What is the valley of decision (Joel 3:14)?

This enters into the details of the last days as far as Judah and Jerusalem are concerned, the restoration of the ten tribes not being the subject here. The nations have oppressed God's people in many ways, and sold them as slaves. God will requite this on their own heads. They are called to arm themselves, to bring all their mighty men, and to come unto the valley of Jehoshaphat, which is the valley of judgement, and there God will deal with them. In the valley of decision (or threshing) they will be cut to pieces. The enemies of God and of Judah being destroyed, there will be great blessing for His people, whom He had chastened in His love; but, cleansed and restored, He will dwell among them.

Joel 2. The day of Jehovah is nigh at hand, and the trumpet is to sound an alarm of war: cf. Num. 10:9. The army of insects is still alluded to, but it looks forward to the future, when God will bring His judgements upon the land. The army is His, and the camp is His: the day of Jehovah. is great and very terrible. The people are called to repentance, to rend their hearts and not their garments, for God is merciful and gracious. The trumpet was to be blown in Zion for a solemn assembly: cf. Num. 10:7. Priests and all are called to weep and pray. God will hear, and will destroy their enemies, especially the northern army (Joel 2:20, elsewhere alluded to as Assyria) and He will bring His people into great blessing. When they repent, the Holy Spirit will be poured out upon them and upon all flesh. This was quoted by Peter in Acts 2:16-21, but the nation did not then repent, it was only a remnant that turned to the Lord and entered into the blessing that God was bestowing — not outward and visible benefits as it will be in the future. There will also be signs in the heavens and in the earth before the great and terrible day of the Lord. There were some such omens, according to the historians, before the destruction of Jerusalem, so this passage, quoted in Acts 2, may have had a partial fulfilment then, though it remains to be fully verified in a future day.

Joel 3. This enters into the details of the last days as far as Judah and Jerusalem are concerned, the restoration of the ten tribes not being the subject here. The nations have oppressed God's people in many ways, and sold them as slaves. God will requite this on their own heads. They are called to arm themselves, to bring all their mighty men, and to come unto the valley of Jehoshaphat, which is the valley of judgement, and there God will deal with them. In the valley of decision (or threshing) they will be cut to pieces. The enemies of God and of Judah being destroyed, there will be great blessing for His people, whom He had chastened in His love; but, cleansed and restored, He will dwell among them.

This is mentioned only in Joel 3:2, 12, as a place where the nations will be judged for their treatment of God's people, when Judah is being brought into blessing. The name signifies 'Jehovah is judge,' and some think that it is used symbolically for the place where God will judge. In Joel 3:14 occurs 'the valley of decision,' which is also connected with God's judgements.

It is Jehovah Himself who speaks, what He is going to do in that day, when He arises and has mercy on Zion. "I will also bring together all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat." How the Lord will bring these nations together and then accomplish His purpose is revealed in verses 9-12. We therefore pass it by for the present till we reach the second part of this chapter. But here is also the place mentioned where this great judgment of nations will be executed. It will be in the valley of Jehoshaphat. The word means translated "Jehovah judges." This name occurs elsewhere in the Word of God. King Jehu was the son of Jehoshaphat and he was the son of Nimshi (2 Kings 9:2). Significant names of the king who had to judge, for Jehu means "He is Jehovah;" Jehoshaphat, "Jehovah judges;" Nimshi, "Jehovah reveals."

Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Jehovah is at hand in the valley of decision.

Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision [threshing]: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision [threshings].

