Chapter Three

1–15. The judgment of the Lord upon the nations in the valley of Jehoshaphat. 16–21. The blessed state of Israel.

Joel 3:1. “For behold, in those days and at that very time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem, In the end of Joel 2 the prophet spoke of the day of the Lord in relation to the Jews; in Joel 3 he speaks of the significance of that day for the nations. Joel 3:1 connects to Joel 2:32 – salvation will be only on Zion, for all other nations must undergo the judgment of God. “In those days and at that very time,” that is, at the time when the Holy Spirit is poured out upon all flesh, when the restoration of the well-being of Judah and Jerusalem is accomplished. The expression “restore the fortunes” (aschiv schevuth) means not only the return of captives, but also the return to them of what they enjoyed before the captivity (cf. Job 42:10). In speaking of captivity, the prophet may have had in mind both the minor captivities of the Hebrews, which began in ancient times (cf. Amos 1:6-9), and the Babylonian captivity, which he foresaw (St. Cyril of Alexandria).

Joel 3:2. “I will gather all the nations and bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will judge them there on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and my land they have divided. All the nations (kol hagoim), the pagan nations, according to the prophet’s depiction, are to be gathered for judgment in the valley of Jehoshaphat (emek jehoschafath). Many commentators take the Hebrew jehoschafath in a common noun sense – the Lord judged – and understand the prophet’s words to mean an indefinite reference to some valley that will become the valley of God’s judgment (Merks, Keil, Nowack) (Bp. Palladius). Other interpreters (Ewald, Hitzig, Hoonacker, Dobronravov) take jehoschafath as a proper noun and see in Joel 3:2 a mention of that valley where, during the reign of the Judean king Jehoshaphat, the allied forces of the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites that attacked Judea were miraculously struck down (2 Chr 20:1). In this same valley the people glorified the Lord for the miraculous deliverance, and so the valley received the name emek berachah, the valley of blessing (2 Chr 20:26). In present times the name Jehoshaphat is given to the valley lying between the Mount of Olives and the hill of Moriah, to the east of Jerusalem. But this valley was not the battlefield during Jehoshaphat’s reign and was named after him for other reasons – either by supposition (cf. 2 Chr 21:1) that it was the burial place of Jehoshaphat or because the king established certain institutions there. The prophet may have had in mind not this valley, but another, which, as appears from 2 Chr 20, was located south of Bethlehem in the wilderness of Tekoa (now Wadi-Bereikut). According to 2 Chronicles this valley was called the “valley of blessing,” but besides this name, according to the testimony of the Talmud, it had other names (Erubin 19a); therefore, it could also have been called the valley of Jehoshaphat. The prophet’s words that the Lord will gather all nations in the valley of Jehoshaphat need not be understood in a literal sense (According to the testimony of blessed Jerome in his commentaries on the prophet Joel, even in his time the Jews believed that they would all be returned to Jerusalem and that the pagan nations would be cut down by the sword in the valley of Jehoshaphat. This faith is preserved among the Jews even today. See Dobronravov, p. 378.). The prophet wishes only to express the thought that on the day of the Lord’s judgment upon the nations, something similar will occur to what happened in the valley of blessing during Jehoshaphat’s reign. The judgment upon the pagan nations, according to Joel 3:2, will be executed because “they scattered Israel among the nations, and divided my land.” It is difficult to say what specific facts the prophet has in mind in the last words. Those commentators who regard Joel as a post-exilic prophet see in the cited words a reference to the period of the captivity in the subsequent century, when the land of Judea was divided among the tribes that settled in it. Other commentators understand the prophet’s words either in relation to the misfortunes that befell Judea during the reign of Joram (cf. 2 Sam 8:20-22; 2 Chr 21:8-18), or in relation to all subsequent enemy attacks, which attacks Joel prophetically recounts. In the Greek-Slavonic translation, the end of Joel 3:2 deviates from the original: “concerning Israel, who were scattered among the nations and divided my land.”

Joel 3:3. “And for my people they cast lots, and traded a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine that they might drink. “And for my people they cast lots,” the division of captives by lot was an ancient custom of conquerors (cf. Nah 3:10; Obad 1:11). “And traded a boy for a harlot” (bezzonah), Slavonic “and gave boys to harlots:” the prophet’s thought is that Hebrew boys were given as payment to harlots – they valued them so little. Merks and Nowack, in view of the following words “and sold a girl for wine,” propose reading bamazzon, for food, instead of bazzonah, for harlots, in the expression under consideration.

