¹ For in those days and in that time, when I let the fate of Judah and Jerusalem be changed,

² I will get together all the nations, and make them come down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and there I will take up with them the cause of my people and of my heritage Israel, whom they have sent wandering among the nations, and of my land which has been parted by them.

³ And they have put the fate of my people to the decision of chance: giving a boy for the price of a loose woman and a girl for a drink of wine.

⁴ And further, what are you to me, O Tyre and Zidon and all the circle of Philistia? will you give me back any payment? and if you do, quickly and suddenly I will send it back on your head,

⁵ For you have taken my silver and my gold, putting in the houses of your gods my beautiful and pleasing things.

⁶ And the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem you have given for a price to the sons of the Greeks, to send them far away from their land:

⁷ See, I will have them moved from the place where you have sent them, and will let what you have done come back on your head;

⁸ I will give your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah for a price, and they will give them for a price to the men of Sheba, a nation far off: for the Lord has said it.

⁹ Give this out among the nations; make ready for war: get the strong men awake; let all the men of war come near, let them come up.

¹⁰ Get your plough-blades hammered into swords, and your vine-knives into spears: let the feeble say, I am strong.

¹¹ Come quickly, all you nations round about, and get yourselves together there: make your strong ones come down, O Lord.

¹² Let the nations be awake, and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there I will be seated as judge of all the nations round about.

¹³ Put in the blade, for the grain is ready: come, get you down, for the wine-crusher is full, the vessels are overflowing; for great is their evil-doing.

¹⁴ Masses on masses in the valley of decision! for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.

¹⁵ The sun and the moon have become dark, and the stars keep back their shining.

¹⁶ And the Lord will be thundering from Zion, and his voice will be sounding from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth will be shaking: but the Lord will be a breastplate for his people and a strong place for the children of Israel.

¹⁷ And you will be certain that I am the Lord your God, living in Zion, my holy mountain: and Jerusalem will be holy, and no strange person will ever again go through her.

¹⁸ And it will come about in that day that the mountains will be dropping sweet wine, and the hills will be flowing with milk, and all the streams of Judah will be flowing with water; and a fountain will come out from the house of the Lord, watering the valley of acacia-trees.

¹⁹ Egypt will be a waste and Edom a land of destruction, because of the evil done to the children of Judah, because they have let blood be drained out in their land without cause.

²⁰ But Judah will be peopled for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

²¹ And I will send punishment for their blood, for which punishment has not been sent, for the Lord is living in Zion.

¹ Woe to those who devise iniquity and work evil on their beds! When the morning is light, they practice it, because it is in the power of their hand.

² They covet fields, and seize them; and houses, and take them away: and they oppress a man and his house, even a man and his heritage.

³ Therefore thus says Yahweh: "Behold, I am planning against these people a disaster, from which you will not remove your necks, neither will you walk haughtily; for it is an evil time.

⁴ In that day they will take up a parable against you, and lament with a doleful lamentation, saying, 'We are utterly ruined! My people's possession is divided up. Indeed he takes it from me and assigns our fields to traitors!'"

⁵ Therefore you will have no one who divides the land by lot in the assembly of Yahweh.

⁶ "Don't prophesy!" They prophesy. "Don't prophesy about these things. Disgrace won't overtake us."

⁷ Shall it be said, O house of Jacob: "Is the Spirit of Yahweh angry? Are these his doings? Don't my words do good to him who walks blamelessly?"

⁸ But lately my people have risen up as an enemy. You strip the robe and clothing from those who pass by without a care, returning from battle.

⁹ You drive the women of my people out from their pleasant houses; from their young children you take away my blessing forever.

¹⁰ Arise, and depart! For this is not your resting place, because of uncleanness that destroys, even with a grievous destruction.

¹¹ If a man walking in a spirit of falsehood lies: "I will prophesy to you of wine and of strong drink;" he would be the prophet of this people.

¹² I will surely assemble, Jacob, all of you; I will surely gather the remnant of Israel; I will put them together as the sheep of Bozrah, as a flock in the midst of their pasture; they will swarm with people.

¹³ He who breaks open the way goes up before them. They break through the gate, and go out. And their king passes on before them, with Yahweh at their head.