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the Week of Proper 7 / Ordinary 12
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The Holy Bible, Berean Study Bible

Joel 3:14

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the Day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Colors;   Decision, Valley of;   Jehoshaphat;   Joel;   Wicked (People);   Scofield Reference Index - Judgments;   Thompson Chain Reference - Valleys;   The Topic Concordance - Bearing Fruit;   Day of the Lord;   Enemies;   Gathering;   Gentiles/heathen;   Harvest;   Israel/jews;   Nations;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Valleys;  

Dictionaries:

- Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Day of the lord;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Amos, Theology of;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Decision, Valley of;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Jehoshaphat, Valley of;   Obadiah;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Day of the Lord;   Gentiles;   Joel;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Decision, Valley of;   Joel, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - James and John, the Sons of Zebedee;   Thessalonians Epistles to the;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Jehoshaphat, Valley of;   Yale, Valley;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Jehoshaphat (2);  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Jehoshaphat, Valley of;   Joel (2);   Vale;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
Multitudes, multitudesin the valley of decision!For the day of the Lord is nearin the valley of decision.
Hebrew Names Version
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near, in the valley of decision.
King James Version
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
English Standard Version
Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
New American Standard Bible
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
New Century Version
There are huge numbers of people in the Valley of Decision, because the Lord 's day of judging is near in the Valley of Decision.
Amplified Bible
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision (judgment)! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision [when judgment is executed].
Geneva Bible (1587)
O multitude, O multitude, come into the valley of threshing: for the day of the Lorde is neere in the valley of threshing.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
Legacy Standard Bible
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!For the day of Yahweh is near in the valley of decision.
Contemporary English Version
Crowds fill Decision Valley. The judgment day of the Lord will soon be here—
Complete Jewish Bible
class="poetry"> "After this, I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions; and also on male and female slaves in those days I will pour out my Spirit. I will show wonders in the sky and on earth — blood, fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and terrible Day of Adonai ." At that time, whoever calls on the name of Adonai will be saved. For in Mount Tziyon and Yerushalayim there will be those who escape, as Adonai has promised; among the survivors will be those whom Adonai has called.
Darby Translation
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Jehovah is at hand in the valley of decision.
Easy-to-Read Version
There are many, many people in the Valley of Decision. The Lord 's special day is near in the Valley of Decision.
George Lamsa Translation
An uproar and tumult in the valley of decision; for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
Good News Translation
Thousands and thousands are in the Valley of Judgment. It is there that the day of the Lord will soon come.
Lexham English Bible
Commotion, commotion in the valley of decision! For the day of Yahweh is near in the valley of decision!
Literal Translation
Multitudes, multitudes in valley of decision! For the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision.
American Standard Version
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision.
Bible in Basic English
Masses on masses in the valley of decision! for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
[4:14] Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
King James Version (1611)
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for ye day of the Lord is neere in the valley of decision.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
O people, people [come] into the valley of finall iudgement: for the day of the Lorde is at hande in the valley of finall iudgement.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
Noises have resounded in the valley of judgment: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of judgment.
English Revised Version
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
World English Bible
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Yahweh is near, in the valley of decision.
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Puplis, puplis in the valei of kittyng doun; for the dai of the Lord is nyy in the valei of kittyng doun.
Update Bible Version
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! for the day of Yahweh is near in the valley of decision.
Webster's Bible Translation
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision; for the day of the LORD [is] near in the valley of decision.
New English Translation
Crowds, great crowds are in the valley of decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision!
New King James Version
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
New Living Translation
Thousands upon thousands are waiting in the valley of decision. There the day of the Lord will soon arrive.
New Life Bible
Thousands and thousands are in the valley of God's punishment. For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of God's punishment.
New Revised Standard
Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Multitudes, multitudes, in the vale of strict decision, - for near is the day of Yahweh, in the vale of strict decision.
Douay-Rheims Bible
Nations, nations in the valley of destruction: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of destruction.
Revised Standard Version
Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
Young's Literal Translation
Multitudes, multitudes [are] in the valley of decision, For near [is] the day of Jehovah in the valley of decision.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
In the valley appoynted, there shalbe many, many people: for the daye of the LORDE is nye in ye valley appoynted.
THE MESSAGE
"Mass confusion, mob uproar— in Decision Valley! God 's Judgment Day has arrived in Decision Valley.

Contextual Overview

9Proclaim this among the nations: "Prepare for war; rouse the mighty men; let all the men of war advance and attack! 10Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, 'I am strong!' 11Come quickly, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves. Bring down Your mighty ones, O LORD. 12Let the nations be roused and advance into the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit down to judge all the nations on every side. 13Swing the sickle, for the harvest is ripe. Come, trample the grapes, for the winepress is full; the wine vats overflow because their wickedness is great. 14Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the Day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.15The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will no longer shine. 16The LORD will roar from Zion and raise His voice from Jerusalem; heaven and earth will tremble. But the LORD will be a refuge for His people, a stronghold for the people of Israel. 17Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, never again to be overrun by foreigners.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

multitudes: Joel 3:2, Isaiah 34:2-8, Isaiah 63:1-7, Ezekiel 38:8-23, Ezekiel 39:8-20, Revelation 16:14-16, Revelation 19:19-21

decision: or, concision, Philippians 3:2, or, threshing

for: Joel 2:1, Psalms 37:13, 2 Peter 3:7

Reciprocal: 2 Kings 13:7 - like the dust Isaiah 13:4 - noise Lamentations 1:21 - the day Ezekiel 13:5 - the day Joel 2:2 - A day of darkness Joel 3:12 - valley Zechariah 14:1 - General Acts 2:20 - great 2 Peter 3:10 - the day

