Joel 3:9-19

9 ¹Proclaim this among the nations: ²Prepare a war; ³rouse the mighty men! Let all the soldiers * draw near, let them come up!

10 ⁴Beat your plowshares into swords And your pruning hooks into spears; ⁵Let the weak say, "I am a mighty man."

11 ⁶Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, And gather yourselves there. Bring down, O LORD, Your ⁷mighty ones.

12 Let the nations be aroused And come up to the ⁸valley of Jehoshaphat, For there I will sit to ⁹judge All the surrounding nations.

13 ¹⁰Put in the sickle, for the ¹¹harvest is ripe. Come, ¹²tread, for the ¹³wine press is full; The vats overflow, for their ¹⁴wickedness is great.

14 ¹⁵Multitudes, multitudes in the ¹⁶valley of decision! For the ¹⁷day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

15 The ¹⁸sun and moon grow dark And the stars lose their brightness.

16 The LORD ¹⁹roars from Zion And ²⁰utters His voice from Jerusalem, And the ²¹heavens and the earth tremble. But the LORD is a ²²refuge for His people And a ²³stronghold to the sons of Israel.

17 Then you will ²⁴know that I am the LORD your God, Dwelling in Zion, My ²⁵holy mountain. So Jerusalem will be ²⁶holy, And ²⁷strangers will pass through it no more.

Judah Will Be Blessed

18 And in that day The ²⁸mountains will drip with sweet wine, And the hills will ²⁹flow with milk, And all the ³⁰brooks of Judah will flow with water; And a ³¹spring will go out from the house of the LORD To water the valley of Shittim.

19 Egypt will become a waste, And Edom will become a desolate wilderness, Because of the ³²violence done to the sons of Judah, In whose land they have shed innocent blood.

Joel 3:9-19 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. Jeremiah 51:27
• 2. Jeremiah 6:4; Ezekiel 38:7; Micah 3:5
• 3. Isaiah 8:9, 10; Jeremiah 46:3, 4; Zechariah 14:2, 3
• 4. Isaiah 2:4; Micah 4:3
• 5. Zechariah 12:8
• 6. Ezekiel 38:15, 16
• 7. Isaiah 13:3
• 8. Joel 3:2, 14
• 9. Psalms 7:6; Psalms 96:13; Psalms 98:9; Isaiah 2:4; Isaiah 3:13
• 10. Revelation 14:14-19
• 11. Jeremiah 51:33; Hosea 6:11
• 12. Revelation 14:19, 20; Revelation 19:15
• 13. Isaiah 63:3; Lamentations 1:15
• 14. Genesis 18:20
• 15. Isaiah 34:2-8
• 16. Joel 3:2, 12
• 17. Joel 1:15; Joel 2:1, 11, 31
• 18. Joel 2:10, 31
• 19. Hosea 11:10; Amos 1:2
• 20. Joel 2:11
• 21. Ezekiel 38:19; Joel 2:10; Haggai 2:6
• 22. Psalms 61:3; Isaiah 33:16; Jeremiah 17:17
• 23. Jeremiah 16:19; Nahum 1:7
• 24. Joel 2:27
• 25. Isaiah 11:9; Isaiah 56:7; Ezekiel 20:40
• 26. Isaiah 4:3; Obadiah 17
• 27. Isaiah 52:1; Nahum 1:15
• 28. Amos 9:13
• 29. Exodus 3:8
• 30. Isaiah 30:25; Isaiah 35:6
• 31. Ezekiel 47:1-12
• 32. Obadiah 10

Footnotes

• [a] Or "Lend aid"
• [b] I.e. YHWH judges
• [c] I.e. God's verdict
• [d] I.e. God's verdict
• [e] Lit "freshly pressed out grape juice"
• [f] Or "acacias"
• [g] Lit "of the sons"