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3
Yahweh will judge the nations
1 Yahweh says this:
“At that time [DOU], I will enable the people of Jerusalem and other places in Judah to prosper again.
2 Then in the Valley of Judgment I will gather together the people of all the other nations;
I will judge and punish them
because they scattered my Israeli people
and forced them to go to other countries.
They divided up my land
3 and they ◄threw marked stones/cast lots► to determine who would get each of my people.
Then they sold some of the Israeli boys and girls
to get money to pay for prostitutes and wine to drink.
4 You people of [APO] Tyre and Sidon cities and you people of the Philistia region, I certainly have not [RHQ] done anything to harm you! So if you are trying to get revenge on me, I will very quickly get revenge on you. 5 You have taken the silver and gold and other valuable things from my temple and put them in your temples. 6 You dragged away the people of Jerusalem and other places in Judah, and you took them far away and sold them to people in Greece.
7 But I will cause my people to want to return from the places to which you sold them, and I will do to you what you did to them. 8 Then I will cause some of your sons and your daughters to be sold to the people of Judah! And some of them will be sold to the Sabea people-group, who live far away. That will certainly happen because I , Yahweh, have said it.”
God will judge and punish the nations
9 Proclaim to the people of all nations,
“Prepare for a war!
Summon your soldiers,
and tell them to stand in their battle positions.
10 Take your plows and make swords from them,
and take your pruning knives and make spears from them.
Even the weak people must also be like [MET] strong soldiers.
11 All you people from the nations that are near Judah
must come quickly and gather in the Valley of Judgment.”
But Yahweh, when that happens, send your army of angels to attack them!
12 The people in the nations near Judah must get ready and come to the Valley of Judgment.
There Yahweh will sit and judge and punish them.
13 They are like [MET] crops that are ready to be harvested;
so strike them like [MET] a farmer swings his sickle to cut the grain.
They are like [MET] grapes that are piled high in the pits where they will be pressed;
because they are very wicked,
punish them severely [MET] now,
like [MET] a farmer tramples on the grapes until the pits are full of juice.
14 There will be huge crowds of people in that Valley of Judgment.
It will soon be the time that Yahweh will punish them.
15 At that time there will be no light from the sun or moon,
and the stars will not shine.
16 From Zion Hill in Jerusalem Yahweh will shout,
and his voice will be like thunder,
and his voice will cause the sky and the earth to shake.
But Yahweh will protect [MET] his people;
he will be like [MET] a strong wall behind which the people of Israel will be protected.
God's blessings for his people
17 Yahweh says, “At that time, you Israeli people will know that I am Yahweh, your God.
I live on Zion, my sacred hill.
Jerusalem will be a sacred city,
and soldiers from other countries will never conquer it again.
18 At that time, there will be vineyards covering [MTY] the hills,
and your cattle and goats on those hills will produce plenty of milk.
The streams in Judah will never dry up.
And a stream will flow from my temple into the Acacia Valley northeast of the Dead Sea.
19 The armies of Egypt and Edom attacked the people of Judah
and killed [MTY] many people who had not done anything that was wrong.
So now those countries will become deserts,
20 but there will always be people living in Jerusalem and in other places in Judea.
21 I, Yahweh, live on Zion Hill in Jerusalem,
and I will get revenge on the people of Egypt and Edom who killed [MTY] many of my people.”

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© 2008-2016 Ellis W. Deibler, Jr.