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Joel 3

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Judgment on the Nations: Restoration for Israel 1–8

1
For, 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.

The Great Gathering for Judgment 9–16

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. ​

The Lord Dwells in Zion Forever 17–21

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. ​

Bible text: King James Version (1769 Blayney text) · Public domain

Study Notes for Joel 3

Verse 1

bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem — Shub (to turn back) with shebuth (captivity), the LORD's phrase for restoration: 'I will bring again the captivity of my people Israel and Judah' (Jer 30:3; also Amos 9:14). The return of Judah is the moment from which the judgment of the nations in vv.2–3 follows.

Verse 2

the valley of Jehoshaphat — The name is built on shaphat, to judge (Strong's: 'Jehovah-judged'), and the same verb is 'plead' here and 'judge' in v.12. The charge is twofold: the people 'scattered' (pazar) among the nations and the land 'parted' (chalaq), divided up. Cf. 'the LORD hath a controversy with the nations' (Jer 25:31).

Verse 3

cast lots for my people — Goral, a lot, originally a pebble. The people were shared out like spoil, as Nahum 3:10 says of populous No: 'they cast lots for her honourable men'. Children were traded for a harlot and for wine, so that the price of a life was one pleasure, which the LORD names as the nations' offence.

Verse 4

Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine — Pelesheth is Philistia; 'coasts' (gelilah) are its districts. Gaza and Tyre are charged elsewhere with delivering up 'the whole captivity' to Edom (Amos 1:6, 9). 'Recompence' (gemul) is what is done to a person, good or ill; the LORD will return it 'upon your own head'.

Verse 6

unto the Grecians — Yevani, from Javan, a son of Japheth (Gen 10:2). Ezekiel names Javan among Tyre's merchants who 'traded the persons of men' (Ezek 27:13). The purpose given is distance: to 'remove them far from their border' (gebul), so that the sold could not return.

Verse 9

Prepare war — The verb qadash means to consecrate: a campaign was set apart as a holy undertaking. The call goes out 'among the Gentiles', and 'wake up' ('ur) is the verb of the heathen being 'wakened' in v.12. The summons draws the nations to the place of judgment, not to victory.

Verse 10

Beat your plowshares into swords — The reverse of the peace promise: 'they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks' (Isa 2:4; Mic 4:3). 'The weak' is challash, a word found only here in the KJV; the frail are told to call themselves 'strong' (gibbor, a warrior), the summons carried to its limit.

Verse 12

there will I sit to judge — Yashab, to sit, is the posture of a judge, and 'judge' (shaphat) echoes the name Jehoshaphat in the same verse. The LORD does not fight alongside the gathered armies but takes the seat over them: 'he cometh to judge the earth' (Ps 96:13).

Verse 13

Put ye in the sickle — Two figures: the harvest (qatsir) 'ripe' (bashal) and the press (gath) with its vats (yeqeb) overflowing. Revelation takes both: 'for the time is come for thee to reap; for the harvest of the earth is ripe' (Rev 14:15), then the 'great winepress of the wrath of God' (Rev 14:19). Cf. Isa 63:3.

Verse 14

the valley of decision — Charuts is something cut or decided, a verdict. It stands in the place of 'Jehoshaphat' in v.2, so the valley of the LORD's judging is the valley of the sentence. 'Multitudes, multitudes' (hamon, a roar of crowds) fills it, and 'the day of the LORD is near', as in 1:15 and 2:1.

Verse 15

The sun and the moon shall be darkened — The words of Joel 2:10 repeated, with the day of the LORD in 2:31 ('the sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood'). Christ takes up the signs for his coming: 'the sun be darkened, and the moon shall not give her light' (Matt 24:29).

Verse 16

The LORD also shall roar out of Zion — Sha'ag, the lion's roar, the same words that open Amos: 'The LORD will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem' (Amos 1:2). The roar shakes heaven and earth, yet for his people he is 'the hope' (machaseh, a shelter or refuge) and 'strength' (ma'oz, a stronghold).

Verse 17

So shall ye know that I am the LORD your God — The aim of the judgment is recognition, the promise of 2:27, 'ye shall know that I am in the midst of Israel'. 'Holy' (qodesh) describes the mountain and then the city. The 'strangers' (zur) who pass through no more answer the holy city of Isa 52:1 and Rev 21:27.

Verse 18

a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD — Mountains 'drop' (nataph) new wine ('asis, fresh-trodden juice) and hills flow with milk. The temple spring is seen again in Ezek 47:1, in 'living waters' from Jerusalem (Zech 14:8) and the river from the throne (Rev 22:1). It waters the 'valley of Shittim', where Israel lapsed (Num 25:1).

Verse 19

Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom — Each is a 'desolation' (shemamah) for 'violence' (chamas) against Judah and 'innocent blood' (naqi) shed in the land. Edom is charged in Amos 1:11 with pursuing 'his brother with the sword'. Egypt, the first oppressor of Israel, and Edom, the nearest, stand for the nations judged in v.2.

Verse 21

I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed — Naqah is to hold clean or acquit, and is used twice here. The blood shed in v.19 is not left unavenged, and the guilt is cleansed, as in Isa 4:4 ('purged the blood of Jerusalem from the midst thereof by the spirit of judgment') and Ezek 36:25. The book ends on the LORD dwelling in Zion.