Joel 3:19-21

19 ¹“Egypt shall become a desolation and ²Edom a desolate wilderness, ³for the violence done to the people of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.

20 ⁴But Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations.

21 ⁵I will avenge their blood, blood I have not avenged, ^{[a] 6}for the Lord dwells in Zion. ”

Joel 3:19-21 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.

Cross References

• 1. 3:19 See Isa. 19:1-17
• 2. 3:19 See Isa. 34:5
• 3. 3:19 Obad. 10
• 4. 3:20 Ps. 125:1, 2; Ezek. 37:25
• 5. 3:21 Isa. 4:4; Ezek. 36:25, 29
• 6. 3:21 [See ver. 17 above]

Footnotes

• [a] 3:21 Or 'I will acquit their bloodguilt that I have not acquitted'