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| 1 For behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall turn again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, |
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| 2 I will also gather all the nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of my people and mine inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations: and they have parted my land; |
Gather all nations – In the "Day of Vengeance of our God." (Isa. 61:2) R5601:2
In the present struggle (1914), where the weak nations are called upon to assert their strength. SM413:1; R5769:4
Valley of Jehoshaphat – Valley of graves; valley of death. SM418:2, SM413:2; R5649:5, R4744:6, R5601:2, R5805:5; D141; HG472:6
Typifying Adamic Death. The valley of Hinnom typifies the Second Death. R2908:2
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| 3 and they have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, and have drunk it2. |
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| 4 Yea also, what have ye to do with me, O Tyre and Zidon, and all the districts of Philistia? Will ye render me a recompence? But if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I bring your recompence upon your own head; |
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| 5 because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my beautiful pleasant things, |
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| 6 and the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the children of the Greeks, that ye might remove them far from their border. |
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| 7 Behold, I will raise them up out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will bring your recompence upon your own head. |
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| 8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far off: for Jehovah hath spoken. |
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| 9 Proclaim this among the nations: prepare war, arouse the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up. |
Proclaim ye this – "My determination is to gather the nations, to pour upon them mine indignation." (Zeph. 3:8) R350:3
Among the Gentiles – Among the nations in the Laodicean phase of Christendom. R1757:5
Prepare war – An era of war which will impoverish all nations, sicken all their peoples, and prepare the way for the universal anarchy with which this world will end. R2327:2, R5715:2
To eventually become so satiated with bloodshed and misery as to sicken of war and willingly seek peace. R35:1*, R269:1
Being fulfilled in the wonderful preparations for war now being made among the nations (1897-1916). D142
Illustrated by Austria's peacetime expenditure of $75 million for war preparations (1904). R3396:6
Some sort of a general war, preceding or connected with, the great time of trouble, anarchy, with which this age will close and usher in the Millennial period. R3327:5
Such a general war would increase taxation and breed general discontent alarmingly and quickly, causing the seeds of Socialist propaganda to shoot up and bring forth red-handed anarchy speedily. R3327:6
In France, the clerical party would even favor war, in the hope of reviving monarchy (1903 comment). R3263:5
All the men of war – We look for a great war in which the whole civilized world will Be involved. R3296:5
Let them come up – To battle. R2641:1
"My determination is to gather the nations, that I may assemble the kingdoms, to pour upon them mine indignation, even all my fierce anger (the natural result of sin): for all the earth shall be devoured with the fire of my jealousy." (Zeph. 3:8) R350:3*
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| 10 Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-knives into spears; let the weak say, I am strong. |
Plowshares into swords – In the sense that money has been spent for military purposes which should properly have been spent in agricultural implements and developments. R3327:5; SM413:2; HG674:6
"Your ploughshare steel use for swords." R4745:1
Plowshares will first be turned into swords, and the great conflict must take place, before they shall be peacefully turned back to plowshares. (Isa. 2:4) R899:6, R269:2, R35:2*, R353:2*, R1757:5, R362:3; Q812:2
Those who otherwise would be following the plow and pruning the trees are forging and handling instead the weapons of war. D143
Pruning hooks – Pruning-knives. R1757:6
Let the weak – The financially weak nations. D143; R3327:6
Belgium and Switzerland are among the weak nations feeling strong, the latter having the highest pro rata military expense in Europe (1900 comment). R2641:2
Say, I am strong – Drain their resources beyond the powers of long endurance. D143
Desiring to impress each other with their strength. hoping thus to put off the evil day of war. R3327:5, R1838:4
"I am a hero." R1757:6
The resistance shown in the Boer war shows how a weak nation, well armed with modern weapons, may feel comparatively strong and, if proportionately independent, even arrogant. R2641:2
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| 11 Haste ye and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together. Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah. |
Assemble yourselves – Assemble hastily together. R1757:6
All ye heathen – All ye nations. R1757:6
Round about – Nations from every side. R1757:6
Thy mighty ones – The Lord's holy ones. R3327:5
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| 12 Let the nations rouse themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. |
Let the heathen – The nations. R1757:6
Valley of Jehoshaphat – "God's pleading judgment." R1757:6
The cemetery valley of Jerusalem. R5715:1, R5805:5; HG674:5
To the battle of the Great Day of God Almighty. SM413:T
Round about – The armies of all nations gathered as one vast cemetery. R5715:1
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| 13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down, for the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great. |
The harvest is ripe – The Hebrew qatsir, equivalent of the Greek therismos, refers to the same harvest mentioned in Rev. 14, though, first, perhaps, to the Jewish harvest. R223:1*
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| 14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Jehovah is at hand in the valley of decision. |
Valley of decision – Trial, crisis. R1757:6
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| 15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining. |
Sun and the moon – The illuminating influences of the Gospel and the Mosaic Law. D544; R1757:6
Shall be darkened – Infidelity having become widely prevalent. D544
And the stars – The apostolic lights. D544
Teachers, especially the apostles. (Rev. 12:1) R1757:6
Withdraw their shining – When the Gospel age is obscured and the sacrifices enjoined by the Law come to be esteemed as merely barbaric, then the apostles also cease to be recognized as lights. D593
The dark night will have come wherein no man can labor. D544
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| 16 And Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: and Jehovah will be a shelter for his people, and the refuge of the children of Israel. |
Shall roar – In rebuke of evil. R2641:1
Out of Zion – The elect Church. R1757:6
From Jerusalem – The earthly phase of the Kingdom of God. A297
Israel, in restoration. R1757:6
And the heavens – Powers of spiritual control, nominal church. A318; R1757:6
And the earth – Society. A318; R1757:6
Shall shake – In the time of trouble. D528
The hope – A refuge. R1757:6
The strength – A stronghold for the sons of Israel. R1757:6
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| 17 And ye shall know that I, Jehovah, am your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain; and Jerusalem shall be holy, and no strangers shall pass through her any more. |
My holy mountain – Kingdom. A318
Jerusalem be holy – Israel shall be saved, rescued, nationally brought back to power and grandeur. R11:6
"There shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob. For this is my covenant with them, when I shall take away their sin." (Rom. 11:26,27) R12:1
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| 18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the water-courses of Judah shall flow with waters; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of Jehovah, and shall water the valley of Shittim. |
Flow with milk – Food for beginners in the Lord's way. A24; D577
Flow with waters – Truth. C65
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| 19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, in that they have shed innocent blood in their land. |
Edom – Christendom. D15
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| 20 But Judah shall abide for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation. |
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| 21 And I will purge them from the blood from which I had not purged them: for Jehovah dwelleth in Zion. |
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