Joel 3:1-8

The LORD Judges the Nations

1 “Yes, in those days and at that time, when I restore Judah and Jerusalem from captivity, ^[a]

2 I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. ^[b] There I will enter into judgment against them concerning My people, My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations as they divided up My land.

3 They cast lots for My people; they bartered a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine to drink.

4 Now what do you have against Me, O Tyre, Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you rendering against Me a recompense? If you retaliate against Me, I will swiftly and speedily return your recompense upon your heads.

5 For you took My silver and gold and carried off My finest treasures to your temples. ^[c]

6 You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, ^[d] to send them far from their homeland.

7 Behold, I will rouse them from the places to which you sold them; I will return your recompense upon your heads.

8 I will sell your sons and daughters into the hands of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans—to a distant nation.” Indeed, the LORD has spoken.

Joel 3:1-8 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

• [a] Or restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem
• [b] Jehoshaphat means the LORD judges; also in verse 12.
• [c] Or palaces
• [d] Or to the peoples of Javan