Joel 3:7

7 “But I will bring them back from all the places to which you sold them, and I will pay you back for everything you have done.

Joel 3:7 Meaning and Commentary

Joel 3:7

Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold
them
That is, bring them back to their own land, from their places whither they have been carried captive, and where they have dwelt in obscurity, and as if theft had been buried in graves, but now should be raised up and restored; and this their restoration will be as life from the dead. So the Targum,

``behold, I will bring them publicly from the place whither ye have sold them;''
this is to be understood, not of the same persons, but of their posterity, they being the same natural body. Kimchi interprets it of them and their children; them at the resurrection of the dead, their children at the time of salvation. Some think this had its accomplishment in Alexander and his successors, by whom the Jews, who had been detained captives in other countries, were set free; particularly by Demetrius, as Josephus F6 relates: though it may be applied to the future restoration of the Jews, out of all countries, unto their own land; or rather to the gathering together the spiritual Israel, or people of God, who have been persecuted from place to place by their antichristian enemies; and will return your recompence upon your own head;
do to them as they have done to others; pay them in their own coin; retaliate the wrongs done to his people; see ( Revelation 13:10 ) ( 18:6 ) .
FOOTNOTES:

F6 Antiqu. l. 13. c. 5.

Joel 3:7 In-Context

5 You have taken my silver and gold and all my precious treasures, and have carried them off to your pagan temples.
6 You have sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, so they could take them far from their homeland.
7 “But I will bring them back from all the places to which you sold them, and I will pay you back for everything you have done.
8 I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the people of Arabia, a nation far away. I, the LORD, have spoken!”
9 Say to the nations far and wide: “Get ready for war! Call out your best warriors. Let all your fighting men advance for the attack.
Holy Bible. New Living Translation copyright© 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.