Joel 3

Chapter context

What is happening in Joel 3?

repentanceday of the LordSpiritrestoration

Joel 3 belongs to the closing movement of the book, especially the section often described as judgment of the nations. Joel moves from agricultural disaster to liturgical repentance, then toward the day of the Lord and the outpouring of the Spirit. Read this chapter with the wider themes of repentance, day of the Lord, and Spirit in view so the individual verses keep their proper weight.

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. 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.

Study helps

Glossary

Jerusalem Place v. 1, 6, 16-17, 20: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Jerusalem.
Jehoshaphat Person v. 2, 12: Jehovah-judged. (1. ) One of David’s body-guard ( 1 Chr. 11:43 ). (2. ) One of the priests who accompanied the removal of the ark to Jerusalem ( 1 Chr. 15:24 ).
Valley of Jehoshaphat Place v. 2, 12: Biblical valley. Modern identification: Valley of Jehoshaphat.
Philistia Place v. 4: Biblical region. Modern identification: Tel Ashkelon.
Sidon Place v. 4: A fishery, a town on the Mediterranean coast, about 25 miles north of Tyre. It received its name from the “first-born” of Canaan, the grandson of Noah ( Gen. 10:15 , 19). Modern identification: Sandikli archaeological site in Sidon.
Tyre Place v. 4: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Tyre.
Sheba Place v. 8: (1. ) One of the sons of Cush ( Gen. 10:7 ). (2. ) The name of a country and nation ( Isa. 43:3 ; 45:14 ) mentioned along with Egypt and Ethiopia, and therefore probably in north-eastern Africa. The ancient name of Meroe. Modern identification: Sheba.
Valley of Decision Place v. 14: Biblical valley. Modern identification: Valley of Jehoshaphat.
Zion Place v. 16-17, 21: Biblical settlement. Modern identification: Jerusalem.
Valley of Shittim Place v. 18: Acacias, also called “Abel-shittim”. Modern identification: Wadi en Nar.
Edom Place v. 19: Biblical region. Modern identification: Buseira.
Egypt Place v. 19: The land of the Nile and the pyramids, the oldest kingdom of which we have any record, holds a place of great significance in Scripture. Modern identification: Ain Shams.