly and speedily
I will bring your retaliation back
on your own head,
5 📚because you took my silver
and my gold,
and carried my valuable possessions
into your temples.
6 📚And you sold the children of
Judah and the children of
Jerusalem to the Greeks,
so that you might remove them
far from their borders.
7 📚“See, I will raise them out
of the place where you sold them,
and will bring your retaliation back
on your own head,
8 📚And I will sell your sons and
your daughters into the hands
of the children of Judah,
and they will sell them
to the Sabeans,
to a people far off, for the LORD
has spoken”.
3:4-8 God singles out Tyre and Sidon as examples of what He will do to “all nations” which have mistreated the people of Israel. See the principle upon which God will judge – “I will bring your retaliation back on your own head”. Compare Deut 32:40-43; Ps 79:1-7; 83:1-18; 94:23; Jer 25:12-14. Note on Tyre and Sidon at Isa 23:1-2.⚜
9 📚Proclaim this among the Gentiles:
“Prepare for war 📖!
Rouse the mighty men!
Let all the warriors draw near;
let them come up.
10 📚Beat your plowshares
into swords,
and your pruning hooks
into spears.
Let the weak say,
‘I am strong.’
3:10 Compare Isa 2:4 which describes what things will be like when this final great battle is over.⚜
11 📚Assemble and come,
all you nations,
and all around gather yourselves
together.
Have your mighty ones 📖
go down there 📖, O LORD.
12 📚Let the nations be wakened,
and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat 📖;
for there I will sit to judge
all the surrounding nations.
3:12 God speaks.⚜
13 📚Put in the sickle,
for the harvest is ripe.
Come, go down, for the winepress
is full,
the vats overflow; for
their wickedness is great”.
3:13 Compare Rev 14:14-20.⚜
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 the moon will be
darkened,
and the stars will withdraw
their shining.
16 📚And the LORD will roar out of Zion,
and makes his voice heard
from Jerusalem 📖.
And the heavens and the earth
will shake 📖,
but the LORD will be the hope 📖
of his people,
and the strength of the children
of Israel.
A promise that blessings will come to Israel
17 📚“So you will know that I am
the LORD your God,
dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain.
Then 📖 Jerusalem will be holy,
and no foreigners will pass
through her again.
3:17 God speaks again through the prophet.⚜
18 📚And it will happen in that day,
that the mountains will drip
with new wine,
and the hills will flow with milk,
and all the rivers of Judah
will flow with water,
and a fountain will flow
from the house of the LORD 📖 and
water the valley of Shittim.
19 📚Egypt will become a desolation,
and Edom will become a
desolate wilderness,
because of their violence
against the children of Judah,
for they shed innocent blood
in their land.
20 📚But Judah will be inhabited forever 📖,
and Jerusalem from generation
to generation.
21 📚For I will cleanse 📖 away their
bloodguilt which I have not cleansed;
for the LORD dwells in Zion 📖”.