Joel 3:1-7

1 For, behold, in those days and at that time, when I shall have turned the captivity of Juda and Jerusalem,

2 I will also gather all the Gentiles, and bring them down to the valley of Josaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and my heritage Israel, who have been dispersed among the Gentiles; and have divided my land,

3 and cast lots over my people, and have given boys to harlots, and sold girls for wine, and have drunk.

4 And what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all Galilee of the Gentiles? do ye render me a recompense? or do ye bear malice against me? quickly and speedily will I return your recompense on your own heads:

5 because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and ye have brought my choice ornaments into your temples;

6 and ye have sold the children of Juda and the children of Jerusalem to the children of the Greeks, that ye might expel them from their coasts.

7 Therefore, behold, I raise them up out of the place whither ye have sold them, and I will return your recompense on your own heads.

Joel 3:1-7 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, nations. See Mat 25,31.
• [b]. ????f????, usually Philistines.