How does the nations’ judgment lead to the fountain promise?

Atlas of Saints · Chapter summary

Scattering and captive sales precede judgment, holiness and an enduring Jerusalem.

Chapter breakdown

When Juda and Jerusalem's captivity is returned, God gathers nations to Josaphat's valley and pleads for Israel, scattered among nations with its land divided. Lots were cast, a boy put in the stews and a girl sold for drinking wine. Tyre, Sidon and the Philistine coast are challenged: their recompense returns upon their heads. They took silver, gold and beautiful things to temples and sold Juda's and Jerusalem's children to Greeks far from home. God raises the sold people and sells the offenders' sons and daughters through Juda to the distant Sabeans.

Nations are summoned to prepare war, rouse warriors, cut ploughshares into swords and spades into spears, with the weak saying they are strong. They gather where God causes strong ones to fall and sits to judge. Sickles enter the ripe harvest and overflowing press because wickedness multiplies. Nations fill the valley of destruction near the Lord's day. Sun, moon and stars darken; God roars from Sion and Jerusalem, moving heaven and earth while remaining his people's hope and strength. Jerusalem becomes holy and strangers no longer pass through.

Mountains drop sweetness, hills flow milk and Juda's rivers water. A fountain from God's house waters the torrent of thorns. The edition explains grace in the militant Church and glory in the triumphant, watering souls previously barren or afflicted by crosses and tribulations. Egypt and Edom become desolate for injustice and innocent bloodshed. Judea and Jerusalem endure; the note identifies the spiritual Jerusalem as Christ's Church. God cleanses previously uncleansed blood and dwells in Sion. The text does not identify angelic reapers or narrow the fountain note to baptism and Gentile preaching.

The story inside

Tools become weapons for the summoned nations. The harvest and press depict multiplied wickedness. The fountain note distinguishes grace, glory and souls afflicted by thorns.

Lessons worth keeping

1
Tools become weapons for the summoned nations.
2
The harvest and press depict multiplied wickedness.
3
The fountain note distinguishes grace, glory and souls afflicted by thorns.

Test your recall

How does the edition explain the torrent of thorns?

Source edition and notes

Douay–Rheims, revised by Richard Challoner (1749–1752). Project Gutenberg no. 1581. Locators refer to lines in the admitted pg1581.txt edition. Source notes may include Challoner commentary.

Lines 100340–100352
3:2. I will gather together all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat: and I will plead with them there for my people, and for my inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and have parted my land. 3:3. And they have cast lots upon my people: and the boy they have put in the stews, and the girl they have sold for wine, that they might drink. 3:4. But what have you to do with me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all the coast of the Philistines? will you revenge yourselves on me? and if you revenge yourselves on me, I will very soon return you a recompense upon your own head.
Lines 100354–100366
3:5. For you have taken away my silver, and my gold: and my desirable, and most beautiful things you have carried into your temples. 3:6. And the children of Juda, and the children of Jerusalem, you have sold to the children of the Greeks, that you might remove them far off from their own country. 3:7. Behold, I will raise them up out of the place wherein you have sold them: and I will return your recompense upon your own heads. 3:8. And I will sell your sons, and your daughters, by the hands of the children of Juda, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far off, for the Lord hath spoken it.
Lines 100368–100383
3:9. Proclaim ye this among the nations: Prepare war, rouse up the strong: let them come, let all the men of war come up. 3:10. Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades into spears. Let the weak say: I am strong. 3:11. Break forth, and come, all ye nations from round about, and gather yourselves together: there will the Lord cause all thy strong ones to fall down. 3:12. Let them arise, and let the nations come up into the valley of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all nations round about. 3:13. Put ye in the sickles, for the harvest is ripe: come and go down, for the press is full, the fats run over: for their wickedness is multiplied.
Lines 100385–100398
3:14. Nations, nations in the valley of destruction: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of destruction. 3:15. The sun and the moon are darkened, and the stars have withdrawn their shining. 3:16. And the Lord shall roar out of Sion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem: and the heavens and the earth shall be moved, and the Lord shall be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel. 3:17. And you shall know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Sion, my holy mountain: and Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall pass through it no more.
Lines 100400–100410
3:18. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down sweetness, and the hills shall flow with milk: and waters shall flow through all the rivers of Juda: and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the torrent of thorns. A fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, etc.... Viz., the fountain of grace in the church militant, and of glory in the church triumphant: which shall water the torrent or valley of thorns, that is, the souls that before, like barren ground brought forth nothing but thorns; or that were afflicted with the thorns of crosses and tribulations.
Lines 100412–100423
3:19. Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom a wilderness destroyed: because they have done unjustly against the children of Juda, and have shed innocent blood in their land. 3:20. And Judea shall be inhabited for ever, and Jerusalem to generation and generation. Judea—and Jerusalem.... That is, the spiritual Jerusalem, viz., the church of Christ. 3:21. And I will cleanse their blood, which I had not cleansed: and the Lord will dwell in Sion.