Joel 3, Revelation 12, Ecclesiastes 11

Yahweh Will Judge the Nations

3“¹For behold, ^ain those days and at that time,When I ^brestore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,²I will ^agather all the nationsAnd bring them down to the ^bvalley of ¹Jehoshaphat.Then I will ^center into judgment with them thereOn behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel,Whom they have ^dscattered among the nations;And they have ^edivided up My land.³“They have also ^acast lots for My people,¹^,^bTraded a boy for a harlot,And sold a girl for wine that they may drink.

⁴“Moreover, what are you to Me, O ^aTyre, Sidon, and all the regions of ^bPhilistia? Are you rendering Me a recompense? But if you do recompense Me, swiftly and speedily I will ^creturn your recompense on your head. ⁵“Since you have ^ataken My silver and My gold, brought My desirable ¹treasures to your temples, ⁶and sold the ^asons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem to the sons of the ¹Greeks in order to remove them far from their borders, ⁷behold, I am going to ^arouse them from the place where you have sold them and return your recompense on your head. ⁸“Also I will ^asell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the ^bSabeans, to a distant nation,” for Yahweh has spoken.

⁹^aCall out this message among the nations:^bSet yourselves apart for a war; ^crouse the mighty men!Let all the men of war approach, let them come up!¹⁰^aBeat your plowshares into swordsAnd your pruning hooks into spears;^bLet the weak say, “I am a mighty man.”¹¹¹^,^aHasten and come, all you surrounding nations,And gather yourselves.There, bring down, O Yahweh, Your ^bmighty ones.¹²Let the nations be roused upAnd come up to the ^avalley of ¹Jehoshaphat,For there I will sit to ^bjudgeAll the surrounding nations.¹³^aSend in the sickle, for the ^bharvest is ripe.Come, ¹^,^ctread, for the ^dwine press is full;The vats overflow, for their ^eevil is great.¹⁴^aMultitudes, multitudes in the ^bvalley of ¹decision!For the ^cday of Yahweh is near in the valley of ²decision.¹⁵The ^asun and moon grow dark,And the stars lose their brightness.¹⁶And Yahweh ^aroars from ZionAnd ^bgives forth His voice from Jerusalem,And the ^cheavens and the earth quake.But Yahweh is a ^drefuge for His peopleAnd a ^estrong defense to the sons of Israel.¹⁷Then you will ^aknow that I am Yahweh your God,Dwelling in Zion, My ^bholy mountain.So Jerusalem will be ^choly,And ^dstrangers will pass through it no more.

Yahweh Dwells in Zion

¹⁸And it will be in that day,That the ^amountains will drip with ¹sweet wine,And the hills will ^bflow with milk,And all the ^cbrooks of Judah will flow with water;And a ^dspring will go out from the house of YahwehTo water the valley of ²Shittim.¹⁹Egypt will become a desolation,And Edom will become a desolate wilderness,Because of the ^aviolence ¹done to the sons of Judah,In whose land they have shed innocent blood.²⁰But Judah will be ^ainhabited foreverAnd Jerusalem from generation to generation.²¹And I will ^aavenge their blood which I have not avenged,Indeed, Yahweh dwells in Zion.

The Woman, the Child, and the Dragon

12And a great ^asign appeared ^bin heaven: ^ca woman ^dclothed with the sun, and the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars. ²And she was with child, and she *^acried out, being in labor and in pain to give birth. ³Then ^aanother sign appeared in heaven: and behold, a great red ^bdragon having ^cseven heads and ^dten horns, and on his heads were ^eseven diadems. ⁴And his tail *swept away a ^athird of the stars of heaven and ^bthrew them to the earth. And the ^cdragon stood before the woman who was about to give birth, so that when she gave birth ^dhe might devour her child. ⁵And ^ashe gave birth to a son, a male child, who is to ¹^,^brule all the ²nations with a rod of iron; and her child was ^ccaught up to God and to His throne. ⁶Then the woman fled into the wilderness where she *had a place prepared by God, so that there ¹she would be nourished for ^a1,260 days.

War in Heaven

⁷And there was war in heaven, ^aMichael and his angels waging war with the ^bdragon. The dragon and ^chis angels waged war, ⁸and they were not strong enough, and there was no longer a place found for them in heaven. ⁹And the great ^adragon was thrown down, the ^bserpent of old who is called the devil and ^cSatan, who ^ddeceives the whole ¹world. He was ^ethrown down to the earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. ¹⁰Then I heard ^aa loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the ^bsalvation, and the power, and the ^ckingdom of our God and the authority of His Christ have come, for the ^daccuser of our brothers has been thrown down, he who accuses them before our God day and night. ¹¹“And they ^aovercame him because of ^bthe blood of the Lamb and because of ^cthe word of their witness, and they ^ddid not love their life even to death. ¹²“For this reason, ^arejoice, O heavens and ^byou who ¹dwell in them. ^cWoe to the earth and the sea, because ^dthe devil has come down to you, having great wrath, knowing that he has only ^ea short time.”

¹³And when the ^adragon saw that he was thrown down to the earth, he persecuted ^bthe woman who gave birth to the male child. ¹⁴But the ^atwo wings of the great eagle were given to the woman, so that she could fly ^binto the wilderness to her place, where she *was nourished for ^ca time and times and half a time, from the ¹presence of the serpent. ¹⁵And the ^aserpent ¹poured water like a river out of his mouth after the woman, so that he might cause her to be swept away with the flood. ¹⁶¹But the earth helped the woman, and the earth opened its mouth and drank up the river which the dragon ²poured out of his mouth. ¹⁷So the dragon was enraged with the woman and went off to ^amake war with the rest of her ^bseed, who ^ckeep the commandments of God and ^dhave the witness of Jesus.

Cast Your Bread on the Waters

11^aCast your bread on the surface of the waters, for you ^bwill find it ¹after many days. ²^aDivide your portion to seven, or even to eight, for you do not know what ^bcalamity may occur on the earth. ³If the clouds are full, they empty the rain upon the earth; and whether a tree falls toward the south or toward the north, wherever the tree falls, there it ¹lies. ⁴He who ¹watches the wind will not sow, and he who looks at the clouds will not reap. ⁵Just as you do not ^aknow ¹the path of the wind and ^bhow bones are formed in the womb of the ²pregnant woman, so you do not ^cknow the work of God who works all things.

⁶Sow your seed ^ain the morning and do not put your hands down in the evening, for you do not know whether ¹morning or evening sowing will succeed, or whether both of them alike will be good.

⁷The light is sweet, and it is good for the eyes to ^asee the sun. ⁸Indeed, if a man should live many years, let him ^abe glad in them all, and let him remember the ^bdays of darkness, for they will be many. Everything that is to come will be vanity.

⁹Be glad, young man, during your childhood, and let your heart be merry during the days of young manhood. And walk in the ways of your heart and in the ^asights of your eyes. Yet know that ^bGod will bring you to judgment for all these things. ¹⁰So, remove vexation from your heart and put away ^aevil from your flesh because childhood and the prime of life are vanity.