Good News Bible

Joel 3:6-20-21 Good News Bible (GNB)

6. You have taken the people of Judah and Jerusalem far from their own country and sold them to the Greeks.

7. Now I am going to bring them out of the places to which you have sold them. I will do to you what you have done to them.

8. I will let your sons and daughters be sold to the people of Judah; they will sell them to the far-off Sabeans. I, the Lord, have spoken.

9. “Make this announcement among the nations:‘Prepare for war;call your warriors;gather all your soldiers and march!

10. Hammer the points of your ploughs into swordsand your pruning knives into spears.Even the weak must fight.

11. Hurry and come,all you surrounding nations,and gather in the valley.’ ”Send down, O Lord, your army to attack them.

12. “The nations must get readyand come to the Valley of Judgement.There I, the Lord, will sit to judgeall the surrounding nations.

13. They are very wicked;cut them down like cornat harvest time;crush them as grapes are crushedin a full winepressuntil the wine runs over.”

14. Thousands and thousandsare in the Valley of Judgement.It is there that the day of the Lordwill soon come.

15. The sun and the moon grow dark,and the stars no longer shine.

16. The Lord roars from Mount Zion;his voice thunders from Jerusalem;earth and sky tremble.But he will defend his people.

17. “Then, Israel, you will know that I am the Lord your God.I live on Zion, my sacred hill.Jerusalem will be a sacred city;foreigners will never conquer it again.

18. “At that time the mountains will be covered with vineyards,and cattle will be found on every hill;there will be plenty of water for all the streams of Judah.A stream will flow from the Temple of the Lord,and it will water the Valley of Acacia.

19. “Egypt will become a desert,and Edom a ruined waste,because they attacked the land of Judahand killed its innocent people.

20-21. I will avenge those who were killed;I will not spare the guilty.But Judah and Jerusalem will be inhabited for ever,and I, the Lord, will live on Mount Zion.”