"For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
KJV
For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
Commentary
Commentary
In the close of the foregoing chapter we had a gracious promise of
deliverance in Mount Zion and Jerusalem; now this whole chapter is a
comment upon that promise, showing what that deliverance shall be, how
it shall be wrought by the destruction of the church's enemies, and how
it shall be perfected in the everlasting rest and joy of the church.
This was in part accomplished in the deliverance of Jerusalem from the
attempt that Sennacherib made upon it in Hezekiah's time, and
afterwards in the return of the Jews out of their captivity in Babylon,
and other deliverances wrought for the Jewish church between that and
Christ's coming. But it has a further reference, to the great
redemption wrought out for us by Jesus Christ, and the destruction of
our spiritual enemies and all their agents, and will have its full
accomplishment in the judgment of the great day. Here is a prediction,
I. Of God's reckoning with the enemies of his people for all the
injuries and indignities that they had done them, and returning them
upon their own head, ver. 1-8 .
II. 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, ver. 9-17 .
III. Of the provision God has made for the refreshment of his people,
for their safety and purity, when their enemies shall be made desolate, ver. 18-21 .
These promises were not of private interpretation only, but were
written for our learning, "that we, through patience and comfort of
this scripture, might have hope."
1 For, behold, in 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
the 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 have given a boy
for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink.
4 Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and
all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and
if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your
recompence upon your own head;
5 Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried
into your temples my goodly pleasant things:
6 The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have
ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from
their border.
7 Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have
sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head:
8 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 L ORD hath spoken it.
We have often heard of the year of the redeemed, and the year
of recompences for the controversy of Zion; now here we have a
description of the transactions of that year, and a prophecy of what
shall be done when it comes, whenever it comes, for it comes often, and
at the end of time it will come once for all.
I. It shall be the year of the redeemed, for God will bring
again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, v. 1 .
Though the bondage of God's people may be grievous and very long, yet
it shall not be everlasting. That in Egypt ended at length in their
deliverance into the glorious liberty of the children of God. Let my
son go, the he may serve me. That in Babylon shall likewise end
well. And the Lord Jesus will provide for the effectual redemption of
poor enslaved souls from under the dominion of sin and Satan, and will
proclaim that acceptable year, the year of jubilee, the release
of debts and servants, and the opening of the prison to those that
were bound. There is a day, there is a time, fixed for the bringing again of the captivity of God's children, for the
redeeming of them from the power of the grave; and it shall be
the last day and the end of all time.
II. It shall be the year of recompences for the controversy of
Zion. Though God may suffer the enemies of his people to prevail
against them very far and for a long time, yet he will call them to an
account for it, and will lead captivity captive
( Ps. lxviii. 18 ),
will lead those captive that led his people captive, Rev. xiii. 10 .
Observe,
1. Who those are that shall be reckoned with-- all nations, v. 2 .
This intimates,
(1.) That all the nations had made themselves liable to the judgment of
God for wrong done to his people. Persecution is the reigning crying
sin of the world; that lying in wickedness itself is set against
godliness. The enmity that is in the old serpent, the god of this
world, against the seed of the woman, appears more or less in the children of this world. Marvel not if the world hate you. (2.) That, whatsoever nation injured God's nation, they should not go
unpunished; for he that touches the Israel of God shall be made to know
that he touches the apple of his eye. Jerusalem will be a burdensome
stone to all people, Zech. xii. 3 .
But the neighboring nations shall be particularly reckoned
with-- Tyre, and Sidon, and all the coasts of Palestine, or the
Philistines, who have been troublesome neighbours to the Israel of God, v. 4 .
When the more remote and potent nations that laid Israel wastes are
reckoned with the impotent malice of those that lay near them, and helped forward the affliction, ( Zech. i. 15 ),
and made a hand of it
( Ezek. xxvi. 2 ),
shall not be passed by. Note, Little persecutors shall be called to an
account as well as great ones; and, though they could not do much
mischief, shall be reckoned with according to the wickedness of
their endeavors and the mischief they would have done.
2. The sitting of this court for judgment. They shall all be gathered ( v. 2 ),
that those who have combined together against God's people, with one
consent ( Ps. lxxxiii. 5 ),
may together receive their doom. They shall be brought down into the
valley of Jehoshaphat, which lay near Jerusalem, and there God
will plead with them, (1.) Because it is fit that criminals should be tried in the same
country where they did the fact.
