1 For, behold, in those days {bayamim: future season} and at that time, when I {YHWH, Return Bringer} bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there over My inheritance {nachalah: ancestral possession} and My people, Israel {yisrael: God prevails}, whom they have scattered among the nations and have divided My land.
3 And for My {YHWH, Sovereign Judge} people they cast lots {goral: means of allotment}, and they gave the boy for a prostitute, and they sold the girl for wine, and they drank.
4 Also, what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon and all the regions of Philistia? Are you repaying me a recompense {meshallim: intensive repayment}? If you are repaying me, I will swiftly and speedily {meherah: heightened urgency} return your recompense upon your own heads.
5 You have taken my silver and my gold, and you have brought my precious treasures {makhmadai: cherished valuables} to your temples {heikhal: idol shrines}.
6 And the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem you have sold {mechartem: sold as slaves} to the sons of the Greeks, in order to remove them far from their border {gevul: territorial limit}.
7 Behold, I {YHWH, Sovereign Judge} am stirring them up from the place where you sold them, and I will return your recompense {gemul: deserved payment} on your heads.
8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand {beyad: symbol of authority} of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the LORD {YHWH, Justice Enforcer} has spoken.
9 Proclaim this among the nations: consecrate{kaddeshu: set apart} war, arouse the mighty men{gibborim: seasoned combatants}, let them draw near, let all the men of war go up.
10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak {chalash: frail fighter} say, “I am a mighty one {gibbor: battle-hero}.”
11 Hasten and come, all the nations from around, and let them be gathered there. Bring down, O LORD {YHWH, Victorious Commander}, Your mighty ones {gibboreikha: battle heroes}.
12 Let the nations {goyim: foreign peoples} be aroused and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I {YHWH, Judge Enthroned} will sit to judge all the nations from all around.
13 Send forth the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come, go down, for the winepress is full; the vats overflow, for their wickedness {ra'atam: moral corruption} is great {rabah: overflowing in judgment}.
14 Throngs, throngs, in the valley of decision {haruts: Place of Decisive Judgment}; for the day of the LORD {YHWH, Divine Judge} is near, in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and the moon have become dark {kadaru: deepened gloom}, and the stars have withdrawn their brightness {nogham: shining radiance}.
16 The LORD {YHWH, Mighty Judge} roars out of Zion and sounds His voice from Jerusalem, so that the heavens and the earth quake. Yet the LORD is a refuge {machaseh: protective sanctuary} for His people and a stronghold to the children of Israel.
17 And you will know that I am the LORD your God {YHWH Eloheichem, Covenant Ruler} who dwells{shoken: continuous presence} in Zion, my holy mountain; and Jerusalem will be holy, and foreigners will not pass through her again.
18 And it will come to pass in that day that the mountains shall drip with sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the channels of Judah shall flow with water; and a spring from the house of the LORD {YHWH, Land-Restoring King} shall go out and water the valley {nachal: wadi-bed} of Shittim.
19 Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom a wilderness of desolation because of the violence against the children of Judah{yehudah: Israelite tribe}, who have shed innocent blood{dam-naqi: blood without guilt} in their land.
20 But Judah {yehudah: covenant tribe} will dwell forever, and Jerusalem {yerushalaim: city of peace} from generation to generation.
21 And I will avenge their blood {damam: unavenged bloodshed}—blood I have not avenged—and the LORD {YHWH, Dwelling Presence} dwells in Zion.