CHAPTER 3
1 For lo! in those days, and in that time, when I shall turn the captivity of Judah and of Jerusalem,
2 I shall gather all folks, and I shall lead them [forth] into the valley of Jehoshaphat*; and I shall dispute there with them on my people, and mine heritage Israel, which they scattered among nations; and they parted my land,
3 and sent lot on my people; and they setted [or putted] a knave child in the bordel house, and sold a damsel for wine, that they should drink.
4 But what to me and to you, thou Tyre, and Sidon, and each end of Palestine or Philistia? Whether ye shall yield avenging to me? and if ye venge you against me, soon swiftly I shall yield while to you onto your head.
5 Ye took away my silver and gold, and ye brought my desirable things and fairest things into your temples of idols.
6 And ye sold the sons of Judah, and the sons of Jerusalem, to the sons of Greeks, that ye should make them far from their coasts.
7 Lo! I shall raise them from the place in which ye sold them; and I shall turn your yielding into your head.
8 And I shall sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the sons of Judah, and they shall sell them to Sabeans, a far-off folk, for the Lord spake.
9 Cry ye this thing among heathen men, hallow ye battle, raise ye up strong men; all men warriors, nigheth, and ascend or goeth up.
10 Beat ye together your plows† into swords, and your mattocks, either pickaxes, into spears; a feeble man say, that I am strong.
11 All folks, break ye out, and come from compass about, and be ye gathered together; there the Lord shall make thy strong men to die.
12 Folks rise together, and ascend or goeth up into the valley of Jehoshaphat; for I shall sit there, to deem all folks in compass.
13 Send ye sickles, either scythes, for [the] ripe corn waxed; come ye, and go ye down, for the presser is full; pressers be plenteous, for the malice of them is multiplied.
14 Peoples, peoples in the valley of cutting down [or the valley of concision, or slaying together]; for the day of the Lord is nigh in the valley of cutting down [or the valley of concision].
15 The sun and the moon be made dark, and stars withdraw their shining.
16 And the Lord shall roar from Zion, and shall give his voice from Jerusalem, and heavens and earth shall be moved; and the Lord is the hope of his people, and the strength of the sons of Israel.
17 And ye shall know, that I am your Lord God, dwelling in Zion, in mine holy hill; and Jerusalem shall be holy, and aliens shall no more pass by it.
18 And it shall be, in that day, mountains shall drop with sweetness, and little hills shall flow with milk, and waters shall go by all the rivers of Judah; and a well shall go out of the house of the Lord, and shall moist the strand of thorns.
19 Egypt shall be into desolation, and Idumea into desert of perdition; for that that they did wickedly against the sons of Judah, and shedded out innocent blood in their land.
20 And Judah shall be inhabited without end, and Jerusalem into generation and into generation.
21 And I shall cleanse the blood of them, which I had not cleansed; and the Lord shall dwell in Zion.
* CHAPTER 3:2 Also known as the Kidron Valley; it is the setting for the Last Judgement, and so it is also called the ‘Valley of Doom’. † CHAPTER 3:10 In other writings, Wycliffe renders this word as ‘plowghschares’ (‘plough/plowshares’).