1 Because, look, in those days, and in that time, when I will bring back Judah and Jerusalem from captivity,
God is now referring back to 2:27. He gave an overview of the rest of Israel’s history but now goes back to give details. He promises that He will return Judah from Babylon.
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will judge them there for what they did to My people and My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and divided up My land.
The Valley of Jehoshaphat is the valley by Jerusalem. The army that conquered Jerusalem, though under Babylonian control, was actually made up of bands from several nations.
3 And they threw the dice to decide which of My people would be their slaves, and have traded boys for prostitutes, and sold girls for wine to get drunk on.
The enemy will treat all the Jews the same, deciding who gets what slave by the toss of the dice instead of giving the upper class to be slaves to the upper class. They will have so little respect and compassion for their new possessions that they will use them for money for the basest of transactions; paying for a prostitute and buying a night’s drink.
4 Yes, and what do you have to do with Me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? Will you pay Me back? And if you did pay Me back, quickly I would return your payment on your own head!
These three nations helped Babylon conquer Judah. They looted the land afterward, too. What could they possibly pay God to fix this behavior?
5 Because you have taken My silver and My gold, and have carried it into your temples, My goodly pleasant things.
6 Also the children of Judah and of Jerusalem you have sold to the Greeks, so you can remove them far from their own borders.
7 And so I will raise them out of the place where you have sold them, and will dump your payment on your own head.
God promises He will restore Israel/Judah and punish Tyre, Zydon and Palestine (Philistia) for their siding with Judah’s enemies.
8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off, because the I AM has said it.
Alexander the Great totally destroyed all three nations. He laid siege to Tyre for seven years and conquered them by making a causeway from the shores of Israel to the island of Tyre. Judah helped him.
God told Assyria and Babylon to conquer Israel and Judah, but He didn’t tell their neighbors to loot and abuse them. He will punish them for this.
9 Announce this among the Gentiles, "Prepare for war! Wake up the mighty men! Let all the soldiers come near! Let them come up!
10 "Beat your plows into swords and your pruning hooks into spears! Let the weak say, 'I am strong.'
11 "Gather yourselves! Come down, all you heathens, and gather yourselves together all around!" And now, I AM, send your warriors down!
Judah’s enemies are warned to get ready for battle.
12 Let the heathen wake up, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, because I will sit there to judge all the heathens all around.
13 Put in your sickle, because the harvest is ripe. Come down, because the winepress is full, the vats are overflowing with their great wickedness.
14 Thousands upon thousands are there in the valley of decision, because the I AM's judgement day is almost here.
God will judge the wicked whether they are of Judah or of their evil neighbors.
15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
Israel/Judah will no longer shine.
16 The I AM will also roar out of Zion, and utter His voice from Jerusalem. The heavens and the earth will shake, but the I AM will be the hope of His people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
But God will bring His people back. He will restore them.
17 So will you know that I am the I AM your God dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain. Then will Jerusalem be holy, and no foreign army will pass through her any more.
This is how Judah will know that God is God; He will cause them to be destroyed by Babylon and then restore them.
This will only be fulfilled if Judah stays true to God, which she didn’t do.
18 And it will happen in that day, that the mountains will drop down new wine, and the hills will flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah will flow with water, and a fountain will come out of the house of the I AM, and will water the valley of Shittim.
The mountains dropping wine and the hills flowing with milk is symbolism for the great blessings God offers for Judah if they worship Him. The fountain coming from the Temple is symbolism for the great blessings of salvation that will begin in Jerusalem and flow to the world through Jesus.
19 Egypt will be destroyed, and Edom will be an empty wilderness, because of their violence against the children of Judah, and because they have shed innocent blood in their own land.
Egypt and Edom, who both tormented Israel repeatedly throughout her history, will be impoverished. This happened through the hands of Alexander.
20 But Judah will live, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
How do the promises that Jerusalem will be destroyed fit with the promises that Judah will last forever? Paul gives us this answer in Romans 11 where he tells us that the true Israel accepted Christ and anyone from any nation who accepts Christ is grafted into the True Olive Tree of Israel. Those Jews who rejected Him were cut out and "cast into the furnace." Judah dwells forever in the Christian church. The natural nation was destroyed never to be restored, but the True Israel, the Christian Church, will live forever.
21 Because I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed, because the I AM lives in Zion.
Our hearts become His Zion where He dwells.