(2.) For their greater confusion, when they shall see that Jerusalem
which they have so long endeavored and hoped for the ruin of, in spite
of all their rage, made a praise in the earth. (3.) For the greater comfort and honor of God's Jerusalem, which shall
see God pleading their cause.
(4.) Then shall be re-acted what God did for Jehoshaphat when he gave
him victory over those that invaded him, and furnished him and his
people with matter of joy and praise, in the valley of Berachah. See 2 Chron. xx. 26 .
(5.) It was in this valley of Jehoshaphat (as Dr. Lightfoot suggests)
that Sennacherib's army, or part of it, lay, when it was destroyed by
an angel. They came together to ruin Jerusalem, but God brought them
together for their own ruin, as sheaves into the floor, Mic. iv. 12 .
3. The plaintiff called, on whose behalf this prosecution is set on
foot; it is for my people, and for my heritage Israel. It
is their cause that God will now plead with jealousy. Note, God's
people are his heritage, his peculiar, his portion, his treasure, above all people, Exod. xix. 5; Deut. xxxii. 9 .
They are his demesne, and therefore he has a good action against those
that trespass upon them.
4. The charge exhibited against them, which is very particular. Many
affronts they had put upon God by their idolatries, but that for which
God has a quarrel with them is the affront they have put upon his
people and upon the vessels of his sanctuary.
(1.) They had been very abusive to the people of Israel, had scattered them among the nations and forced them to seek for
shelter where they could find a place, or carried them captive into
their respective countries and there industriously dispersed them, for
fear of their incorporating for their common safety. They parted
their land, and took every one his share of it as their own; nay,
they have cast lots for my people, and sold them. When
they had taken them prisoners,
[1.] They made a jest of them, made a scorn of them as of no value.
They would not release them and yet thought them not worth the keeping;
they made nothing of playing them away at dice. Or they made a dividend
of the prisoners by lot, as the soldiers did of Christ's
garments.
[2.] They made a gain of them. When they had them they sold them, yet with so much contempt that they did not increase their
wealth by their price, but sold them for their pleasure rather than
their profit; they gave a boy taken in war for the hire of a
harlot, and a girl for so many bottles of wine as would
serve them for one sitting, a goodly price at which they valued
them, and goodly preferment for a son and daughter of Israel to be a
slave and a drudge in a tavern or a brothel. Observe, here, how that
which is got by sin is commonly spent upon another. The spoil which
these enemies of the Jews gathered by injustice and violence they
scattered and threw away in drinking and whoring; such is frequently
the character, and such the conversation, of the enemies and
persecutors of the people of God. The Tyrians and Philistines, when
they seized any of the children of Judah and Jerusalem, either took
them prisoners in war or kidnapped them, they sold them to the Grecians
(with whom the men of Tyre traded in the persons of men, Ezek. xxvii. 13 ),
that they might remove them far from their own border, v. 6 .
It was a great reproach to Israel, God's first-born, his free-born, to
be thus bought and sold among the heathen.
(2.) They had unjustly seized God's silver and gold ( v. 5 ),
by which some understand the wealth of Israel. The silver and gold
which God's people had he calls his, because they had received it from
him and devoted it to him; and whosoever robbed them God took it as if
they had robbed him and would make reprisals accordingly. Those who
take away the estates of good men for well-doing will be found guilty
of sacrilege; they take God's silver and gold. But it seems
rather to be meant of the vessels and treasures of the
temple, which God here calls his goodly pleasant things, precious and desirable to him and all that are his. These they carried into their temples as trophies of their victory over
God's Israel, thinking that therein they triumphed over Israel's God,
nay, and that their idols triumphed over him. Thus the ark was put in
Dagon's temple. Thus they did unjustly. " What have you to do with
me ( v. 4 ),
with my people; what wrong have they done you? What provocation have
they given you? You had nothing to do with them, and yet you do all
this against them. Devices are devised against the quiet in the
land, and those offended and harmed that are harmless and
inoffensive: Will you render me a recompence? " Can they pretend
that either God or his people have done them any injury, for which they
may justify themselves by the law of retaliation in doing them these
mischiefs? No; they have no colour for it. Note, It is no new thing for
those who have been very civil and obliging to their neighbours to find
them very unkind and unneighbourly and for those who do no injuries to
suffer many.
