Joel 3:7

7 behold, I will stir them up out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head;

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 Forasmuch as ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly precious things,
6 and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem unto the sons of the Grecians, that ye may remove them far from their border;
7 behold, I will stir them up out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompense 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 men of Sheba, to a nation far off: for Jehovah hath spoken it.
9 Proclaim ye this among the nations; prepare war; stir up the mighty men; let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.
The American Standard Version is in the public domain.