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Joel 3:17

in Joel 3

Then you will know that I am the LORD your God, who dwells in Zion, My holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy, never again to be overrun by foreigners.

BSB

The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾

ASV

So shall ye know that I am Jehovah your God, dwelling in Zion my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there shall no strangers pass through her any more.

KJV

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.

This verse in Joel 3

Commentary

10 notes on this verse

This site's exposition

The sun and moon will grow dark

on Joel 3:15-17

The line "The sun and moon will grow dark, and the stars will no longer shine" repeats the language of 2:10 and 2:31. "The LORD will roar from Zion", as Amos 1:2 opens, shakes heaven and earth, yet the same voice is "a refuge for His people".

This site's exposition

Then you will know that I am the LORD your God

The judgment ends in knowledge of God. Jerusalem is called holy, set apart to the LORD who lives there. Foreign armies will pass through it no more.

The record, by era

The Church Fathers1 voice

A commentator

Jerome

Commentary on Joel · Written before 420.

proposed

(Ver. 16, 17.) And the Lord will roar from Zion, and from Jerusalem He will give His voice, and the heavens and the earth will be moved. And the Lord is the hope of His people and the strength of the children of Israel. And you will know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain. And Jerusalem will be holy, and strangers will not pass through it anymore. LXX: But the Lord will cry out from Zion, and from Jerusalem He will give His voice, and the heavens and the earth will be moved.

The Puritans and the Awakening4 voices

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

In this world, when the judgments of God are abroad, and sinners are falling under them, God is and will be the hope and strength of his people, the strength of their heart, and their portion, when other men's hearts fail them for fear. (3.) Their holiness shall be completed (

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — unbalanced-parens

A commentator

John Wesley

1703–1791

Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament (1765)

proposed

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.
So shall ye know that I am the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain,....

A commentator

Matthew Henry

1662–1714

Commentary on the Whole Bible (1710)

proposed

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.
3 more voices on this verse

The Nineteenth Century3 voices

A commentator

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown

1802–1910

Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)

proposed

shall ye know--experimentally by the proofs of favors which I shall vouchsafe to you. Ho 2:20). dwelling in Zion--as peculiarly your God. holy . . . no strangers pass through--to attack, or to defile, the holy city (Isa 35:8; Strangers, or Gentiles, shall come to Jerusalem, but it shall be in order to worship Jehovah there (Zec 14:16).

quarantine:debris (2026-07-29) — starts-lowercase

A commentator

Adam Clarke

1762–1832

Commentary on the Bible · Written before 1832.

proposed

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.
God Himself wondrously joins on His own words to those of the prophet, and speaks to His own people; “so (literally, and) ye shall know,” by experience, by sight, face to face, what ye now believe, “that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, My holy mountain.” So He saith in the second Psalm, “Then shall he speak unto them” Psa 2:5-6 (the enemies of His Christ) “in His wrath, and vex them in His sore displeasure; And I have set My king on My holy hill of Zion;” and, “Behold the tabernacle of God is with men, and He will dwell with them, and they shall be His people, and God Himself shall be with them, their God” Rev 21:3, dwelling with them and in them, by an unvarying, blissful, hallowing presence, never withdrawn, never hidden, never shadowed, but ever shining upon them. “Your God,” your own, as much as if possessed by none besides, filling all with gladness, yet fully possessed by each, as though there were none besides, so that each may say, “Thou art my Portion, O Lord” Psa 119:57; Lam 3:24; my “Lord, and my God” Joh 20:28, as He saith, “I am thy exceeding great Reward” Gen 15:1. And Jerusalem shall be holy - Literally, “holiness” as John saith, “He carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and shewed me that great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God” Rev 21:10-11. And there shall no stranger pass through her anymore - “Without,” says John, “are dogs and sorcerers, and whoremongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whosoever loveth and maketh a lie” Rev 22:15. None alien from her shall pass through her, so as to have dominion over her, defile or oppress her. This special promise is often repeated. “It shall be called the way of holiness, the unclean shall not pass over it” Isa 35:8. “Henceforth there shall no more come into thee the uncircumcised and the unclean” Isa 52:1. […]

The words behind it

17 Hebrew words

Every 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.

  • וִֽידַעְתֶּ֗םand you will know

    vida'temH3045 →945 times

  • כִּ֣יthat

    kiH3588 →4482 times

  • אֲנִ֤יI

    ʾaniH589 →874 times

  • יְהוָה֙[am] Yahweh

    yahwehH3068 →6520 times

  • אֱלֹ֣הֵיכֶ֔םGod your

    ʾeloheikhemH430 →2601 times

  • שֹׁכֵ֖ן[who] dwells

    shokhenH7931 →

  • בְּצִיּ֣וֹןin Zion

    betziyonH6726 →154 times

  • הַר־[the] mountain of

    har-H2022 →546 times

  • קָדְשִׁ֑יholiness my

    kodshiH6944 →469 times

  • וְהָיְתָ֤הand it will be

    vehayetahH1961 →3559 times

  • יְרוּשָׁלִַ֙ם֙Jerusalem

    yerushalimH3389 →643 times

  • קֹ֔דֶשׁa holy place

    kodeshH6944 →469 times

  • וְזָרִ֥יםand strangers

    vezarimH2114 →

  • לֹא־not

    lo'-H3808 →5168 times

  • יַֽעַבְרוּ־they will pass

    yaavru-H5674 →

  • בָ֖הּin it

    vah

  • עֽוֹד׃ סagain

    odH5750 →490 times

A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.

The walk

8 stops

Each 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

    Revelation 21:27

    But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who practices an abomination or a lie, but only those whose names are written in the Lamb’s Book of Life.

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 52:1

      Awake, awake, clothe yourself with strength, O Zion! Put on your garments of splendor, O Jerusalem, holy city! For the uncircumcised and unclean will no longer enter you.

      Reached by 2 separate paths from here.

    • Revelation 22:14–15

      Blessed are those who wash their robes, so that they may have the right to the tree of life and may enter the city by its gates.

    • Revelation 20:15

      And if anyone was found whose name was not written in the Book of Life, he was thrown into the lake of fire.

    • Revelation 3:5

      Like them, he who overcomes will be dressed in white. And I will never blot out his name from the Book of Life, but I will confess his name before My Father and His…

  • Through

    Nahum 1:15

    Look to the mountains—the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your feasts, O Judah; fulfill your vows. For the wicked will never again march through you; they will be…

    it leads to

    • Isaiah 52:7

      How beautiful on the mountains are the feet of those who bring good news, who proclaim peace, who bring good tidings, who proclaim salvation, who say to Zion, “Your God reigns!”

    • Romans 10:15

      And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written: “How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!”

  • Through

    Joel 2:27

    Then you will know that I am present in Israel and that I am the LORD your God, and there is no other. My people will never again be put to shame.

    it leads to

    • Ezekiel 37:26–28

      And I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant. I will establish them and multiply them, and I will set My sanctuary among them forever.

    • Leviticus 26:11–12

      And I will make My dwelling place among you, and My soul will not despise you.

Where this verse is studied

About Joel

This page draws on 9 works. Open the list of works

This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Carl Friedrich Keil, The Twelve Minor Prophets; Edward Bouverie Pusey, The Minor Prophets: A Commentary; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; Jerome, Commentary on Joel; John Gill, Exposition of the Old Testament (1748-1763); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible.