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Joel 3

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1 For behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall turn again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

2 I will also gather all the nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of my people and mine inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations: and they have parted my land;

3 and they have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, and have drunk [it].

4 Yea also, what have ye to do with me, O Tyre and Zidon, and all the districts of Philistia? Will ye render me a recompence? But if ye recompense me, swiftly [and] speedily will I bring your recompence upon your own head;

5 because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my beautiful pleasant things,

6 and the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the children of the Greeks, that ye might remove them far from their border.

7 Behold, I will raise them up out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will bring your recompence upon your own head.

8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far off: for Jehovah hath spoken.

9 Proclaim this among the nations: prepare war, arouse the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.

10 Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-knives into spears; let the weak say, I am strong.

11 Haste ye and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together. Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah.

12 Let the nations rouse themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about.

13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down, for the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great.

14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Jehovah is at hand in the valley of decision.

15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

16 And Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: and Jehovah will be a shelter for his people, and the refuge of the children of Israel.

17 And ye shall know that I, Jehovah, [am] your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain; and Jerusalem shall be holy, and no strangers shall pass through her any more.

18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the water-courses of Judah shall flow with waters; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of Jehovah, and shall water the valley of Shittim.

19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, in that they have shed innocent blood in their land.

20 But Judah shall abide for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

21 And I will purge them from the blood from which I had not purged them: for Jehovah dwelleth in Zion.

   

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Apocalypse Revealed # 651

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651. And threw it into the great winepress of the wrath of God. This symbolizes an examination of the character of the people's works, revealing that their works were evil.

To throw clusters of grapes into a winepress means, symbolically, to examine people's works, for clusters of grapes symbolize works (see no. 649 above). But because the winepress is called the great winepress of the wrath of God, it symbolizes a finding that their works were evil; for the wrath of God is predicated of evil (no. 635).

A winepress symbolizes examination because in presses the juice is expressed from grapes, and oil from olives, and one perceives the character of the grapes and olives from the juice and oil expressed. Moreover, because the vineyard symbolizes the Christian Church, and its clusters of grapes the people's works, therefore throwing the clusters into a winepress symbolizes an examination among people in the Christian Church. But because they have divorced faith from charity and made faith saving without the works of the law, and because a faith divorced from charity produces only evil works, the winepress is therefore called the great winepress of the wrath of God.

An examination of people's works is symbolized also by a winepress in the following passages:

My beloved had a vineyard on a fruitful hill. He... planted it with a choice vine. He also... hewed out a winepress in it; and he expected it to produce good grapes, but it produced wild grapes. (Isaiah 5:1-2)

Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. ...go down, for the winepress is full, the vats have overflowed; for their wickedness is great. (Joel 3:13)

The threshing floor and the winepress shall not feed them, and the new wine shall deceive them. (Hosea 9:1-2)

The plunderer has fallen on... your grape harvest... I have caused wine to fail from the winepress; no one will tread with joyous shouting. There is no joyous shouting! (Jeremiah 48:32-33)

...a householder... planted a vineyard..., and dug in it a wine-press..., and leased it to farmers... (Matthew 21:33)

But they killed the servants he sent to them, and finally killed his son. 1

A winepress mentioned in Joel refers to goods of charity from which spring truths of faith:

Rejoice, you children of Zion... The threshing floors are full of grain, and the presses overflow with new wine and oil. (Joel 2:23-24)

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Many thanks to the General Church of the New Jerusalem, and to Rev. N.B. Rogers, translator, for the permission to use this translation.