Joelchapter 3
21 verses · KJVJoel book hub →
Key verse
For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
It stands in Judged in the valley of Jehoshaphat for scattering my people, verses 1 to 8.
The chapter
Chapter summary
The verdict scene. 'In those days… I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat.' The charges are specific: they scattered his people, parted his land, cast lots for his people, sold a boy for a harlot and a girl for wine; Tyre, Sidon, and Philistia trafficked Judah's children. The nations are summoned to arm ('beat your plowshares into swords') and answer to their own destruction: 'Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision!' Jehovah roars from Zion, yet is a refuge to his people. A fountain flows from his house; Judah abides for ever, 'for Jehovah dwelleth in Zion.'
Context
Prophecy · Joel · Joel overview
The world behind this chapter
Joel 3The history
The valley's name is its meaning: Jehoshaphat means the LORD judges. No valley of that name is known from the geography of the period, and the text pairs it with a second name, the valley of decision, which suggests the name is a description of what happens there rather than a map reference.
The rest of the history, and what it meant to them
The specific charge against Tyre, Sidon, and Philistia is slave trading, and it was a real business. Phoenician merchants ran the Mediterranean carrying trade, and selling captives from inland wars to buyers overseas was a standard part of it. The buyers named are the Greeks, far to the west, and the sellers are told their own children will be sold to the Sabeans, the caravan traders of southern Arabia, the far end of the other trade road.
The famous line about beating plowshares into swords is a deliberate reversal of the promise in Isaiah and Micah. The tools named are the working iron of a village: a plough point and a pruning hook, both reforged by the same smith who made them. Joel tells the nations to mobilise every scrap of metal they have, and it will not be enough.
The harvest images at the end are two ways of saying the same thing. The sickle is put in because the grain is ripe, and the winepress is trodden because the vats overflow, treading was done barefoot in a rock-cut basin, and the juice ran through a channel into a lower vat.
What it meant to them
For hearers whose relatives had been carried off by slavers, the promise that God would return their deeds on their own heads was not abstract theology. It was the case finally being heard by a judge who could enforce the verdict.
The last picture is of the land healed: mountains dripping sweet wine, hills flowing with milk, and a spring coming out of the house of the LORD to water the dry valley of acacias. This is the kingdom on the earth after the King returns, Egypt and Edom left desolate for their violence, and Judah inhabited forever.
Sources cited
- Carl Friedrich Keil and Franz Delitzsch, Commentary on the Old Testament: The Minor Prophets
- John H. Walton, Victor H. Matthews, Mark W. Chavalas, The IVP Bible Background Commentary: Old Testament
Where the chapter sits
Joel 3 falls in Spirit poured out; nations judged; Zion blessed (chapters 2:28–3:21). ‘I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh’ (2:28–29, Peter, Acts 2:17–21); the valley of decision; the LORD dwells in Zion.
The valley of decision. The nations gathered for judgment; the LORD dwelling in Zion.
Before it: Locust plague and call to return, chapters 1–2.
The whole shape of Joel→The structure of this chapter
The heads below are this chapter's scenes. The numbered points under each are its verses.
A. Judged in the valley of Jehoshaphat for scattering my people
1. (vv. 1-3)
Joel 3:1
“In those days - When I shall by Cyrus bring Judah out of Babylon. Of Judah - As the type of the whole remnant that are saved. And Jerusalem - For beside what refers to the two tribes restored by Cyrus, the bringing back the captivity of the whole Israel of God by Christ is to be considered all along through this chapter.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
3 more voices on this verseWhat preachers and commentators have said about this verse, in their own words.
Joel 3:1
“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].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Joel 3:1
“It is then no wonder that the Prophet speaks so much at large of the restoration of the Church; he did so, that he might more fully confirm what would have otherwise been incredible.”
