Joel 3:7-17

7 Behold, I will raise them up out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will bring your recompence upon your own head.
8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far off: for Jehovah hath spoken.
9 Proclaim this among the nations: prepare war, arouse the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.
10 Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-knives into spears; let the weak say, I am strong.
11 Haste ye and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together. Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah.
12 Let the nations rouse themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about.
13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down, for the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of Jehovah is at hand in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
16 And Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: and Jehovah will be a shelter for his people, and the refuge of the children of Israel.
17 And ye shall know that I, Jehovah, [am] your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain; and Jerusalem shall be holy, and no strangers shall pass through her any more.

Joel 3:7-17 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.

Footnotes 5

  • [a]. Lit. 'hallow,' 'sanctify,' as Jer. 6.4.
  • [b]. Or 'Band together.'
  • [c]. Gibbor: see Judg. 5.13; Job 3.3.
  • [d]. Or 'what is determined,' as Isa. 10.22, &c.
  • [e]. Or 'stronghold,' 'fortress:' see Jer. 16.19.
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.