Joel 3:7

7 Lo! I shall raise them from the place in which ye sold them; and I shall turn your yielding into your head. (Lo! I shall raise them up from the place into which ye sold them; and I shall turn back your despicable deeds upon your own heads.)

Joel 3:7 Meaning and Commentary

Joel 3:7

Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold
them
That is, bring them back to their own land, from their places whither they have been carried captive, and where they have dwelt in obscurity, and as if theft had been buried in graves, but now should be raised up and restored; and this their restoration will be as life from the dead. So the Targum,

``behold, I will bring them publicly from the place whither ye have sold them;''
this is to be understood, not of the same persons, but of their posterity, they being the same natural body. Kimchi interprets it of them and their children; them at the resurrection of the dead, their children at the time of salvation. Some think this had its accomplishment in Alexander and his successors, by whom the Jews, who had been detained captives in other countries, were set free; particularly by Demetrius, as Josephus F6 relates: though it may be applied to the future restoration of the Jews, out of all countries, unto their own land; or rather to the gathering together the spiritual Israel, or people of God, who have been persecuted from place to place by their antichristian enemies; and will return your recompence upon your own head;
do to them as they have done to others; pay them in their own coin; retaliate the wrongs done to his people; see ( Revelation 13:10 ) ( 18:6 ) .
FOOTNOTES:

F6 Antiqu. l. 13. c. 5.

Joel 3:7 In-Context

5 Ye took away my silver and gold, and ye brought my desirable things and fairest things into your temples of idols. (Ye took away my silver and gold, and ye brought my most desired and beautiful things into your temples of idols.)
6 And ye sold the sons of Judah, and the sons of Jerusalem, to the sons of (the) Greeks, that ye should make them far from their coasts. (And ye sold the people of Judah, and of Jerusalem, to the Greeks, so that ye could send them far away from their own coasts.)
7 Lo! I shall raise them from the place in which ye sold them; and I shall turn your yielding into your head. (Lo! I shall raise them up from the place into which ye sold them; and I shall turn back your despicable deeds upon your own heads.)
8 And I shall sell your sons and your daughters in(to) the hands of the sons of Judah, and they shall sell them to (the) Sabeans, a far(-off) folk, for the Lord spake.
9 Cry ye this thing among heathen men, hallow ye battle (prepare ye for battle), raise ye (up) strong men; all men warriors, nigheth, and goeth up.
Copyright © 2001 by Terence P. Noble. For personal use only.