Cross-References

Genesis 3:1
Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field that the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Did God really say, 'You must not eat of any tree in the garden?'"
Genesis 3:15
And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her seed. He will crush your head, and you will strike his heel."
Genesis 3:20
And Adam named his wife Eve, because she would become the mother of all the living.
Genesis 9:6
Whoever sheds the blood of man, by man his blood will be shed; for in His own image God has made mankind.
Leviticus 20:25
You are therefore to distinguish between clean and unclean animals and birds. Do not become contaminated by any animal or bird, or by anything that crawls on the ground; I have set these apart as unclean for you.
Psalms 72:9
May the nomads bow before him, and his enemies lick the dust.
Isaiah 29:4
You will be brought low, you will speak from the ground, and out of the dust your words will be muffled. Your voice will be like a spirit from the ground; your speech will whisper out of the dust.
Isaiah 65:25
The wolf and the lamb will feed together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox, but the food of the serpent will be dust. They will do no harm nor destruction on all My holy mountain," says the LORD.
Micah 7:17
They will lick the dust like a snake, like reptiles slithering on the ground. They will crawl from their holes in the presence of the LORD our God; they will tremble in fear of you.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision,.... The same with the valley of Jehoshaphat before mentioned; which shows that not any valley of that name is intended, but a certain place so called from the judgments of God in it; and here named "the valley of decision", because here their judgment will be determined, as Kimchi and Jarchi; and at this time the controversy between God, and his people's enemies, will be decided, and at an end: or "the valley of concision", as the Vulgate Latin version; because in this place, and at this time, the nations gathered together in it will be cut to pieces: or, as others, "the valley of threshing" p; because, as, in Jehoshaphat's time, the Moabites and Ammonites were threshed by the Jews in the valley of Berachah, to which the allusion is; so at this time the antichristian kings and their armies will be threshed and beaten, and destroyed by the men of Judah, God's professing people; see Micah 4:13; these seem to be the words of the prophet, breaking out into this pathetic exclamation, upon a sight of the vast multitudes gathered together in this valley, and slain in it; and the doubling of the word serves to express the prodigious number of them: and this shows that this prophecy refers either to the vast army of the Turks, under the name of Gog, and the great slaughter that will be made of them; and that this valley may be the same with the valley of Hamongog, that is, the valley of the multitude of Gog, where their multitude of slain shall be buried, Ezekiel 39:11; or to that vast carnage of the antichristian kings and their armies at Armageddon,

Revelation 16:14; the Targum is,

"armies, armies, in the valley of the division of judgment:''

for the day of the Lord [is] near in the valley of decision; that is, the great and terrible day of the Lord, to take vengeance on all the antichristian powers, both eastern and western, is nigh at hand, which will be done in this valley.

p בעמק החרוץ "in valle triturationis", Piscatsr.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The prophet continues, as in amazement at the great throng assembling upon one another, “multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision,” as though, whichever way he looked, there were yet more of these “tumultuous masses,” so that there was nothing beside them. It was one living, surging, boiling, sea: throngs upon throngs, mere throngs! . The word rendered “multitudes” suggests, besides, the thought of the hum and din of these masses thronging onward, blindly, to their own destruction. They all “tumultuously rage together, and imagine a vain thing, against the Lord and against His Christ” Psalms 2:1-2; but the place where they are gathered, (although they know it not,) is the “valley of decision,” i. e., of “sharp, severe judgment.” The valley is the same as that before called “the valley of Jehoshaphat;” but whereas that name only signifies “God judgeth,” this further name denotes the strictness of God’s judgment. The word signifies “cut,” then “decided;” then is used of severe punishment, or destruction decided and decreed , by God.

For the Day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision - Their gathering against God shall be a token of His coming to judge them. They come to fulfill their own ends; but His shall be fulfilled on them. They are left to bring about their own doom; and being abandoned by Him, rush on the more blindly because it is at hand. When their last sin is committed, their last defiance of God spoken or acted against Him, it is come. At all times, indeed, “the Lord is at hand” Philippians 4:5. It may be, that we are told, that the whole future revealed to us “must shortly come to pass” Revelation 1:1, in order to show that all time is a mere nothing, a moment, a dream, when it is gone. Yet here it is said, relatively, not to us, but to the things foretold, that it “is near” to come.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 14. Multitudes, multitudes — המנים המנים hamonim, hamonim, crowds upon crowds, in the valley of decision, or excision: the same as the valley of Jehoshaphat, the place where God is to execute judgment on his enemies.


 
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