John Calvin· Commentaries (1554)reformed
Joel 3:1
“Let my son go, the he may serve me. That in Babylon shall likewise end well. And the Lord Jesus will provide for the effectual redemption of poor enslaved souls from under the dominion of sin and Satan, and will proclaim that acceptable year, the year of jubilee, the release of debts and servants, and the opening of the prison to those that were bound.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Joel 3:2
“The valley of Jehoshaphat - There is no such valley in the land of Judea; and hence the word must be symbolical. It signifies the judgment of God, or Jehovah judgeth; and may mean some place (as Bp. Newcome imagines) where Nebuchadnezzar should gain a great battle, which would utterly discomfit the ancient enemies of the Jews, and resemble the victory which Jehoshaphat gained over the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites, 2Ch 20:22-26. And parted my land - The above nations had frequently entered into the territories of Israel; and divided among themselves the lands they had thus overrun.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Joel 3:2
“All nations - In the type it is all those nations that have oppressed Judah, in the anti-type, all nations that have been enemies to Christ and the church.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Joel 3:2
“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.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Joel 3:3
“And they have cast lots - They treated God’s people as of no account, and delighted in showing their contempt toward them. They chose no one above another, as though all alike were worthless. “They cast lots,” it is said elsewhere, “upon their honorable men” Nah 3:10, as a special indignity, above captivity or slavery. A “girl” they sold for an evening’s revelry, and a “boy” they exchanged for a night’s debauch.”
when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem: For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem ties the chapter to a specific future turning point, though the phrase is used elsewhere of any decisive reversal of fortune and not only of a return from exile, part of why the book's own date has never been settled among the commentators, since Joel names no king of either Israel or Judah. The valley of Jehoshaphat, named only here in the whole Old Testament, is read by the older writers as a symbolic name built from the Hebrew for the Lord judges rather than a location on any map, matching Jehoshaphat's own victory in 2 Chronicles 20 where the Lord fought for Judah without a sword drawn. Casting lots for a boy and selling a girl for wine names the ancient world's most degrading transaction, a human life traded as currency for pleasure, singled out among the nations addressed in what follows.
2. (vv. 4-8)
Joel 3:4
“What have ye to do with me - Why have the Syrians and Sidonians joined their other enemies to oppress my people? for they who touch my people touch me. Will ye render me a recompense? - Do you think by this to avenge yourselves upon the Almighty? to retaliate upon God! Proceed, and speedily will I return your recompense; I will retaliate.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joel 3:5
“Ye have taken My silver and My gold - Not the silver and gold of the temple, (as some have thought.) At least, up to the prophet’s time, they had not done this. For the inroad of the Philistines in the reign of Jehoram was, apparently, a mere marauding expedition, in which they killed and plundered, but are not said to have besieged or taken any city, much less Jerusalem.”
Joel 3:6
“Sold unto the Grecians - These were the descendants of Javan, Gen 10:2-5. And with them the Tyrians trafficked, Eze 27:19. That ye might remove them far from their border - Intending to send them as far off as possible, that it might be impossible for them to get back to reclaim the land of which you had dispossessed them.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Joel 3:6
“Grecians--literally, "Javanites," that is, the Ionians, a Greek colony on the coast of Asia Minor who were the first Greeks known to the Jews. The Greeks themselves, however, in their original descent came from Javan (Ge 10:2, 4).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Joel 3:7
“Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them,.... That is, bring them back to their own land, from their places whither they have been carried captive, and where they have dwelt in obscurity, and as if theft had been buried in graves, but now should be raised up and restored; and this their restoration will be as life from the dead.”
2 more voices on this verse
Joel 3:7
“Behold I will raise them - If this promise relates to the same individuals who had been sold, it must have been fulfilled silently; as indeed the return of captives to their own land, unless brought about by some historical event, belongs not to history, but to private life. The prophet, however, is probably predicting God’s dealings with the nations, not with those individuals. The enslaving of these Hebrews in the time of Joram was but one instance out of a whole system of covetous misdeeds.”