Joel 3:4. “Moreover, what are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon and all the regions of Philistia? Are you paying me back in return? If you are paying me back, I will swiftly return your retaliation on your own head, Among the nations that face punishment on the day of judgment, the prophet names the Phoenicians and Philistines. “What are you to me, O Tyre and Sidon and all the regions of Philistia?” The prophet wishes to say by this question that these cities and regions, like others, will be punished. Tyre and Sidon are the chief cities of Phoenicia. By the regions of the Philistines are understood the cities of Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Gath, and Ekron, located along the western shore of the Mediterranean Sea. Instead of the words “and all the regions of the Philistines” vecol geliloth pelascheth, the LXX reads καὶ πᾶσα ηαλιλαί ἀλλοφυλών, Slavonic “and all the Galilee of foreigners.” It appears that the LXX took the Hebrew geliloth in the sense of a proper noun – the northern region of Palestine, Galilee (cf. Josh 20:7; 1 Sam 9:11), which, according to the testimony of blessed Theodoret, belonged to Tyre. It is also possible that, as in Josh 22:10, the Hebrew geliloth was left untranslated and transcribed as ηαλιλὼθ; from Γαλιλὼθ later copyists made ηαλιλαία (Yakimov). The Hebrew pelescheth or peloscheth, the name of the land of the Philistines, derived from an unused verb palasch, means “land of foreigners.” In the LXX, therefore, it is constantly rendered by the word ἀλλιφ`υλος. “Are you paying me back in return?” that is, do you wish to avenge yourselves for the defeats you have suffered from me. It is supposed that the prophet speaks of the attack of the Philistines on Jerusalem during the reign of Joram. By this attack the Philistines, in the prophet’s thought, as it were avenged themselves upon the Lord upon his chosen people because he allowed them to be tributaries of the Hebrews during Jehoshaphat’s reign (2 Chr 17:11). “Do you harbor a grudge against me?” Slavonic “or do you bear malice against me?”: the thought is the same as that expressed in the preceding sentence.

Joel 3:5. “Because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my precious treasures into your temples, Joel 3:6. “And the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem you have sold to the Greeks, that you might remove them far from their own border. Thus the crime of the Phoenicians and Philistines (“vengeance” against the Lord) consisted in the fact that they plundered the Judean land and sold captive Hebrews to distant lands. According to the explanation of the Church Fathers, in Joel 3:5-6 the prophet has in mind future events – the invasion of the Babylonians (blessed Theodoret), the time of Zerubbabel (St. Ephrem the Syrian), or the era of Roman rule (blessed Jerome). But it may be thought that the prophet speaks of the plundering of Jerusalem by the Philistines, which occurred during the reign of Joram (2 Chr 21:16-17), although in the narrative of 2 Chronicles there is no mention of the fate of the Phoenicians. By the words “my silver” and “my gold” the thought is given that both the land of the chosen people and all its possessions are the property of the Lord. But strictly speaking, the prophet speaks of the treasures of the temple. “And my finest treasures,” Hebrew umahamaddaj hattovim, in Slavonic “my chosen ones and good things,” corresponding to the reading of some Greek manuscripts: τὰ ἐπιλεκτά μου καὶ τὰ καλὰ. “You sold the people of Judah and the people of Jerusalem to the Greeks,” from the Hebrew libnej hajjeyanim to the sons of Javan: in the prophet Ezekiel there is mentioned (Ezek 27:19) a city of Javan (javan), which was located in happy Arabia. Some commentators (Hitzig, Wünsche) also see in the cited words of the prophet Joel a reference to the inhabitants of Javan in Arabia. But in the Bible, javan is ordinarily used as the name of Ionia or Greece (Isa 66:19; Ezek 27:13; Zech 9:13). This meaning is most natural to accept for the word javan also in Joel 3:6 of the prophet Joel. The Phoenicians, not only in post-exilic times, but in deep antiquity had trading relations with Greek tribes, with slaves being a subject of trade (Iliad VI, 28; XXIII, 741–745; Odyssey XV, 402). The prophet, it appears, speaks precisely of the sale into slavery in Greece of Judean captives.

