Isaiah 2:4

Hebrew Bible

2 In future days the mountain of the Lord’s temple will endure as the most important of mountains and will be the most prominent of hills. All the nations will stream to it; 3 many peoples will come and say, “Come, let us go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the temple of the God of Jacob, so he can teach us his requirements, and we can follow his standards.” For Zion will be the center for moral instruction; the Lord’s message will issue from Jerusalem. 4 He will judge disputes between nations; he will settle cases for many peoples. They will beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations will not take up the sword against other nations, and they will no longer train for war. 5 O descendants of Jacob, come, let us walk in the Lord’s guiding light. 6 Indeed, O Lord, you have abandoned your people, the descendants of Jacob. For diviners from the east are everywhere; they consult omen readers like the Philistines do. Plenty of foreigners are around.

Joel 3:10

Hebrew Bible

8 I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah. They will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away.” Indeed, the Lord has spoken. 9 Proclaim this among the nations:“Prepare for a holy war! Call out the warriors! Let all these fighting men approach and attack! 10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I too am a warrior!’ 11 Lend your aid and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves to that place.” Bring down, O Lord, your warriors! 12 “Let the nations be roused and let them go up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit in judgment on all the surrounding nations.

 Notes and References

"... the oracle against Judah in Amos 2:4–5 focuses on breaches of law and statutes, unlike the one against Israel (2:6– 16) which refers to social injustice and oppression of the poor which are major themes throughout the book. This may indicate that Amos’s words were redirected against Judah after the fall of the northern kingdom and Amos 9:11– 15, which ends with words very similar to the vocabulary of Jeremiah 1:10, is best understood as having been added when the prophecy was reinterpreted during the Babylonian exile. Some commentators argue that Zechariah 13:2–6 is a reworking, in part, of Amos 7:10–17, which in turn may be linked with stories of an encounter between a prophet and priest at Bethel in 1 Kings 13. Another sign of development is the reversal of the oracle in Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3 about future international peace in Joel 3:10 (4:10 in MT) who proclaims that ploughshares are to be turned back into swords and pruning hooks into spears; although it isn’t clear in which direction the influence has occurred. Other factors may have contributed to the shape of the collection such as verbal links between neighbouring books: ‘The Lord roars from Zion’ in the final oracle of Joel and again in the first in Amos 1:2 ..."

Tollington, Janet E. "Prophecy" in Dell, Katharine Julia (ed.) The Biblical World, Second Edition (pp. 137-150) Routledge, 2022

 User Comments

Do you have questions or comments about these texts? Please submit them here.