5. The sentence passed upon them. In general
( v. 4 ),
"If you recompense me, if you pretend a quarrel with me, if you
provoke me thus to jealousy, if you touch the apple of my eye, I
will swiftly and speedily return your recompence upon your own
head. " Those that contend with God will find themselves unable to
make their part good with him. He will recompense them suddenly, when they little think of it, and have not time to prevent it; if he
take them to task, he will soon effect their ruin. Particularly, it is
threatened,
(1.) That they should not gain their end in the mischief they designed
against God's people. They thought to remove them so far from their
border that they should never return to it again, v. 6 .
But (says God) " I will raise them out of the place whither you have
sold them, and they shall not, as you intended, be buried alive
there." Men's selling the people of God will not deprive him of his
property in them.
(2.) That they shall be paid in their own coin, as Adonibezek was
( v. 8 ):
" I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the
children of Judah; you shall lie as much at their mercy as they
have been at yours," Isa. lx. 14 .
Thus the Jews had rule over those that hated them, Esther ix. 1 .
And then they shall justly be sold to the Sabeans, to a people far off. This (some think) had its accomplishment in the
victories obtained by the Maccabees over the enemies of the Jews;
others think it looks as far forward as the last day, when the upright shall have dominion ( Ps. xlix. 14 )
and the saints shall judge the world. It is certain that none
ever hardened his heart against God, or his church, and prospered long;
no, not Pharaoh himself, for the Lord has spoken it, for the
comfort of all his suffering servants, that vengeance is his and he
will repay.
9 Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles; Prepare war, wake up the
mighty men, let all the men of war draw near; let them come up:
10 Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into
spears: let the weak say, I am strong.
11 Assemble yourselves, and come, all ye heathen, and gather
yourselves together round about: thither cause thy mighty ones to
come down, O L ORD .
12 Let the heathen be wakened, and come up to the valley of
Jehoshaphat: for there will I sit to judge all the heathen round
about.
13 Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come, get you
down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for their
wickedness is great.
14 Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision: for the
day of the L ORD is near in the valley of decision.
15 The sun and the moon shall be darkened, and the stars shall
withdraw their shining.
16 The L ORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice
from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake: but
the L ORD will be the hope of his people, and the strength of
the children of Israel.
17 So shall ye know that I am the L ORD your God dwelling in
Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and there
shall no strangers pass through her any more.
What the psalmist had long before ordered to be said among the
heathen ( Ps. xcvi. 10 )
the prophet here will have in like manner to be published to all
nations, That the Lord reigns, and that he comes, he comes to
judge the earth, as he had long been judging in the earth. The
notice here given of God's judging the nations may have reference to
the destruction of Sennacherib, Nebuchadnezzar, Antiochus, and to the
Antichrist especially, and all the proud enemies of the Christian
church; but some of the best interpreters, ancient and modern
(particularly the learned Dr. Polock), think the scope of these verses
is to set forth the day of the last judgment under the similitude of
God's making war upon the enemies of his kingdom, and his gathering in
the harvest of the earth, both which similitudes we find used in the
Revelation, ch. xix. 11; xiv. 18 .
Here we have,
I. 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, v. 9-11 .
When the hour of God's judgment shall come effectual methods shall be
taken to gather all nations to the battle of that great day of God
Almighty, Rev. xvi. 14; xx. 8 .
It seems to be here spoken ironically: " Proclaim you this among the
Gentiles; let all the forces of the nations be summoned to join in
confederacy against God and his people." It is like that, Isa. vii. 9 ,
" Associate yourselves, O you people! and gird yourselves, but you shall be broken to pieces. Prepare war; muster up
all your strength; wake up the mighty men; call them into your
service; excite them to vigilance and resolution; let all the men of
war draw near. Let them come and enter the lists with Omnipotence
if they dare; let them not complain for want of weapons, but let them beat their ploughshares into swords and their pruning-hooks
into spears. Let them resolve, if they will, never to return to
their husbandry again, but either to conquer or die; let none plead
unfitness to bear arms, but let the weak say, I am strong and
will venture into the field of battle." Thus does a God of almighty
power bid defiance to all the opposition of the powers of darkness; let
the heathen rage, and the kings of the earth take counsel
together, against the Lord and his Christ; let them assemble,
and come, and gather themselves together; but he that sits
in heaven shall laugh at them, and, while he thus calls them, he has
them in derision, Ps. ii. 1, 4 .
