Joel 3 KJV
Judgment on the Nations
Joel Chapter 3: Judgment on the Nations
The command in verse 10 to beat plowshares into swords deliberately inverts the peace oracle of Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3, framing Joel's judgment as the necessary prelude to eschatological shalom rather than its immediate result.
1or, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
3 And they have cast lots for my people; and have given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.
4 Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;
5 Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:
6 The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.
7 Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return 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 people far off: for the LORD hath spoken it.
9 Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
11 Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.
12 Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.
13 Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness is great.
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.
16 The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but the LORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.
17 So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.
18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.
19 Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land.
20 But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.
21 For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.
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Did You Know?
The command in verse 10 to beat plowshares into swords deliberately inverts the peace oracle of Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3, framing Joel's judgment as the necessary prelude to eschatological shalom rather than its immediate result.
The fountain that waters the valley of Shittim (v. 18) targets the very site of Israel's sexual and idolatrous apostasy with the Moabites in Numbers 25, transforming a place of covenant-breaking into one of perpetual fertility and cleansing.
By naming Tyre, Zidon, and the Philistines as those who sold Judahite children to the Grecians (vv. 4-6), the chapter preserves a specific memory of Phoenician and Philistine slave-trading networks that reached the Aegean in the early first millennium BCE.
The motif of Yahweh roaring from Zion (v. 16) is shared verbatim with Amos 1:2, linking the two books in a shared theological claim that Jerusalem, not any northern sanctuary, is the true origin of divine judgment.
The permanent desolation of Edom and Egypt (v. 19) while Judah dwells forever reverses the Exodus pattern: the former oppressor nation and the brother nation that blocked Israel's path both suffer the fate Israel once feared.
Commentary & Study Notes Jamieson-Fausset-Brown (1871) ยท Public Domain bring again the captivity โ that is, reverse it. The Jews restrict this to the return from Babylon. Christians refer it to the coming of Christ. But the prophet comprises the wholeโฆ
Classic verse-by-verse commentary on Joel 3 from Jamieson, Fausset & Brown (1871). Covers: God's vengeance on Israel's foes in the valley of jehoshaphat. His blessing on the church.
- 1
- bring again the captivity โ that is, reverse it. The Jews restrict this to the return from Babylon. Christians refer it to the coming of Christ. But the prophet comprises the whole redemption, beginning from the return out of Babylon, then continued from the first advent of Christ down to the last day (His second advent), when God will restore His Church to perfect felicity [CALVIN].
- 2
- Parallel to Zec 14:2, 3, 4, where the "Mount of Olives" answers to the "Valley of Jehoshaphat" here. The latter is called "the valley of blessing" (Berachah) (2Ch 20:26). It lies between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives and has the Kedron flowing through it. As Jehoshaphat overthrew the confederate foes of Judah, namely, Ammon, Moab, &c. (Ps 83:6-8), in this valley, so God was to overthrow the Tyrians, Zidonians, Philistines, Edom, and Egypt, with a similar utter overthrow (Joe 3:4, 19). This has been long ago fulfilled; but the ultimate event shadowed forth herein is still future, when God shall specially interpose to destroy Jerusalem's last foes, of whom Tyre, Zidon, Edom, Egypt, and Philistia are the types. As "Jehoshaphat" means "the judgment of Jehovah," the valley of Jehoshaphat may be used as a general term for the theater of God's final judgments on Israel's foes, with an allusion to the judgment inflicted on them by Jehoshaphat. The definite mention of the Mount of Olives in Zec 14:4, and the fact that this was the scene of the ascension, makes it likely the same shall be the scene of Christ's coming again: compare "this same Jesus... shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven" (Ac 1:11). all nations โ namely, which have maltreated Judah. plead with them โ (Isa 66:16; Eze 38:22). my heritage Israel โ (De 32:9; Jer 10:16). Implying that the source of Judah's redemption is God's free love, wherewith He chose Israel as His peculiar heritage, and at the same time assuring them, when desponding because of trials, that He would plead their cause as His own, and as if He were injured in their person.
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