Joel 3

Look: in those days, at that time, I will bring Judah and Jerusalem back from being captives in other lands.

1For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

Note"Bring again the captivity" translates a Hebrew phrase that can mean either "bring back the captives" or, more broadly, "restore the fortunes", reverse a nation's reversal. Both senses are in play here. (In Hebrew Bibles this material is chapter 4; what English Bibles print as Joel 2:28-32 is Hebrew chapter 3, so verse numbers differ between editions.)

2I will also gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will put them on trial over what they did to my people Israel, who belong to me. They scattered my people among the nations and divided up my land.

2I 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.

NoteNo valley named for Jehoshaphat is known from geography; the name itself means "the LORD judges," and the passage seems to be using it for that meaning rather than pointing to a place on a map. Later tradition identified it with the Kidron valley east of Jerusalem, but that identification came centuries afterward. KJV "plead with them" does not mean beg. In older English, to plead a case meant to bring a lawsuit; the picture is a courtroom, not a request. "Parted my land" refers to the standard practice of conquerors carving up captured territory and reassigning it among themselves.

3They threw lots to split up my people. They traded a boy to pay for a prostitute, and they sold a girl to buy wine to drink.

3And 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.

NoteCasting lots was how victorious armies divided plunder, including human prisoners, by chance, so that no one could claim favoritism. The two trades that follow name a price: a captive boy handed over to pay a prostitute's fee, a captive girl exchanged for a single drink. The point is the cheapness.

4And you, Tyre and Sidon, and all the districts of Philistia, what quarrel do you have with me? Are you paying me back for something? If you try to pay me back, I will return your payment on your own heads, quickly and without delay.

4Yea, 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;

NoteTyre and Sidon were Phoenician port cities on the Mediterranean coast north of Israel, the great sea-traders of the age. "Philistia" (KJV "Palestine") was the coastal strip southwest of Judah, made up of five cities. Both were neighbors with long records of raiding Judah and dealing in slaves. "Recompence" is an accounting word: payment owed, a score settled. The question is whether they think they are collecting a debt from God.

5You took my silver and my gold, and you carried my finest treasures into your temples.

5Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:

NoteCarrying a defeated nation's treasures into your own temple was the customary way of displaying a victory: the loot was set before your god as proof that your god had won. So this is not simple theft but a public humiliation of the god whose treasures they were.

6You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, to move them far away from their own homeland.

6The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.

NoteThe Hebrew is "sons of Javan," the Greeks of the Aegean world. In this period Greek traders were at the far end of the known slave routes; selling captives to them meant selling them beyond any realistic hope of ransom or return, which is exactly the point of "far away from their own homeland."

7But I will stir them up and bring them out of the places where you sold them, and I will return your payment on your own heads.

7Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head:

8I will sell your sons and your daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away. The LORD has said it.

8And 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.

NoteThe Sabeans came from Sheba in southwest Arabia (modern Yemen), the caravan traders at the opposite end of the trade network from the Greeks. The threat mirrors the crime: sold as far in one direction as the Judeans were sold in the other.

9Announce this among the nations: Get ready for war! Wake up the fighters! Have all the soldiers come forward and attack.

9Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:

10Hammer your plow blades into swords, and your pruning knives into spears. Let the weak man say, "I am strong."

10Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

NoteThis deliberately reverses a well-known saying, preserved in Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3, in which nations beat their swords into plowshares and study war no more. Here the picture runs backwards. A plowshare was the iron blade of a plow and a pruning hook a short curved knife for cutting vines, the two most common iron tools a farmer owned, and the obvious raw material when a village had to arm itself in a hurry.

11Come quickly, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves together. Bring down your warriors there, LORD.

11Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O LORD.

NoteThe last line abruptly stops addressing the nations and addresses God, and it is unclear who is speaking, the prophet breaking in, or the summons continuing. "Mighty ones" may mean human troops or a heavenly army; the Hebrew does not settle it. Some ancient versions read the line differently again, which is why translations of this verse vary.

12Let the nations rouse themselves and come up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, because there I will sit down to judge all the nations on every side.

12Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round about.

13Swing the sickle, because the crop is ripe. Come and tread the grapes, because the winepress is full and the vats are overflowing. Their wickedness is that great.

13Put 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.

NoteTwo harvest images side by side. The sickle is the curved blade used for cutting grain. A winepress was a shallow rock-cut basin where grapes were trodden underfoot, with a channel running the juice down into lower collecting vats (KJV "fats," an old spelling of "vats"). Overflowing vats normally signaled an unusually good year; here the abundance is of something else.

14Crowds and crowds are in the valley of decision! The day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

14Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the day of the LORD is near in the valley of decision.

NoteThe Hebrew word behind "decision" comes from a root meaning to cut or sharpen, and is used both for a verdict that has been handed down and for a sharp threshing sledge. Either sense fits, and the wordplay is probably intended. "The day of the LORD" was a fixed expression among the prophets for the day God arrives to settle accounts with the nations, originally, it seems, a day the people expected to go in their favor.

15The sun and the moon will go dark, and the stars will stop shining.

15The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall withdraw their shining.

NoteSun, moon and stars going dark is stock prophetic language for the arrival of that day; the same lines appear in Joel 2:10 and in other prophets. It is the standard vocabulary for the world reacting to God's arrival, not a separate prediction about astronomy.

16The LORD will roar from Zion and shout from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth will shake. But the LORD will be a safe place for his people, a strong shelter for the people of Israel.

16The 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.

Note"Roar" is lion language, the sound a lion makes over its prey, and Amos opens with the identical line. Zion was the hill Jerusalem's temple stood on, and by extension a name for the city itself.

17Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who lives in Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, and foreigners will never march through her again.

17So 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.

18On that day the mountains will drip with sweet new wine, and the hills will flow with milk. Every streambed in Judah will run with water. A spring will flow out of the house of the LORD and water the Valley of Shittim.

18And 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.

NoteTerraced hillsides planted with vines, and hill country grazed by goats and sheep, are being pictured as producing so heavily that wine and milk run down the slopes. "Every streambed" translates a word for a wadi, a channel that is dry most of the year and carries water only after rain, so a wadi running with water is itself the marvel. The Valley of Shittim means "valley of the acacias." Acacias grow in dry ground, so the name signals desert; a spring from the temple reaching that far is the extreme case.

19Egypt will become a wasteland, and Edom will become a desert ruin, because of the violence they did to the people of Judah, in whose land they spilled innocent blood.

19Egypt 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.

NoteEgypt to the southwest and Edom to the southeast were Judah's long-standing neighbors and long-standing enemies; Edom, reckoned as descended from Esau, Jacob's brother, was resented particularly for turning on Judah when Jerusalem fell.

20But people will live in Judah forever, and in Jerusalem for all generations.

20But Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from generation to generation.

21I will clear away the guilt for their spilled blood, which I have not yet cleared away. And the LORD lives in Zion.

21For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.

NoteThe Hebrew verb here is genuinely disputed. It can mean "acquit, leave unpunished", the sense the KJV takes with "cleanse", or, with a slightly different reading of the text, "avenge, hold accountable," which is how many modern translations take it. The two give nearly opposite pictures: guilt wiped away, or blood paid for. The manuscripts do not settle which was meant.