# Joel 03 📖: The Valley of Decision [[📚 Explore the Bible Books]] [[-Joel Overview]] | [[Joel 02]] | [[Amos 01]] > [!info] Table of Contents > [[#📜 Scripture Text (NET)]] > [[#📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary]] > [[#🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights]] > [[#🧠 Chapter Summary]] > [[#✝️ Christ in This Chapter]] > [[#🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application]] > [[#💬 Discussion Questions]] > [[#✍️ Key Verses to Remember]] > [[#🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference]] > [[#🙏 Devotional Reflection]] > [[#📂 Internal Notes]] ## 📜 Scripture Text (NET) (The NET Bible: New English Translation. Biblical Studies Press, 2005) ### The Lord Plans to Judge the Nations [[#Verse 01.]] (4:1) For look! In those days and at that time I will return the exiles to Judah and Jerusalem. [[#Verse 02.]] Then I will gather all the nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. I will enter into judgment against them there concerning my people Israel who are my inheritance, whom they scattered among the nations. They partitioned my land, [[#Verse 03.]] and they cast lots for my people. They traded a boy for a prostitute; they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink. [[#Verse 04.]] Why are you doing these things to me, Tyre and Sidon? Are you trying to get even with me, land of Philistia? If you are, I will very quickly repay you for what you have done! [[#Verse 05.]] For you took my silver and my gold and brought my precious valuables to your own palaces. [[#Verse 06.]] You sold Judeans and Jerusalemites to the Greeks, removing them far from their own country. [[#Verse 07.]] Look! I am rousing them from that place to which you sold them. I will repay you for what you have done! [[#Verse 08.]] I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah. They will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away. Indeed, the Lord has spoken. ### Judgment in the Valley of Jehoshaphat [[#Verse 09.]] Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for a holy war! Call out the warriors! Let all these fighting men approach and attack! [[#Verse 10.]] Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I too am a warrior!’ [[#Verse 11.]] Lend your aid and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves to that place.” Bring down, O Lord, your warriors! [[#Verse 12.]] “Let the nations be roused and let them go up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit in judgment on all the surrounding nations. [[#Verse 13.]] Rush forth with the sickle, for the harvest is ripe! Come, stomp the grapes, for the winepress is full! The vats overflow. Indeed, their evil is great!” [[#Verse 14.]] Crowds, great crowds are in the Valley of Decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision! [[#Verse 15.]] The sun and moon are darkened; the stars withhold their brightness. [[#Verse 16.]] The Lord roars from Zion; from Jerusalem his voice bellows out. The heavens and the earth shake. But the Lord is a refuge for his people; he is a stronghold for the citizens of Israel. ### The Lord’s Presence in Zion [[#Verse 17.]] “You will be convinced that I the Lord am your God, dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy— conquering armies will no longer pass through it. [[#Verse 18.]] “On that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine, and the hills will flow with milk. All the dry stream beds of Judah will flow with water. A spring will flow out from the temple of the Lord, watering the Valley of Acacia Trees. [[#Verse 19.]] Egypt will be desolate and Edom will be a desolate wilderness, because of the violence they did to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood. [[#Verse 20.]] But Judah will reside securely forever, and Jerusalem will be secure from one generation to the next. [[#Verse 21.]] I will avenge their blood that I had not previously acquitted. It is the Lord who dwells in Zion! ## 📖 Verse-by-Verse Commentary ###### Overall. ###### Verse 01. ###### Verse 02. ###### Verse 03. ###### Verse 04. ###### Verse 05. ###### Verse 06. ###### Verse 07. ###### Verse 08. ###### Verse 09. ###### Verse 10. ###### Verse 11. ###### Verse 12. ###### Verse 13. ###### Verse 14. ###### Verse 15. ###### Verse 16. ###### Verse 17. ###### Verse 18. ###### Verse 19. ###### Verse 20. ###### Verse 21. ## 🤔 Interesting Facts / Historical and Cultural Insights 1. Jehoshaphat means "the Lord judges," fitting the purpose of the valley in 3:2 and 3:12. 2. Later tradition identified the Valley of Jehoshaphat with the Kidron Valley beside Jerusalem. 3. 3:10 reverses Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3: plowshares are beaten into swords instead of swords into plowshares. 4. Tyre, Sidon, and Philistia sold the people of Judah to the Greeks (3:6). The Hebrew word is *Javan*, meaning Ionia or Greece. 5. The nations treated captives as cheap goods, trading a boy for a prostitute and a girl for wine (3:3). 6. The Sabeans (3:8) were traders of southern Arabia. 7. The "valley of decision" (3:14) is the place of God's verdict, not only a human choice. 8. A fountain flowing from the Lord's house (3:18) appears also in Ezekiel 47:1-12 and Zechariah 14:8. 9. The Valley of Acacias (3:18), or Shittim, was Israel's last camp before crossing the Jordan (Joshua 3:1). 10. In the Hebrew Bible this chapter is numbered as chapter 4, and the book ends with the words "the Lord dwells in Zion." ## 🧠 Chapter Summary > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## ✝️ Christ in This Chapter Christ is the Judge of the nations and the refuge of His people (3:16). The Father has given all judgment to the Son (John 5:22), and He will gather the nations before His throne (Matthew 25:31-32). ## 🔎 Key Principles / 🛟 Life Application > [!note] 🌱 Still growing. This section is on its way. ## 💬 Discussion Questions 1. God holds the nations accountable for how they treated His people (3:2-3). What does this show about God's care for those who belong to Him? 2. Joel describes multitudes in the valley of decision (3:14). Why is every person ultimately faced with a decision about God? 3. The Lord roars from Zion, but He is a refuge for His people (3:16). How can God be both a fearsome Judge and a safe shelter? ## ✍️ Key Verses to Remember - 📖 verse 2: God will gather the nations to the Valley of Jehoshaphat for judgment. - 📖 verse 14: Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near. - 📖 verse 16: The Lord roars from Zion, but He is a refuge for His people. ## 🔗 Related Passages/Cross Reference - 🔗 [[John 05#Verse 22.|John 5:22]] - The Father has given all judgment to the Son. - 🔗 [[Matthew 25#Verse 31.|Matthew 25:31-32]] - All nations gathered before the Son of Man. - 🔗 [[Isaiah 02#Verse 04.|Isaiah 2:4]] - Swords into plowshares. - 🔗 [[Ezekiel 47#Verse 01.|Ezekiel 47:1]] - Water flowing from the temple. - 🔗 [[Revelation 21#Verse 03.|Revelation 21:3]] - God will dwell with His people. ## 🙏 Devotional Reflection 📝 SOAP: [[Joel 03 - SOAP|God With Us]] ## 📂 Internal Notes