Joel 3:7
“I will raise them - This was fulfilled when Alexander, and his successors dismissed all the Jews that were slaves in Greece, and gave them leave to return to their own country.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Joel 3:8
“I will sell your sons - When Alexander took Tyre, he reduced into slavery all the lower people, and the women. Arrian, lib. ii., says that thirty thousand of them were sold. Artaxerxes Ochus destroyed Sidon, and subdued the other cities of Phoenicia. In all these wars, says Calmet, the Jews, who obeyed the Persians, did not neglect to purchase Phoenician slaves, whom they sold again to the Sabeans, or Arabs.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
what have ye to do with me, O Tyre: Yea, and what have ye to do with me indicts Tyre, Zidon, and Palestine by name for temple robbery and slave trading, silver and gold carried into their own temples and Judah's children sold to the Grecians, the Ionian slave markets of the eastern Mediterranean the commentators identify behind the reference. Swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head states the principle of measure for measure as explicitly as anywhere in the Twelve, the same law Obadiah names for Edom. The reversal promised, selling the traders' own sons and daughters to the Sabeans, a people far off, matches the crime to its punishment in kind, the far country that received Judah's children now receiving the traders' own.
B. Beat plowshares into swords; multitudes in the valley of decision
1. (vv. 9-12)
Joel 3:9
“When the hour of God's judgment shall come effectual methods shall be taken to gather all nations to the battle of that great day of God Almighty, Rev. xvi. It seems to be here spoken ironically: " Proclaim you this among the Gentiles; let all the forces of the nations be summoned to join in confederacy against God and his people." It is like that, Isa. vii.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Joel 3:10
“Beat your plowshares into swords - Peace had been already promised, as a blessing of the gospel. “In His days,” foretold Solomon, “shall the righteous flourish, and abundance of peace, so long as the moon endureth” Psa 72:7. And another, “He maketh thy borders peace” Psa 147:14. Peace within with God flows forth in peace with man. “Righteousness and peace kissed each other” Psa 85:10. Where there is not rest in God, all is unrest. And so, all which was needful for life, the means of subsistence, care of health, were to be forgotten for war.”
Joel 3:11
“When they bring their forces into the field, let God bring his, let the archangel's trumpet sound a charge, to call together his mighty ones, that is, his angels. Perhaps it is with reference to this that Christ's coming from heaven at the last day is said to be with his mighty angels, 2 Thess. i.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Joel 3:11
“Rather, Joel speaks of God's really "mighty ones" in contrast to the self-styled "mighty men" (Joe 3:9; Isa 13:3; compare Da 10:13). AUBERLEN remarks: One prophet supplements the other, for they all prophesied only "in part." What was obscure to one was revealed to the other; what is briefly described by one is more fully so by another.”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Joel 3:12
“It is not only, Come if you dare, but You shall come whether you will or no, for there is no escaping the judgments of God. A charge given to the ministers of God's justice to appear and act against these daring enemies of his kingdom among men: And therefore cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord!”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles: , prepare war deliberately inverts the plowshares oracle shared by Isaiah 2:4 and Micah 4:3, beat your swords into plowshares, and your spears into pruninghooks, turning the vision of peace back into a summons to battle, the same reversal aimed at the nations that the earlier prophets aim toward Israel's own future. Let the weak say, I am strong is read by the older writers as either the nations' own false bravado marching to its own doom or an ironic command, the reading stated without settling which. 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 names the valley's purpose plainly, a courtroom rather than merely a battlefield, the Lord himself seated as judge over every nation gathered.
