Joel 3

¹ For, behold, inWhen I will deliver my Church, which consists of both Jews and Gentiles.those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

² I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into theIt appears that he alludes to the great victory of Jehoshaphat, whom God used without man's help to destroy the enemies, (2Ch_20:20-26); also he is referring to this word Jehoshaphat, which signifies pleading or judgment, because God would judge the enemies of his Church, as he did there.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.

³ And they have cast lots for my people; and haveThat which the enemy received for the sale of my people, they bestowed upon harlots and drink.given a boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.

⁴ Yea, andHe takes the cause of his Church in hand against the enemy, as though the injury were done to himself.what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render meHave I done you wrong, that you will render me the same?a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly [and] speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;

⁵ For ye haue taken my siluer and my golde, and haue caried into your temples my goodly and pleasant things.

⁶ The children also of Iudah and the children of Ierusalem haue you solde vnto the Grecians, that ye might send them farre from their border.

⁷ Beholde, I will rayse them out of the place where ye haue sold them, and will render your reward vpon your owne head,

⁸ And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and theyFor afterward God sold them by Nebuchadnezzar and Alexander the Great, because of the love he had for his people, and by this they were comforted, as though they themselves had sold them.shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the LORD hath spoken [it].

⁹ Publish this among the Gentiles: prepare warre, wake vp the mightie men: let all the men of warre drawe neere and come vp.

¹⁰ When I will execute my judgments against my enemies, I will cause everyone to be ready, and to prepare their weapons to destroy one another, for my Church's sake.Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I [am] strong.

¹¹ Assemble your selues, and come all yee heathen and gather your selues together round about: there shall the Lord cast downe the mightie men.

¹² Let the heathen be wakened, and come vp to the valley of Iehoshaphat: for there will I sit to iudge all the heathen round about.

¹³ Put ye in theIn this way he will encourage the enemies when their wickedness is completely ripe to destroy one another, which he calls the valley of God's judgment.sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their wickedness [is] great.

¹⁴ O multitude, O multitude, come into the valley of threshing: for the day of the Lorde is neere in the valley of threshing.

¹⁵ The sunne & moone shalbe darkened, and the starres shall withdrawe their light.

¹⁶ The 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] theGod assures his own against all trouble, that when he destroys his enemies, his children will be delivered.hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel.

¹⁷ 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 passThe strangers will no longer destroy his Church: and if they do, it is the fault of the people, who by their sins make the breach for the enemy.through her any more.

¹⁸ And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] the mountains shallHe promises to his Church abundance of graces, {{See Eze_47:1}}, which would water and comfort the most barren places; (Amo_9:13).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.

¹⁹ The malicious enemies will have no part of these graces.Egypt 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.

²⁰ But Iudah shall dwell for euer, and Ierusalem from generation to generation.

²¹ For I willHe had allowed his Church before this to lie in their filthiness, but now he promises to cleanse them and to make them pure unto himself.cleanse their blood [that] I have not cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.