The heathen must be wakened, must be raised from the dead, that they
may come up to the valley of Jehoshaphat, to receive their doom
( v. 12 ),
may come up out of their graves, come up into the air, to meet
the Lord there. Jehoshaphat signifies the judgment of the Lord. Let them come to the place of God's judgment, which perhaps is the
chief reason for the using of this name here, but it is put together as
a proper name for the sake of allusions to the place so called, which
we observed before; let them come thither where God will sit to
judge the heathen, to that throne of glory before which
shall be gathered all nations ( Matt. xxv. 32 ),
for before the judgment-seat of Christ we must all appear. The
challenge
( v. 9 )
is turned into a summons, v. 12 .
It is not only, Come if you dare, but You shall come whether you will or no, for there is no escaping the judgments of
God.
II. A charge given to the ministers of God's justice to appear and act
against these daring enemies of his kingdom among men: And therefore cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord! v. 11 .
When they bring their forces into the field, let God bring his, let the
archangel's trumpet sound a charge, to call together his mighty
ones, that is, his angels. Perhaps it is with reference to this
that Christ's coming from heaven at the last day is said to be with
his mighty angels, 2 Thess. i. 7 .
These are the hosts of the Lord, that shall fight his battles
when he shall put down all opposing rule, principality, and power when
he shall judge among the heathen, Ps. cx. 6 .
Some think these words
( v. 9, 10 ), Prepare war, wake up the mighty men, are not a challenge to the
enemies' hosts, but a charge to God's hosts; let them draw near, and
come up. When God's cause is to be pleaded, either by the law or by
the sword, he has those ready that shall please it effectually,
witnesses ready to appear for him in the court of judgment, soldiers
ready to appear for him in the field of battle. They shall beat
ploughshares into swords, if need be. However, it is plain that to
them the charge in given
( v. 13 ), Put you in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe; that is, their wickedness is great, the measure of it is full, and they
are ripe for ruin. Our Saviour has expounded this, Matt. xiii. 39 . The harvest is the end of the world, and the reapers are the
angels. And they are commanded to thrust in their sickle.
their sharp sickle, and gather in both the harvest and the vintage, Rev. xiv. 15, 18 .
Note, The greatness of men's wickedness makes them ripe for God's
judgment.
III. The vast appearance that shall be in that great and solemn day
( v. 14 ): Multitudes, multitudes, in the valley of decision, the same
which before was called the valley of Jehoshaphat, or of the
judgment of the Lord, for the day of the Lord is near in
that valley. Note,
1. The judgment-day, that day of the Lord, has all along been looked
upon, and spoken of, as nigh at hand. Enoch said, Behold, the
Lord comes, as if the Judge were then standing before the do or,
because it is certain that that day will come and will come according
to the appointment, and a thousand years with God are but as one
day; things are ripening apace for it; we ought always to be ready
for it, because our judgment is at hand.
2. The day of judgment will be the day of decision, when every
man's eternal state will be determined, and the controversy that has
been long depending between the kingdom of Christ and that of Satan
shall be finally decided, and an end put to the struggle. The valley
of the distribution of judgment (so the Chaldee), when every man
shall receive according to the things done in the body. The valley of
threshing (so the margin), carrying on the metaphor of the harvest, v. 13 .
The proud enemies of God's people will then be crushed and broken to
pieces, and made as the dust of the summer threshing-floors. 3. Innumerable multitudes will be gathered together to receive their
final doom in that day, as in the destruction of Gog we read of the
valley of Hamon-Gog, and the city of Hamonah ( Ezek. xxxix. 15, 16 ),
both signifying the multitude of the vanquished enemies; it is
the word here used, Hamonim, Hamonim, expressed by the way of
admiration--O what vast multitudes of sinners will divine justice be
glorified in the ruin of at that day! A multitude of living (says one of the rabbin) and a multitude of dead, for Christ
shall come to judge both the quick and the dead.
IV. The amazing change that shall then be made in the kingdom of nature
( v. 15 ): The sun and moon shall be darkened, as before, ch. ii. 31 .
