Joel 3:1–8

3:1 Joel’s presentation begins with a time reference: “For behold, in those days and at that time . . .” These phrases appear also in Jeremiah 33:15; 50:4, 20 and are always linked to future blessing and promised consolation for God’s people. The promise is of restoration of fortunes, which in similar contexts implies restoration from captivity (cf. similar expressions in Deut. 30:3; Ps. 126:1; Amos 9:14). Thus this expression is tied to the reference to the scattered people of God in the next verse; the desolation of Judah and Jerusalem is to be reversed.

3:2–3 The nations are to be assembled for judgment in the “Valley of Jehoshaphat” (v. 2). No known place bearing this name has been identified, but the phrase was clearly understood to refer to a place of judgment. The name “Jehoshaphat” means “Yahweh judges,” and the very next phrase—“I will enter into judgment with them”—contains the same verb (“to judge”). What is more, this valley is later called “the valley of decision” (v. 14). The judgment, as God declares, is “on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel” (v. 2). This connects to the prayers of the priests mentioned in 2:17 and the statement in 2:18 that God was jealous for his land and pitied his people Israel. This is essentially an application of the principle stated in the covenant with Abraham: whoever dishonors Abraham and his descendants will be cursed by God (Gen. 12:3).

Several reasons are given for this judgment against the nations. The first is that they are responsible for the dispersion of Israel. This is not necessarily a reference to the fall of Jerusalem, for at various other times captives were also taken. One such example is the Israelite girl who was taken captive by the Syrians to work for Naaman’s wife (2 Kings 5:1–5). A second reason relates to a loss of the territorial integrity of Judah’s land, claimed here by God as “my land” but divided up and apportioned among invaders. The casting of lots to apportion the land was clearly acceptable when done by God’s people (Joshua 14–19), but not when done by enemy nations. The third reason is that human life was regarded so lightly that young men could be traded for the use of a prostitute and a young girl sold in payment for wine.

3:4 The question that begins this verse asks what the peoples of Tyre and Sidon and of Philistia have against the Lord. Tyre and Sidon were Phoenician seaports (situated on the southern Mediterranean coast of present-day Lebanon), while the Philistines (from the Mediterranean coastal strip south of modern Joppa) bedeviled Israel and Judah for centuries, at least to the time of Ahaz (cf. Isa. 9:8–12). Swift retribution is threatened against these groups if their opposition is intended as payback for deeds done by the Lord or his people.

3:5 The offense of Tyre, Sidon, and the Philistines is their theft of Israelite/Judean gold, silver, and “rich treasures.” These belonged to the Lord, though it need not be presumed they were temple valuables, as all the wealth of the land was his (cf. Hag. 2:8). In any case, the invaders took them and placed them in their sacred places, temples, and/or palaces, and the use of the Lord’s property in heathen worship or human revelry was a mockery of their intended purpose.

3:6 The enemies of God’s people also sold to the Greeks (lit., “the sons of Yavan”) captives taken from Judah and Jerusalem. That this was trade in humans is brought out in the Hebrew text by the repetition of the word “sons of”: “sons of Judah and sons of Jerusalem” (AT). While there has been much discussion concerning the word “Yavan,” the translators of the LXX clearly thought it was a reference to Greece, translating it as hellas. The loss of able-bodied Israelites would weaken Judah, and sending them as far away as Greece would ensure they could not return in the future to confront the enemies of God’s people. Amos similarly accuses the Philistines and the Phoenicians of being involved in the slave trade (Amos 1:6, 9).

3:7–8 The good news for Judah and Jerusalem is that God will soon stir up those who have been sold into slavery. The verb “stir” is frequently used of God in the OT, especially to denote his sovereign actions in rousing people to act in ways that fulfill his will (cf. Tiglath-pileser, king of Assyria, 1 Chron. 5:26; the Babylonians, Ezek. 23:22–23; the Medes, Isa. 13:17). His people will be aroused from their exilic slumber, with the implication that they will be brought home. By doing so, God will recompense the Philistines and the Phoenicians for their action in selling his people to distant lands (Joel 3:7). God’s judgment will go further, in fact, as the Philistines and the Phoenicians will lose their sons and daughters (cf. comment on the use of “sons” in 3:6) to the people of Judah, who will in turn sell them to the Sabeans, “a nation far away” (v. 8).

The term “Sabeans” denotes the people of Sheba, a country probably situated near present-day Yemen. Those who shipped captives far off will themselves be subjected to the same fate. The geographical aspects of this prophecy are significant. While slaves from Judah had been sold off to the north, now men of Judah will be involved in sending off slaves in the opposite direction, to the far southeast, as fulfillment of the covenantal curse—now applied to Judah’s enemies!—of being scattered among the nations (Lev. 26:33; Deut. 28:64).

This section concludes with the declaration, “for the LORD has spoken.” These words, found also in Obadiah 18, are an assertion of the divine origin of Joel’s message. Joel was the messenger; the message itself came from the Lord.