Joel 3:1-8

1 "In those days, yes, at that very time when I put life back together again for Judah and Jerusalem,

2 I'll assemble all the godless nations. I'll lead them down into Judgment Valley And put them all on trial, and judge them one and all because of their treatment of my own people Israel. They scattered my people all over the pagan world and grabbed my land for themselves.

3 They threw dice for my people and used them for barter. They would trade a boy for a whore, sell a girl for a bottle of wine when they wanted a drink.

4 "As for you, Tyre and Sidon and Philistia, why should I bother with you? Are you trying to get back at me for something I did to you? If you are, forget it. I'll see to it that it boomerangs on you.

5 You robbed me, cleaned me out of silver and gold, carted off everything valuable to furnish your own temples.

6 You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem into slavery to the Greeks in faraway places.

7 But I'm going to reverse your crime. I'm going to free those slaves. I'll have done to you what you did to them:

8 I'll sell your children as slaves to your neighbors, And they'll sell them to the far-off Sabeans."

Joel 3:1-8 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.