Joel 3:3-13

3 and they have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, and have drunk [it].
4 Yea also, what have ye to do with me, O Tyre and Zidon, and all the districts of Philistia? Will ye render me a recompence? But if ye recompense me, swiftly [and] speedily will I bring your recompence upon your own head;
5 because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my beautiful pleasant things,
6 and the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the children of the Greeks, that ye might remove them far from their border.
7 Behold, I will raise them up out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will bring your recompence upon your own head.
8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far off: for Jehovah hath spoken.
9 Proclaim this among the nations: prepare war, arouse the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near, let them come up.
10 Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning-knives into spears; let the weak say, I am strong.
11 Haste ye and come, all ye nations round about, and gather yourselves together. Thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Jehovah.
12 Let the nations rouse themselves, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there will I sit to judge all the nations round about.
13 Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down, for the press is full, the vats overflow; for their wickedness is great.

Joel 3:3-13 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 4

  • [a]. Heb. Javanim, Gen. 10.2.
  • [b]. Lit. 'hallow,' 'sanctify,' as Jer. 6.4.
  • [c]. Or 'Band together.'
  • [d]. Gibbor: see Judg. 5.13; Job 3.3.
The Darby Translation is in the public domain.