Joel 3:1-11

The Lord Judges the Nations

1 [a]"For behold, 1in those days and at that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 2I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And 3I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land,
3 and 4have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.
4 "What are you to me, 5O Tyre and Sidon, and all 6the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back for something? If you are paying me back, 7I will return your payment on your own head swiftly and speedily.
5 For 8you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my rich treasures into your temples.[b]
6 You have sold 9the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their own border.
7 Behold, I will stir them up from the place to which you have sold them, and 10I will return your payment on your own head.
8 I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the 11Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the LORD has spoken."
9 Proclaim this among the nations: 12Consecrate for war;[c] stir up the mighty men. Let all the men of war draw near; let them come up.
10 13Beat your plowshares into swords, and 14your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say, "I am a warrior."
11 15Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves there. 16Bring down your warriors, O LORD.

Joel 3:1-11 Meaning and Commentary

INTRODUCTION TO JOEL 3

This chapter, which some make the fourth, contains a prophecy of God's judgments on all the antichristian nations at the time of the Jews' conversion, and the reasons of them, Joe 3:1-3; a threatening of Tyre and Zidon, by way of retaliation, for carrying the riches of the Jews into their temples, and selling their persons to the Greeks, Joe 3:4-8; an alarm to prepare for the battle of Armageddon, or the destruction that shall be made in the valley of Jehoshaphat, Joe 3:9-15; and after that an account of the happy state of the church of Christ, their safety and security, plenty, prosperity, and purity, to the end of the world, Joe 3:16-21.

Cross References 16

  • 1. Jeremiah 30:3
  • 2. [Zephaniah 3:8]; See Zechariah 14:2-4
  • 3. Isaiah 66:16; Jeremiah 25:31
  • 4. Obadiah 11; Nahum 3:10
  • 5. Isaiah 23:1, 2; Jeremiah 47:4; Amos 1:9
  • 6. [Ezekiel 25:15, 16]
  • 7. [Obadiah 15]
  • 8. [2 Chronicles 21:16, 17]
  • 9. [ver. 3]
  • 10. [See ver. 4 above]
  • 11. See 1 Kings 10:1
  • 12. [Micah 3:5]
  • 13. [Isaiah 2:4]
  • 14. [Isaiah 2:4]
  • 15. [Isaiah 54:15]
  • 16. [Zechariah 14:5]

Footnotes 3

The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.