Joel 3

Yahweh Judges the Nations

¹“Yes, in those days and at that time,

when I restore Judah and Jerusalem from captivity,

• JOEL 3:1[PROPHECY]I will gather all nations, and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; I will enter into judgment with them → STILL TO COME

²I will gather all the nations

and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.

There I will enter into judgment against them

concerning My people, My inheritance, Israel,

whom they have scattered among the nations

as they divided up My land.

• JOEL 3:2[NOTE]THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT. The name means Yahweh judges. See The Valley of Jehoshaphat.

³They cast lots for My people;

they bartered a boy for a prostitute

and sold a girl for wine to drink.

• JOEL 3:3[NOTE]A BOY FOR A PROSTITUTE. The nations treated God's people as cheap goods, trading children for a night out or a drink.

⁴Now what do you have against Me, O Tyre, Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you rendering against Me a recompense? If you retaliate against Me, I will swiftly and speedily return your recompense upon your heads. ⁵For you took My silver and gold and carried off My finest treasures to your temples. ⁶You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, to send them far from their homeland.

• JOEL 3:4[NOTE]TYRE AND SIDON. Alexander the Great took Tyre in 332 BC and sold about 30,000 of its people as slaves. See Tyre and the Causeway, Ezekiel.
• JOEL 3:6[NOTE]THE GREEKS. Greek traders dealt in slaves with Tyre, Ezekiel 27:13.

⁷Behold, I will rouse them from the places to which you sold them; I will return your recompense upon your heads. ⁸I will sell your sons and daughters into the hands of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans—to a distant nation.”

• JOEL 3:7[PROPHECY]The cities that sold Judah as slaves would have their own sons and daughters sold → HISTORY: Alexander the Great sold about 30,000 people of Tyre as slaves in 332 BC. Persia had destroyed Sidon about 345 BC. Recorded by Arrian, Anabasis 2.24, and Diodorus 16.45.MEDIUM

Indeed, Yahweh has spoken.

⁹Proclaim this among the nations:

“Prepare for war;

rouse the mighty men;

let all the men of war

advance and attack!

¹⁰Beat your plowshares into swords

and your pruning hooks into spears.

Let the weak say, ‘I am strong!’

• JOEL 3:10[NOTE]PLOWSHARES INTO SWORDS. The opposite of Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3. Before the peace comes the final battle.

¹¹Come quickly, all you surrounding nations,

and gather yourselves.

Bring down Your mighty ones,

O Yahweh.

• JOEL 3:11[NOTE]BRING DOWN YOUR MIGHTY ONES. Joel's own prayer breaks in, so these words are black.

¹²Let the nations be roused

and advance to the Valley of Jehoshaphat,

for there I will sit down

to judge all the nations on every side.

• JOEL 3:12[PROPHECY]Beat your plowshares into swords; multitudes in the valley of decision, for the day of Yahweh is near → STILL TO COME

¹³Swing the sickle,

for the harvest is ripe.

Come, trample the grapes,

for the winepress is full;

the wine vats overflow

because their wickedness is great.

• JOEL 3:13[ALLUDED TO]The New Testament refers to this → REV 14:19-20
• JOEL 3:13[NOTE]SWING THE SICKLE. Revelation uses the same harvest and winepress pictures for the final judgment, Revelation 14:15 to 20.

¹⁴Multitudes, multitudes

in the valley of decision!

For the Day of Yahweh is near

in the valley of decision.

• JOEL 3:14[NOTE]THE VALLEY OF DECISION. Most read it as God's decision, His verdict on the nations, not people deciding.

¹⁵The sun and moon will grow dark,

and the stars will no longer shine.

¹⁶Yahweh will roar from Zion

and raise His voice from Jerusalem;

heaven and earth will tremble.

But Yahweh will be a refuge for His people,

a stronghold for the people of Israel.

Blessings for God’s People

¹⁷Then you will know that I am Yahweh your God,

who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain.

Jerusalem will be holy,

never again to be overrun by foreigners.

¹⁸And in that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine,

and the hills will flow with milk.

All the streams of Judah will run with water,

and a spring will flow from the house of Yahweh

to water the Valley of Acacias.

• JOEL 3:18[NOTE]A SPRING FROM THE HOUSE OF YAHWEH. Ezekiel saw a river flow from the temple too, Ezekiel 47:1 to 12, and Zechariah saw living water flow out from Jerusalem, 14:8.

¹⁹Egypt will become desolate,

and Edom a desert wasteland,

because of the violence done to the people of Judah,

in whose land they shed innocent blood.

²⁰But Judah will be inhabited forever,

and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

²¹For I will avenge their blood,

which I have not yet avenged.”

For Yahweh dwells in Zion.