Joel 3:18-21

3:18 On that day ¹  the mountains will drip with sweet wine, ² 

and the hills will flow with milk. ³ 

All the dry stream beds ⁴  of Judah will flow with water.

A spring will flow out from the temple ⁵  of the Lord,

watering the Valley of Acacia Trees. ⁶ 

3:19 Egypt will be desolate

and Edom will be a desolate wilderness,

because of the violence they did to the people of Judah, ⁷ 

in whose land they shed innocent blood.

3:20 But Judah will reside securely forever,

and Jerusalem will be secure ⁸  from one generation to the next.

3:21 I will avenge ⁹  their blood which I had not previously acquitted.

It is the Lord who dwells in Zion!

[3:18]  ¹ tn Heb “and it will come about in that day.”

[3:18]  ² tn Many English translations read “new wine” or “sweet wine,” meaning unfermented wine, i.e., grape juice.

[3:18]  ³ sn The language used here is a hyperbolic way of describing both a bountiful grape harvest (“the mountains will drip with juice”) and an abundance of cattle (“the hills will flow with milk”). In addition to being hyperbolic, the language is also metonymical (effect for cause).

[3:18]  ⁴ tn Or “seasonal streams.”

[3:18]  ⁵ tn Heb “house.”

[3:18]  ⁶ tn Heb “valley of Shittim.” The exact location of the Valley of Acacia Trees is uncertain. The Hebrew word שִׁטִּים (shittim) refers to a place where the acacia trees grow, which would be a very arid and dry place. The acacia tree can survive in such locations, whereas most other trees require more advantageous conditions. Joel’s point is that the stream that has been mentioned will proceed to the most dry and barren of locations in the vicinity of Jerusalem.

[3:19]  ⁷ tn Heb “violence of the sons of Judah.” The phrase “of the sons of Judah” is an objective genitive (cf. KJV “the violence against the children of Judah”; NAB, NIV, NRSV “violence done to the people of Judah”). It refers to injustices committed against the Judeans, not violence that the Judeans themselves had committed against others.

[3:20]  ⁸ tn The phrase “will be secure” does not appear in the Hebrew, but are supplied in the translation for the sake of smoothness.

[3:21]  ⁹ tc The present translation follows the reading וְנִקַּמְתִּי (vÿniqqamti, “I will avenge”) rather than וְנִקֵּתִי (vÿniqqeti, “I will acquit”) of the MT.