2. (vv. 13-14)
Joel 3:13
“The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the angels. And they are commanded to thrust in their sickle. their sharp sickle, and gather in both the harvest and the vintage, Rev. xiv. Note, The greatness of men's wickedness makes them ripe for God's judgment.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Joel 3:13
“The press - As the grapes in the press are trod, so the enemies of God's people, are to be trodden in the wine-press of God's displeasure. Overflow - The blood of slaughtered men runs as wine prest out, in greater abundance than the vats can hold. Is great - The violence and all manner of sins of these kingdoms is grown exceeding great.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Joel 3:14
“Multitudes, multitudes - המנים המנים hamonim, hamonim, crowds upon crowds, in the valley of decision, or excision: the same as the valley of Jehoshaphat, the place where God is to execute judgment on his enemies.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
2 more voices on this verse
Joel 3:14
“The day of judgment will be the day of decision, when every man's eternal state will be determined, and the controversy that has been long depending between the kingdom of Christ and that of Satan shall be finally decided, and an end put to the struggle. The valley of the distribution of judgment (so the Chaldee), when every man shall receive according to the things done in the body.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Joel 3:14
“The prophet in vision seeing the immense array of nations congregating, exclaims, "Multitudes, multitudes!" a Hebraism for immense multitudes. valley of decision--that is, the valley in which they are to meet their "determined doom." The same as "the valley of Jehoshaphat," that is, "the valley of judgment" (see on Joe 3:2).”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: and the press is full, the fats overflow, gives judgment the same two images the book has already used of blessing in chapter 2, harvest and winepress, now turned to their darker sense, wickedness ripe for reaping rather than grain ripe for gathering. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision renames the valley of Jehoshaphat a second time, decision carrying the sense of a verdict rendered rather than any choice the multitudes themselves are making. The day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision repeats the book's refrain from 1:15 and 2:1 for the final time, the phrase that has bound all three chapters together landing here at the judgment it always pointed toward.
3. (vv. 15-16)
Joel 3:15
“The sun and the moon shall be darkened - This may be, either that they shall be outshone by the brightness of the glory of Christ, or that they themselves shall undergo a change, whereof the darkness at the Crucifixion was an image.”
Joel 3:16
“The Lord also shall roar out of Zion - His temple and worship shall be reestablished there, and he will thence denounce his judgments against the nations. “The heavens and the earth shall shake.” There shall be great commotions in powerful empires and their dependencies; but in all these things his own people shall be unmoved, for God shall be their hope and strength.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Joel 3:16
“To the wicked it will be a terrible day. The Lord shall then speak from Zion and Jerusalem, from the throne of his glory, from heaven, where he manifests himself in a peculiar manner, as sometimes he has done in the glorious high throne of his sanctuary, which yet was but a faint resemblance of the glory of that day.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Joel 3:15-17
The sun and the moon shall be darkened: repeats 2:10 and 2:31's language once more, binding the locust plague, the Pentecost promise, and this final judgment together under one recurring description rather than three unrelated events. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, quoted almost word for word at Amos 1:2, pictures the Lord as a lion whose voice alone shakes heaven and earth, yet the same voice that terrifies the nations is named the hope of his people in the very next clause. So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain promises a Jerusalem where no strangers pass through her any more, a restoration the commentators tie to the temple's presence, and readers differ on how far into the future the promise reaches, positions named and not adjudicated here.
C. A fountain from the house of the LORD, and Judah forever
1. (v. 17)
Joel 3:17
“So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain,....”
