Lectionary Calendar
Wednesday, July 16th, 2025
the Week of Proper 10 / Ordinary 15
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Read the Bible

Hebrew Names Version

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.
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.
Berean Standard Bible
Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the Day of the LORD 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

9 Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare war. Stir up the mighty men. Let all the warriors draw near. Let them come up. 10 Beat your plowshares into swords, And your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, "I am strong." 11 Hurry and come, all you surrounding nations, And gather yourselves together." Cause your mighty ones to come down there, LORD. 12 "Let the nations arouse themselves, And come up to the valley of Yehoshafat; For there will I sit to judge all the surrounding nations. 13 Put in the sickle; For the harvest is ripe. Come, tread, for the winepress is full, The vats overflow, for their wickedness is great." 14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the LORD is near, in the valley of decision. 15 The sun and the moon are darkened, And the stars withdraw their shining." 16 The LORD will roar from Tziyon, And thunder from Yerushalayim; And the heavens and the eretz will shake; But the LORD will be a refuge to his people, And a stronghold to the children of Yisra'el. 17 "So you will know that I am the LORD, your God, Dwelling in Tziyon, my holy mountain. Then Yerushalayim will be holy, And no strangers will pass through her any more.

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 subtle than any animal of the field which the LORD God had made. He said to the woman, "Yes, has God said, 'You shall not eat of any tree of the garden?'"
Genesis 3:15
I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head, and you will bruise his heel."
Genesis 3:20
The man called his wife Havah, because she was the mother of all living.
Genesis 9:6
Whoever sheds man's blood, by man will his blood be shed, for in the image of God made he man.
Leviticus 20:25
You shall therefore make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean fowl and the clean: and you shall not make your souls abominable by animal, or by bird, or by anything with which the ground teems, which I have separated from you as unclean.
Psalms 72:9
Those who dwell in the wilderness shall bow before him. His enemies shall lick the dust.
Isaiah 29:4
You shall be brought down, and shall speak out of the ground, and your speech shall be low out of the dust; and your voice shall be as of one who has a familiar spirit, out of the ground, and your speech shall whisper out of the dust.
Isaiah 65:25
The wolf and the lamb shall feed together, and the lion shall eat straw like the ox; and dust shall be the serpent's food. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain, says the LORD.
Micah 7:17
They will lick the dust like a serpent. Like crawling things of the eretz they shall come trembling out of their dens. They will come with fear to the LORD our God, And will be afraid because 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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