Joel 3:7. “Behold, I am going to rouse them from the place to which you have sold them, and I will return your retaliation on your own head. “And I will return your retaliation (Slavonic ‘your recompense’) on your own head”: retaliation or recompense is called, as also in Joel 3:4, the attack of enemies on Israel, whereby the enemies as it were avenged themselves upon the Lord.

Joel 3:8. “Behold, I am going to sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away,” for the Lord has spoken. As a punishment for the sale of Judean captives, the enemies of Judah are threatened with sale into slavery to the Sabeans. The land of the Sabeans or Sheba, which was famous for aromatic substances, gold, and precious stones (Isa 60:6; 1 Sam 10:1; Ps 71:15), and which conducted extensive trade, was located in happy Arabia, on the shores of the Red Sea. The LXX took the Hebrew lischevaim (to the Sabeans) as a plural form of schevi captivity, and translated it εὶς αὶχμαλωσίαν, hence in Slavonic: “into captivity, to a land far distant.” The words of the prophet in Joel 3:7-8 may be understood in a general sense of the return of the scattered Jews to their homeland and of their dominion over their enemies (Hengstenberg). But it is possible to see the fulfillment of the prophecy of Joel also in those conquests of the land of the Philistines, which were carried out by the Jews under Uzziah and Hezekiah (2 Chr 26:6 ff., 2 Sam 18:9), as well as in post-exilic times, and specifically in the era of the Maccabees (1 Macc 10:86).

Joel 3:9. “Proclaim this among the nations: Prepare for war; rouse the mighty men; let all the soldiers draw near and come up. Beginning with Joel 3:9, there is a depiction of the very picture of universal judgment, whose coming the prophet proclaimed in Joel 3:2. “Proclaim this,” Slavonic “announce these things:”: it is not entirely clear to whom the prophet is speaking – to the nations (Ephrem the Syrian, blessed Jerome, Keil), or to the Hebrews (Dobronravov). One may understand the prophet’s words also as an address, as it were, to heralds, who must summon the pagan nations. “Prepare for war:”: more precisely from the Hebrew, sanctify war, kaddeschu milchamah, that is, offer sacrifices, pray (cf. 1 Sam 7:8; Jer 6:4). “Rouse the mighty men” hairu haggjbborim, Slavonic “let the warriors arise:”: the verb hairu (from ur) has both transitive and intransitive meaning (Job 8:6). Therefore, some understand the cited words as an address to the mighty men: arise, mighty ones. “Let all the soldiers draw near,” Slavonic “lead them,” Greek προσαγάγετε: the verb προσάγω has both transitive and intransitive meaning (cf. Josh 3:9), in which, apparently, it was used in the LXX in the passage under consideration. In Slavonic it should be, as also in Josh 3:9; 1 Sam 9:18, “come near,” “draw nigh.”

Joel 3:10. “Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears; let the weak say ‘I am strong.’ According to some (Nowack), the prophet’s speech is addressed to the nations, who are invited abundantly to prepare weapons for the forthcoming struggle; according to others, to the Jews. The images used in Joel 3:10 are found also in Isa 2:4 and Mic 4:3.

Joel 3:11. “Hasten and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves; there bring your mighty men down, O Lord. “There bring your mighty men down, O Lord:”: “there,” that is, into the valley of Jehoshaphat, where judgment is to take place; “mighty men” (Hebrew gibborim, strong ones), that is, the Angels, who fulfill the will of God (cf. Ps 102:20) and who will appear as instruments of God’s judgment over the nations. But it should be noted that in the ancient translations the cited words are read differently than in the original text: in the Peshitta – “and there the Lord will crush your strength”; in the Chaldean paraphrase – “there the Lord will crush the strength of their mighty men”; in the LXX and in Slavonic – “let the meek be brave.”

Joel 3:12. “Let the nations stir themselves and come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat; for there I will sit to judge all the nations all around. Joel 3:12-13 presents the answer of the Lord to the prayer of the prophet in Joel 3:11: “bring your mighty men.”