3 more voices on this verse
Joel 3:17
“So shall ye know - By the judgments I execute on your enemies, and the support I give to yourselves, that I am the all-conquering Jehovah; and that I have again taken up my residence in Jerusalem. All this may refer, ultimately, to the restoration of the Jews to their own land; when holiness to the Lord shall be their motto; and no strange god, or impure people, shall be permitted to enter the city, or even pass through it; they shall have neither civil nor religious connections with any who do not worship the true God in spirit and in truth. This, I think, must refer to Gospel times. It is a promise not ye fulfilled.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
Joel 3:17
“By the sanctifying and glorifying of the church God will be known in his holiness and glory, as the God that dwells in his holy mountain and makes it holy by dwelling in it; and those that are sanctified and glorified are so through the knowledge of him that called them. The knowledge which true believers have of God is, [1.] An appropriating knowledge.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Joel 3:17
“Dwelling - Very graciously present with you, and ever watching over you, and delighting to save you. Then - After her enemies are destroyed and the remnant is saved, and the Messiah is come; for to him and his days these things ultimately refer. Jerusalem - The church of Christ.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
2. (vv. 18-21)
Joel 3:18
“In that day - After their return from their captivities. The mountains shall drop down new wine - A poetic expression for great fertility. Happy times: peace and plenty. The vines shall grow luxuriantly on the sides of the mountains; and the hills shall produce such rich pastures that the flocks shall yield abundance of milk. And all the rivers of Judah - Far from being generally dry in the summer, shall have their channels always full of water.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Joel 3:18
“This no doubt is a shadow of the purifying blood of Christ, and his sanctifying spirit and word. And in that it is said to come from the house of the Lord, it intimates that this saving grace shall be first preached from Jerusalem, and by the church, which is the house of God, shall be published to others.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
Joel 3:19
“Egypt shall be a desolation - “Egypt” and “Edom” represent each a different class of enemies of the people of God, and both together exhibit the lot of all. Egypt was the powerful oppressor, who kept Israel long time in hard bondage, and tried, by the murder of their male children, to extirpate them.”
2 more voices on this verse
Joel 3:19
“No strength nor wealth of a nation is a defence against the judgment of God. But what is the quarrel God has with these potent kingdoms? It is for their violence against the children of Judah, and the injuries they had done them; see Ezek. xxv.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Joel 3:19
“Egypt under Shishak spoiled Jerusalem under Rehoboam of the treasures of the temple and the king's house; subsequently to the captivity, it inflicted under the Ptolemies various injuries on Judea. Antiochus spoiled Egypt (Da 11:40-43). Edom was made "desolate" under the Maccabees [JOSEPHUS, Antiquities, 12.11,12].”
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown· Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)reformed
Joel 3:20
“But Judah shall dwell for ever - The true Church of Christ shall be supported, while all false and persecuting Churches shall be annihilated. The promise may also belong to the full and final restoration of the Jews, when they shall dwell at Jerusalem as a distinct people professing the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Adam Clarke· Commentary on the Bible (1810-1826)evangelical
1 more voice on this verse
Joel 3:20
“This is a promise, and a precious promise it is, (1.) That the church of Christ shall continue in the world to the end of time. As one generation of professing Christians passes away, another shall come, in whom the throne of Christ shall endure for ever, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
Joel 3:21
“Here, though they are washing daily, there is still something that is not cleansed; but in heaven, even that also shall be done away. And the reason is because the Lord dwells in Zion, dwells with his church, and much more gloriously with that in heaven, and holiness becomes his house for ever, for which reason, where he dwells there must be, there shall be, a perfection of holiness.”
Matthew Henry· Commentary on the Whole Bible (1707-1721)puritan
1 more voice on this verse
Joel 3:21
“And I will cleanse - Purge away both by the spirit of sanctification and by free pardon in the blood of the redeemer. Their blood - Their sinfulness, which before I had not taken away.”
John Wesley· Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)evangelical
the mountains shall drop down new wine: , and the hills shall flow with milk pictures abundance in agricultural terms once more, the same vocabulary chapter 2 used for the locust years reversed, now describing the age the book's judgment opens onto. A fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord, and shall water the valley of Shittim gives Ezekiel 47's river from the temple and Zechariah 14:8's living waters an early expression here, Shittim itself the place of Israel's worst apostasy in Numbers 25 now named as ground the temple's own water reaches. Egypt and Edom stand judged for violence against Judah while Judah shall dwell for ever, and the book's last words, for the Lord dwelleth in Zion, close on the same presence Ezekiel's temple vision and Revelation's holy city each return to in their own way, positions on how literally or how far off this reaches held across the tradition without a verdict stamped here.
This page carries no textual note on Joel 3. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
Sources for this chapter
The summary
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.
The exposition
Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.