The Judgment of the Nations and the Salvation of Zion

The last chapter brings the book to its end and turns the gaze toward the most distant future. After the conversion of the people and the outpouring of the Spirit, God comes to judge the nations that have oppressed his own. He gathers them in the valley of Jehoshaphat, he exercises his judgment there like a harvest, and from this judgment comes the salvation of Zion: a sanctified city where God dwells forever, a transfigured land where a fountain springs from the Temple. Thus the Day of the Lord, which threatened at the start, proves for the faithful people a day of deliverance.

The valley of Jehoshaphat

The chapter opens on the gathering of the nations for judgment. God announces that at the time when he brings back the exiles of Judah, he will summon all the peoples to one place: “I will gather all the nations, and bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and there I will enter into judgment with them, concerning my people and my heritage of Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and my land which they have divided.” Joel 4:2. The name Jehoshaphat means “the Lord judges,” and the valley so named becomes the symbolic place of God’s judgment. What is judged is precise: the nations have scattered the people of God, divided his land, and treated his own as merchandise. God lists their fault: “For they cast lots over my people, they gave the boy for a harlot, and they sold the girl for wine, and they drank.” Joel 4:3. To have trafficked in human lives, sold children for a pleasure, this is what God comes to judge; contempt for the people of God is contempt for God himself.

God’s grievance

The prophet then names the guilty peoples and the detail of their crimes. God turns to the neighbouring cities that grew rich by plundering his sanctuary and selling his people: “And you too, what are you to me, Tyre and Sidon, and all the districts of Philistia? You who took my silver and my gold, and carried off into your temples my most precious treasures.” Joel 4:5. Tyre, Sidon and Philistia had plundered the treasures of the Temple and reduced the sons of Judah to slavery, selling them far away: “You who sold to the sons of Javan the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem, that they might be removed far from their land.” Joel 4:6. The sons of Javan are the Greeks, a distant people to whom the captives were deported. God’s justice is measured exactly to the fault: what they made others suffer will be rendered to them, and the sellers will be sold in their turn: “Behold, I will rouse them from the place where you sold them, and I will make your provocation fall back on your head.” Joel 4:7. The evil committed returns upon the one who committed it, the constant law of God’s judgment.

The harvest of wrath

God then summons the nations to battle, in a striking reversal. Where the prophet Isaiah announced that the peoples would forge their swords into ploughshares for peace, Joel inverts the image: it is the hour of judgment, and the nations are called to arms to face it: “From your ploughshares forge swords, and from your pruning hooks lances; let the weak say: I am a warrior!” Joel 4:10. This is not a call to real war, but an ironic summons: the nations that think themselves strong are ordered to gather for the judgment in which they will fall. And God declares that he will sit there as judge: “Let the nations rise and go up to the valley of Jehoshaphat! For there I will sit to judge all the surrounding nations.” Joel 4:12. The judgment is then described by two images of harvest, the reaping and the winepress, which tell of God’s justice cutting down evil: “Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; come, tread, for the winepress is full; the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great.” Joel 4:13. The sickle that cuts the ripe grain and the foot that treads the grapes are the image of the judgment that separates and cuts; the wickedness of the nations is ripe to be judged. And the prophet names this place with a decisive name: “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!” Joel 4:14. The valley of Jehoshaphat is the valley of decision, where the fate of the nations is decided.

The Lord, refuge of his people

In the heart of this terrible judgment appears the double face of the Day of the Lord: fearsome for the nations, salvation for the people of God. The cosmic signs return, the sun and the moon darkened; and from Zion the voice of God resounds, shaking heaven and earth. But at once the tone changes: “From Zion the Lord will roar, from Jerusalem he will make his voice heard; the heavens and the earth will tremble. But the Lord will be a refuge for his people, a retreat for the children of Israel.” Joel 4:16. The same coming of God that terrifies the nations is, for his own, a shelter in which to take refuge. God roars like a lion against the guilty, but he is a fortress for his people. And from this judgment comes the knowledge of God and the holiness of his city: “And you will know that I am the Lord, your God, who dwells in Zion, my holy mountain; Jerusalem will be a sanctuary, and strangers will pass through it no more.” Joel 4:17. Jerusalem becomes a holy place where God dwells, which no enemy will profane any longer.

The fountain of the Temple and the dwelling of God

The book ends on an image of overflowing fruitfulness, where the transfigured land reflects the presence of God. The mountains and the hills run with wine and milk, and above all a fountain springs from the Temple itself: “On that day, the mountains will drip with new wine, the hills will flow with milk, and all the streams of Judah will run with water. A fountain will go out from the house of the Lord, and it will water the valley of the Acacias.” Joel 4:18. The fountain that goes out from the house of God carries life to the most arid lands; where God dwells, life springs up and makes all things fruitful. Facing this blessed land, the nations that shed innocent blood are devastated, while Judah remains forever: “Egypt will become a devastated land, Edom a desert of devastation, because of the violence committed against the children of Judah. But Judah will be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem from age to age.” Joel 4:19-20. The contrast is complete: the oppressors reduced to desert, and the people of God established forever. And the book closes on the highest promise, the pardon of sin and the eternal presence of God: “And I will wash away their blood that I had not yet washed away. And the Lord will dwell in Zion.” Joel 4:21. The last word of the book is this presence: God dwells in Zion. The whole book, set out from the disaster of the locusts, comes to this dwelling of God in the midst of his own, which is the true salvation.