Joel 3:4-14

4 "Moreover, what are you to Me, O ¹Tyre, Sidon and all the regions of ²Philistia? Are you rendering Me a recompense? But if you do recompense Me, swiftly and speedily I will ³return your recompense on your head.

5 "Since you have ⁴taken My silver and My gold, brought My precious treasures to your temples,

6 and sold the ⁵sons of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks in order to remove them far from their territory,

7 behold, I am going to ⁶arouse them from the place where * you have sold them, and return your recompense on your head.

8 "Also I will ⁷sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the ⁸Sabeans, to a distant nation," for the LORD has spoken.

9 ⁹Proclaim this among the nations: ¹⁰Prepare a war; ¹¹rouse the mighty men! Let all the soldiers * draw near, let them come up!

10 ¹²Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks into spears; ¹³Let the weak say, "I am a mighty man."

11 ¹⁴Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, And gather yourselves there. Bring down, O LORD, Your ¹⁵mighty ones.

12 Let the nations be aroused And come up to the ¹⁶valley of Jehoshaphat, For there I will sit to ¹⁷judge All the surrounding nations.

13 ¹⁸Put in the sickle, for the ¹⁹harvest is ripe. Come, ²⁰tread, for the ²¹wine press is full; The vats overflow, for their ²²wickedness is great.

14 ²³Multitudes, multitudes in the ²⁴valley of decision! For the ²⁵day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

Joel 3:4-14 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. Isaiah 23:1-18; Amos 1:9, 10; Zechariah 9:2-4; Matthew 11:21, 22; Luke 10:13, 14
• 2. Isaiah 14:29-31; Jeremiah 47:1-7; Ezekiel 25:15-17; Amos 1:6-8; Zechariah 9:5-7
• 3. Isaiah 34:8; Isaiah 59:18
• 4. 2 Kings 12:18; 2 Chronicles 21:16, 17
• 5. Ezekiel 27:13
• 6. Isaiah 43:5, 6; Jeremiah 23:8; Zechariah 9:13
• 7. Isaiah 14:2; Isaiah 60:14
• 8. Job 1:15; Psalms 72:10; Ezekiel 38:13
• 9. Jeremiah 51:27
• 10. Jeremiah 6:4; Ezekiel 38:7; Micah 3:5
• 11. Isaiah 8:9, 10; Jeremiah 46:3, 4; Zechariah 14:2, 3
• 12. Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3
• 13. Zechariah 12:8
• 14. Ezekiel 38:15, 16
• 15. Isaiah 13:3
• 16. Joel 3:2, 14
• 17. Psalms 7:6; Psalms 96:13; Psalms 98:9; Isaiah 2:4; Isaiah 3:13
• 18. Revelation 14:14-19
• 19. Jeremiah 51:33; Hosea 6:11
• 20. Revelation 14:19, 20; Revelation 19:15
• 21. Isaiah 63:3; Lamentations 1:15
• 22. Genesis 18:20
• 23. Isaiah 34:2-8
• 24. Joel 3:2, 12
• 25. Joel 1:15; Joel 2:1, 11, 31

Footnotes

• [a] Lit "goodly things"
• [b] Lit "sons of Javan"
• [c] Or "Lend aid"
• [d] I.e. YHWH judges
• [e] I.e. God's verdict
• [f] I.e. God's verdict