Joel 3:1-16

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.
8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Juda, and they shall sell them into captivity to a far distant nation: for the Lord has spoken .
9 Proclaim these things among the Gentiles; declare war, arouse the warriors, draw near and go up, all ye men of war.
10 Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your sickles into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
11 Gather yourselves together, and go in, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves there; let the timid become a warrior.
12 Let them be aroused, let all the nations go up to the valley of Josaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the Gentiles round about.
13 Bring forth the sickles, for the vintage is come: go in, tread , for the press is full: cause the vats to overflow; for their wickedness is multiplied.
14 Noises have resounded in the valley of judgment: for the day of the Lord is near in the valley of judgment.
15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their light.
16 And the Lord shall cry out of Sion, and shall utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heaven and the earth shall be shaken, but the Lord shall spare his people, and shall strengthen the children of Israel.

Joel 3:1-16 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

The Brenton translation of the Septuagint is in the public domain.