For behold in those days and in that time, When I shall bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem ; 2. I will also bring together all nations, And will bring down into the valley of Jehoshaphat ; And there will I judge them on account of My people, And My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, And they divided My land. 3. And they cast lots for My people, They gave a boy for a harlot, And sold a girl for wine, and drank it. 4. Yea also, what have ye to do with Me, O Tyre and Sidon, And all the borders of Philistia ? Would you requite Me with retaliation? If you retaliate Swiftly and speedily will I bring your recompense Upon your own head. 5. Because ye have taken My silver and gold, And have brought into your temples My very best things 6. And the children of Judah and of Jerusalem, Ye sold to the children of the Greeks, That ye might remove them far from their border. 7. Behold I will raise them up out of the place whither ye sold them, And I will return the retaliation upon your own head. 8. And I will sell your sons and your daughters Into the hands of the sons of Judah. And they shall sell them to the Sabeans to a far off nation. For Jehovah hath spoken it. 9. Proclaim this among the nations: Declare a war! Arouse the mighty ones! Let all the men of war draw near, let them come up! 10. Beat your ploughshares into swords, And your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am strong. 11. Come together, All ye nations round about Gather yourselves together. Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O, Jehovah! 12. Let the nations arise and come up To the valley of Jehoshaphat, For there will I sit to judge all the nations round about. 13. Put in the sickle, For the harvest is ripe; Come--Tread! For the wine-press is full, The vats overflow; For their wickedness is great. 14. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Jehovah is at hand in the valley of decision. 15. The sun and the moon are darkened And the stars withdraw their shining. 16. And Jehovah shall roar from Zion, And send forth His voice from Jerusalem ; And the heavens and the earth shall shake; But Jehovah will be a refuge for His people And a fortress for the sons of Israel. 17. And ye shall know that I, Jehovah, your God, Dwell in Zion, My holy mountain; And Jerusalem shall be holy, And strangers shall no more pass through her. 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 river beds of Judah shall be full with waters, And a fountain shall come forth from the house of Jehovah, And shall water the valley of Shittim. 19. Egypt shall be a desolation And Edom shall be a desolate wilderness. For their violence against the children of Judah, Because they shed innocent blood in their land. 20. But Judah shall abide forever. And Jerusalem from generation to generation. 21. And I will purge them from the blood From which I had not purged them And Jehovah will dwell in Zion.

But, however great the pride of the men of war, it was, after all, the judgment of God — the sickle of God reaping the earth. His press should be full, His vats should overflow; for the iniquity was great. In the Apocalypse the harvest is distinguished from the vintage, the first being the judgment that separates the good from the wicked and vice versa; the second, the execution of vengeance. Here it appears to me that the two together present the general idea of the execution of the judgment, although the symbol of the winepress is the more forcible. What multitudes in that day should learn the consequences of their contempt of the word of grace, and of the pride that raised them up in rebellion against Jehovah of hosts! All governmental order, its grandeur and its power, should disappear before the judgment of God.

That it is the quick only, the wicked nations of the earth, who are here judged by an outpouring of divine judgment, when they think of no more than a campaign or politics, will be plain from what follows: a rising from the dead to be judged according to their works it is not. "Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of Jehovah is near in the valley of decision. The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining." Nevertheless it is not "the end" of 1 Cor. 15:24, but the consummation of the age, of this present evil age, which will be followed by the glorious world-kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ (Rev. 11), and the fulfilment of the great mass of the prophecies in the earth's blessedness under His reign. Verses 16 and 17 make this equally plain and sure. "Jehovah also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but Jehovah will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. So shall ye know that I am Jehovah your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more." At the judgment of the dead Jehovah will not roar as here out of Zion, neither will He dwell there, making Jerusalem holiness. For earth and heaven will have fled away. (Rev. 20:11) The absolutely new creation follows for eternity in Rev. 21:1-5.

Dreadful judgment is about to be poured out upon this guilty world, and this before the reign of Christ as King of kings, and Lord of lords. The details of this judgment are to be found in the books of Isaiah, Ezekiel, Joel, Zechariah, Revelation and other books of the Old and New Testaments. Here, in Joel 3, we have the preparation for war of the Gentile nations, their gathering together in the valley of Jehoshaphat, and there the Lord will sit “to judge all the heathen round about” (Joel 3:9–12).

In Revelation 14:14–20 the divine judgments are viewed as the discriminating judgment of the harvest, and the unmitigated judgment of the vintage, and both are indicated in Joel 3:13. In that day there will be “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision” (verse 14). The day of the Lord will bring His solemn judgments upon the nations “round about” Israel, the nations that even now are manifesting their hatred to the people gathered back to the land.