Joel 3:13. “Put in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; go in, tread, for the wine press is full, and the vats overflow, for their wickedness is great. “Put in the sickle” and so on: the speech is from the face of God and is addressed to the mighty men, that is, to the Angels, whom the Lord has brought to the valley of judgment. “Go, descend” go – into the valley of Jehoshaphat; instead of “tread” in Slavonic “trample” (πατεῖτε); the LXX derived the Hebrew redu, in accordance with the context, not from jarad descended (as in Russian), but from radah to tread. “For the wine press is full and the vats overflow:”: a wine press (Hebrew gath) – an indentation for pressing grapes and olives, hewn in a rock or dug in the earth and lined with stone. The wine press consisted of two parts: the actual wine press, where grapes or olives were placed, and the cistern or vat, where the pressed juice flowed (cf. Zech 14:10; Isa 5:2; Matt 21:33; Mark 12:1; Rev 14:20). The image of harvest and gathering of grapes – an image of terrible judgment. The image of the harvest conveys the thought that judgment will come at the appointed time, when the harvest ripens, and that at judgment there will be a separation of good from evil, similar to how after the harvest of grain, during threshing and winnowing, the grains are separated from the chaff (cf. Matt 13:39; Rev 14:15-18). The image of the wine press is an image of the wrath of God, inflamed against sinners and consuming them, similar to how the grapes are pressed in the wine press. – Instead of the words “for the harvest is ripe,” in Slavonic: “for the gathering of grapes is at hand” (ὁτρυγητός). The Greek τρυγητός means not only the gathering of grapes, but also the harvest in general.

Joel 3:14. “Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision! For the day of the Lord is near in the valley of decision. The prophet already beholds the nations gathered in the valley of judgment. By the repetition of hamonim, hamonim (multitudes, multitudes), the prophet indicates the countless multitude that has assembled. The Hebrew hamonim means both a cry and a crying crowd. Hence the LXX translated it ηχονἐξήχησαν, Slavonic “voices rang forth;”; the second hamonim the LXX probably took as a predicate and read hamenim – “voices sounding.” “In the valley of decision,” Hebrew beemek hecharuz. The Hebrew charuz in Isa 28:27 has the meaning – “threshing machine,” “thresher.” In this meaning some commentators (Credner, Holzhausen) accept the word charuz also in the passage under consideration, seeing here an indication that the nations in the valley of Jehoshaphat will be treated the same as captives who are struck by threshers (cf. 2 Sam 12:30; 2 Sam 13:7 and others). However, it is generally accepted to understand charuz in Joel 3:14 in the sense of judgment, decision.

Joel 3:16. “And the Lord roars from Zion and utters his voice from Jerusalem, and the heavens and the earth quake; but the Lord is a refuge for his people and a stronghold for the people of Israel. Beginning with Joel 3:16, the prophet speaks of the significance of the day of judgment for the people of God. In striking down the nations, the Lord will appear as a refuge for Israel, which will flourish in blessedness.

Joel 3:17. “Then you will know that I am the Lord your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain; and Jerusalem shall be holy, and strangers shall not pass through it anymore. “Dwelling in Zion:”: according to the depiction of the prophet Ezekiel, before the conquest of Jerusalem, the glory of God departed from the city, and through this it was delivered as a prey to enemies (cf. Ezek 8:4, Ezek 27). In the cited words Joel gives the thought that the triumph of enemies over Jerusalem will already be impossible, for the Lord will dwell on Zion. “And strangers shall not pass through it anymore,” that is, pass through with the purpose of attacking or conquering.

