Joel 3:8-18

8 "Also I will ¹sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the ²Sabeans, to a distant nation," for the LORD has spoken.

9 ³Proclaim this among the nations: ⁴Prepare a war; ⁵rouse the mighty men! Let all the soldiers * draw near, let them come up!

10 ⁶Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks into spears; ⁷Let the weak say, "I am a mighty man."

11 ⁸Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, And gather yourselves there. Bring down, O LORD, Your ⁹mighty ones.

12 Let the nations be aroused And come up to the ¹⁰valley of Jehoshaphat, For there I will sit to ¹¹judge All the surrounding nations.

13 ¹²Put in the sickle, for the ¹³harvest is ripe. Come, ¹⁴tread, for the ¹⁵wine press is full; The vats overflow, for their ¹⁶wickedness is great.

14 ¹⁷Multitudes, multitudes in the ¹⁸valley of decision! For the ¹⁹day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

15 The ²⁰sun and moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness.

16 The LORD ²¹roars from Zion And ²²utters His voice from Jerusalem, And the ²³heavens and the earth tremble. But the LORD is a ²⁴refuge for His people And a ²⁵stronghold to the sons of Israel.

17 Then you will ²⁶know that I am the LORD your God, Dwelling in Zion, My ²⁷holy mountain. So Jerusalem will be ²⁸holy, And ²⁹strangers will pass through it no more.

Judah Will Be Blessed

18 And in that day The ³⁰mountains will drip with sweet wine, And the hills will ³¹flow with milk, And all the ³²brooks of Judah will flow with water; And a ³³spring will go out from the house of the LORD To water the valley of Shittim.

Read Chapter Compare

Joel 3:8-18 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.

Taken from John Gill's Exposition of the Bible

Cross References 33

1. Isaiah 14:2; Isaiah 60:14
2. Job 1:15; Psalms 72:10; Ezekiel 38:13
3. Jeremiah 51:27
4. Jeremiah 6:4; Ezekiel 38:7; Micah 3:5
5. Isaiah 8:9, 10; Jeremiah 46:3, 4; Zechariah 14:2, 3
6. Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3
7. Zechariah 12:8
8. Ezekiel 38:15, 16
9. Isaiah 13:3
10. Joel 3:2, 14
11. Psalms 7:6; Psalms 96:13; Psalms 98:9; Isaiah 2:4; Isaiah 3:13
12. Revelation 14:14-19
13. Jeremiah 51:33; Hosea 6:11
14. Revelation 14:19, 20; Revelation 19:15
15. Isaiah 63:3; Lamentations 1:15
16. Genesis 18:20
17. Isaiah 34:2-8
18. Joel 3:2, 12
19. Joel 1:15; Joel 2:1, 11, 31
20. Joel 2:10, 31
21. Hosea 11:10; Amos 1:2
22. Joel 2:11
23. Ezekiel 38:19; Joel 2:10; Haggai 2:6
24. Psalms 61:3; Isaiah 33:16; Jeremiah 17:17
25. Jeremiah 16:19; Nahum 1:7
26. Joel 2:27
27. Isaiah 11:9; Isaiah 56:7; Ezekiel 20:40
28. Isaiah 4:3; Obadiah 17
29. Isaiah 52:1; Nahum 1:15
30. Amos 9:13
31. Exodus 3:8
32. Isaiah 30:25; Isaiah 35:6
33. Ezekiel 47:1-12

Footnotes 6

[a]. Or "Lend aid"
[b]. I.e. YHWH judges
[c]. I.e. God's verdict
[d]. I.e. God's verdict
[e]. Lit "freshly pressed out grape juice"
[f]. Or "acacias"