Joel 3:8
in Joel 3I 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.” Indeed, the LORD has spoken.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the men of Sheba, to a nation far off: for Jehovah hath spoken it.
KJV
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.
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This verse in Joel 3
Commentary
8 notes on this verseI 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.
This site's exposition
what have ye to do with me, O Tyre
on Joel 3:4-8
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.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers1 voice
(Verse 7, 8) Behold, I will raise them up from the place where you sold them, and I will turn your retribution upon your own heads. I will sell your sons and daughters into the hands of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, a distant nation. For the Lord has spoken. LXX: Behold, I will raise them up from the place where you sold them, and I will return your retribution upon your heads.
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah,....
A challenge given to all the enemies of God's kingdom to do their worst. To signify to them that God is preparing war against them, they are called upon to prepare war against him,
Of God's judging all nations when the measure of their iniquity is full, and appearing publicly, to the everlasting confusion of all impenitent sinners and the everlasting comfort of all his faithful servants,
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
proposed
Thirty thousand Tyrians after the capture of Tyre by the last conqueror, and multitudes of Philistines on the taking of Gaza, were sold as slaves. The Jews are here said to do that which the God of Judah does in vindication of their wrong, namely, sell the Phœnicians who sold them, to a people "far off," as was Greece, whither the Jews had been sold.
quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-curly-quotes
1 more voice on this verse
The Nineteenth Century1 voice
A commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
proposed
I will sell your sons - God Himself would reverse the injustice of people. The sons of Zion should be restored, the sons of the Phoenicians and of the Philistines sold into distant captivity. Tyre was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, and then by Alexander, who sold “more than 13,000” of the inhabitants into slavery ; Sidon was taken and destroyed by Artaxerxes Ochus, and it is said, above 40,000 of its inhabitants perished in the flames . The like befell the Philistines (see the notes at Zep 2:4-7). The Sabaeans are probably instanced, as being the remotest nation in the opposite direction, a nation, probably, the partner of Tyre’s traffic in people, as well as in their other merchandise, and who (as is the way of unregenerate nature) would as soon trade in Tyrians, as with Tyrians. The Sabaeans were like the Phoenicians, a wealthy merchant people, and, of old, united with them in the trade of the world, the Sabaeans sending forth their fleets across the Indian Ocean, as the Tyrians along the Mediterranean. Three fathers of distinct races bore the name Sheba; one, a descendant of Ham, the other two, descended from Shem. The Hamite Sheba was the son of Raamah, the son of Cush Gen 10:7, and doubtless dwelt of old in the country on the Persian gulf called by the name Raamah . Traces of the name Sheba occur there, and some even after our era . The Shemite Sabaeans, were, some descendants of Sheba, the tenth son of Joktan Gen 10:28; the others from Sheba, the son of Abraham and Keturah Gen 25:3. The Sabaeans, descended from Joktan, dwelt in the southwest extremity of Arabia, extending from the Red Sea to the Sea of Babel-mandeb. The country is still called “ard-es-Seba” , “land of Saba;” and Saba is often mentioned by Arabic writers . To the Greeks and Latins they were known by the name of one division of the race (Himyar) Homeritae. […]
The words behind it
16 Hebrew wordsEvery Hebrew word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Hebrew | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| וּמָכַרְתִּ֞י | umakharti | and I will sell | H4376 → | 80 times |
| אֶת־ | ʾet- | <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| בְּנֵיכֶ֣ם | beneikhem | sons your | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| וְאֶת־ | veet | and <obj.> | H853 → | 10935 times |
| בְּנֽוֹתֵיכֶ֗ם | benoteikhem | daughters your | H1323 → | |
| בְּיַד֙ | beyad | in [the] hand of | H3027 → | |
| בְּנֵ֣י | benei | [the] people of | H1121 → | 4930 times |
| יְהוּדָ֔ה | yehudah | Judah | H3063 → | 819 times |
| וּמְכָר֥וּם | umekharum | and they will sell them | H4376 → | 80 times |
| לִשְׁבָאיִ֖ם | lishvayim | to [the] Sabeans | H7615 → | |
| אֶל־ | ʾel- | to | H413 → | 5510 times |
| גּ֣וֹי | goy | a nation | H1471 → | 561 times |
| רָח֑וֹק | rachok | distant | H7350 → | |
| כִּ֥י | ki | for | H3588 → | 4482 times |
| יְהוָ֖ה | yahweh | Yahweh | H3068 → | 6520 times |
| דִּבֵּֽר׃ ס | diber | he has spoken | H1696 → |
וּמָכַרְתִּ֞יand I will sell
umakhartiH4376 →80 times
אֶת־<obj.>
ʾet-H853 →10935 times
בְּנֵיכֶ֣םsons your
beneikhemH1121 →4930 times
וְאֶת־and <obj.>
veetH853 →10935 times
בְּנֽוֹתֵיכֶ֗םdaughters your
benoteikhemH1323 →
בְּיַד֙in [the] hand of
beyadH3027 →
בְּנֵ֣י[the] people of
beneiH1121 →4930 times
יְהוּדָ֔הJudah
yehudahH3063 →819 times
וּמְכָר֥וּםand they will sell them
umekharumH4376 →80 times
לִשְׁבָאיִ֖םto [the] Sabeans
lishvayimH7615 →
אֶל־to
ʾel-H413 →5510 times
גּ֣וֹיa nation
goyH1471 →561 times
רָח֑וֹקdistant
rachokH7350 →
כִּ֥יfor
kiH3588 →4482 times
יְהוָ֖הYahweh
yahwehH3068 →6520 times
דִּבֵּֽר׃ סhe has spoken
diberH1696 →
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
Isaiah 60:14The sons of your oppressors will come and bow down to you; all who reviled you will fall facedown at your feet and call you the City of the LORD, Zion of the Holy…
it leads to
- Revelation 3:9
Look at those who belong to the synagogue of Satan, who claim to be Jews but are liars instead. I will make them come and bow down at your feet, and they will know…
- Isaiah 49:23
Kings will be your foster fathers, and their queens your nursing mothers. They will bow to you facedown and lick the dust at your feet. Then you will know that I am the LORD;…
- Isaiah 45:14
This is what the LORD says: “The products of Egypt and the merchandise of Cush, along with the Sabeans, men of stature, will come over to you and will be yours; they will trudge…
- Hebrews 12:22
Instead, you have come to Mount Zion, to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You have come to myriads of angels
- Isaiah 14:1–2
For the LORD will have compassion on Jacob; once again He will choose Israel and settle them in their own land. The foreigner will join them and unite with the house of Jacob.
- Revelation 3:9
Through
Judges 2:14Then the anger of the LORD burned against Israel, and He delivered them into the hands of those who plundered them. He sold them into the hands of their enemies all around, whom they…
it leads to
- Psalms 106:40–42
So the anger of the LORD burned against His people, and He abhorred His own inheritance.
- 2 Kings 17:20
So the LORD rejected all the descendants of Israel. He afflicted them and delivered them into the hands of plunderers, until He had banished them from His presence.
- Deuteronomy 32:30
How could one man pursue a thousand, or two put ten thousand to flight, unless their Rock had sold them, unless the LORD had given them up?
- Psalms 106:40–42
About Joel
Who and where
1 name in this verse with a page on the site.
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Joel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763) and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.