Joel 3:18. “And in that day the mountains shall drip sweet wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the streams of Judah shall flow with water; and a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the valley of Acacia trees. A figurative depiction of the future well-being of Israel: the mountains, on which grapes are cultivated, will be so abundant with them that wine will drip from them; the hills, on which cattle graze, will flow with milk; and instead of drought, there will be an abundance of water. “All the streams,” vekol aphikej, that is, the beds of streams (“brooks”), which are nourished by water from the mountains and dry up in summer. “And a fountain shall come forth from the house of the Lord and water the valley of Acacia trees” (nahal haschschittim), in Slavonic “a water-course of reeds” (fountain of reeds). The valley of Acacia trees or “valley of acacias” was the name of a valley in the land of Moab, on the other side of the Jordan (Num 25:1 ff. Josh 3:1). This valley received its name from schittah acacia, because many acacias, which love dry soil, grew there. According to the opinion of many commentators, the prophet understands in Joel 3:18 precisely this named valley. Others understand the Hebrew nahal hashshittim in the sense of a common noun, a dry land in general, and suppose that the prophet has in mind either the Kidron valley (Michaeli) or the Wadi al Sult, lying to the west of Jerusalem, through which the road to Ashkelon passes (Wellhausen, Nowack). With both understandings of the words hashshittim, the meaning of the image is that in the land there will be an abundance of water and the very means of irrigation will be miraculously changed (cf. Ezek 47:1; Zech 14:8). In connection with the promise of the prophet Joel concerning the outpouring of the Holy Spirit and in the images of Joel 3:18, one can see the images of grace poured out in the Church of Christ.

Joel 3:19. “Egypt shall become a desolation and Edom shall become a desolate wilderness – because of the violence they did to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood. Among the enemies of Judah, the prophet particularly singles out the Egyptians and the Edomites, to whom is imputed the fact that they oppressed the people of Judah and shed innocent blood in their land. By the shedding of innocent blood, the prophet apparently means either the murder of those Jews who found refuge in Egypt and Edom (in their land, in the land of the Edomites and Egyptians), or the murder during the plundering raids of the Edomites on Judea (then – in their land, in the land of the Hebrews). What specific historical facts the prophet has in mind is unknown; in any case, such facts could have occurred both in post-exilic times and in pre-exilic times.

Joel 3:20. “But Judah shall be inhabited forever, and Jerusalem to all generations. A similar promise is proclaimed to the people of God also by other prophets. (Cf. Isa 60:21; Ezek 37:25).

Joel 3:21. “I will avenge their blood which I have not yet avenged, and the Lord will dwell in Zion. “I will avenge their blood, which I have not yet avenged,” Hebrew venikkethi damam lo nikkethi. The verb nikkah (Niphil from an unused nakah) has the meaning – to declare someone innocent, to leave without punishment. Therefore, the words of the prophet, giving them an interrogative form, some render (Steiner) thus: “and shall I leave them (that is, the nations) without punishment? I will not”; otherwise: “shall I declare their blood innocent, which I have not yet declared innocent” (Driver); the meaning of the latter translation is that the punishment of the nations for the shedding of the blood of the people of Judah will be proof of the innocence of this blood in the eyes of God. The LXX translate the expression under consideration as καὶ ἐκζητήσω τὸ αιμα αὐτῶν καὶ οὐμὴ ἀθωώσω, and I will avenge their blood and will not leave unpunished, Slavonic “and I will avenge their blood and will not declare innocent.” In view of the translation of the LXX and the context, the Masoretic venikkethi recent commentators (Gesenius, Hoonacker) correct to venikkamthi (from nakam to avenge) and translate the beginning of the verse: “I will avenge their blood, I will not leave unpunished,” which gives a clearer thought. The Lord gives the promise to avenge the blood of the Jews shed by enemies. – “And the Lord will dwell in Zion:”: the dwelling of the Lord on Zion will be the source of the well-being of Israel. The depiction by the prophet Joel in Joel 3 of judgment upon the world and the salvation of the chosen people undoubtedly cannot be understood in a literal sense. The entire speech of the prophet in Joel 3 has a figurative character. Since the prophecy of Joel concerning judgment has not yet been fulfilled in its entirety, it is not yet possible to distinguish in this prophecy between the images and the ideas that the prophet embodies in images. And in general, this distinction between images and ideas constitutes the most difficult point in the interpretation of prophecies. Only one thing is certain, that he who proclaimed the most sublime promise concerning the outpouring of the Holy Spirit upon all flesh and the enlightenment of all people by this Spirit, Joel could not have represented the judgment of the Lord upon the world as a judgment exclusively upon the nations (Joel 2:16), as a gathering of peoples in a small valley (Joel 3:12), as a struggle with the nations (Joel 3:9-13), but as the well-being of Israel, as an abundance of wine, water, and milk (Joel 3:18); all this is only images and symbols of the mysterious and terrible judgment of the Lord and the eternal blessedness of the righteous that is to follow it.