Their glory and lustre shall be eclipsed by the far greater brightness
of that glory in which the Judge shall then appear. Nay, they shall
themselves be set aside in the dissolution of all things; for the
damned sinners in hell shall not be allowed their light, for God
himself will be their everlasting light, Isa. lx. 19 .
Those that fall under the wrath of God in that day of wrath shall be
cut off from all comfort and joy, signified by the darkening not only
of sun and moon, but of the stars also.
V. The different impressions which that day will make upon the children
of this world and the children of God, according as it will be to them.
1. To the wicked it will be a terrible day. The Lord shall then
speak from Zion and Jerusalem, from the throne of his glory,
from heaven, where he manifests himself in a peculiar manner, as
sometimes he has done in the glorious high throne of his
sanctuary, which yet was but a faint resemblance of the glory of
that day. He shall speak from heaven, from the midst of
his saints and angels (so some understand it), the holy society of
which may be called Zion and Jerusalem; for, when we come
to the heavenly Jerusalem, we come to the innumerable company
of angels; see Heb. xii. 22, 25 .
Now is speaking in that day will be to the wicked as roaring, terrible as the roaring of a lion (for so the word signifies); he long
kept silence, but now our God shall come, and shall not keep
silence, Ps. l. 3, 21 .
Note, The judgment of the great day will make the ears of those to
tingle that continue the implacable enemies of God's kingdom. God's
voice will then shake terribly both heaven and earth ( Isa. ii. 21 ),
yet once more, Hag. ii. 6; Heb. xii. 26 .
This denotes that the voice of God will in the great day speak such
terror to the wicked as were enough to put even heaven and earth into a
consternation. When God comes to pull down and destroy his enemies, and
make them all his footstool, though heaven and earth should stand up in
defence of them and undertake their protection, it shall be all in
vain. Even they shall shake before him and be an insufficient shelter
to those whom he comforts forth to contend with. Note, As blessings out
of Zion are the sweetest blessings, and enough to make heaven and earth
sing, so terrors out of Zion are the sorest terrors, and enough to make
heaven and earth shake.
2. To the righteous it will be a joyful day. When the heaven and earth
shall tremble, and be dissolved and burnt up, then will the Lord be the hope of his people and the strength of the children of
Israel ( v. 16 ),
and then shall Jerusalem be holy, v. 17 .
The saints are the Israel of God; they are his people; the
church is his Jerusalem. They are in covenant and communion with him;
now in the great day,
(1.) Their longings shall be satisfied: The Lord will be the hope of
his people. As he always was the founder and foundation of their
hopes, so he then will be the crown of their hopes. He will be the harbour of his people (so the word is), their receptacle,
refuge, and home. The saints in the great day shall arrive at the
desired haven, shall put to shore after a stormy voyage; they shall go
to be for ever at home with God, to their Father's house, the house not made with hands. (2.) Their happiness shall be confirmed. God will be in that day the strength of the children of Israel, enabling them to bid that
day welcome and to bear up under the weight of its glories and joys. 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
( v. 17 ): Then shall Jerusalem be holy, the holy city indeed; such
shall the heavenly Jerusalem be, such the glorious church, without
spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing. Jerusalem shall be holiness (so the word is); it shall be perfectly holy; there shall be no
remainder of sin in it. The gospel-church is a holy society, even in
its militant state, but will never be holiness itself till it comes to
be triumphant. Then no stranger shall pass through her any more; there shall not enter into the New Jerusalem any thing that defiles or
works iniquity; none shall be there but those who have a right to be
there, none but its own citizens; for it shall be an unmixed society.
(4.) God shall in all this be manifested and magnified: So shall you
know that I am the Lord your God. 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. They know that he is the Lord their
God, yet not theirs only, but theirs in common with the whole
church, that he is their God, but dwelling in Zion his holy
mountain; for, though faith appropriates, it does not engross or
monopolize the privileges of the covenant.
[2.] It is an experimental knowledge. They shall find him their hope
and strength in the worst of times, and so they shall know that
he is the Lord their God. Those know best the goodness of God who
have tasted and seen it, and have found him good to them.
18 And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains
shall 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 L ORD , and shall water the
valley of Shittim.
19 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 Judah shall dwell for ever, and Jerusalem from
generation to generation.
21 For I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed:
for the L ORD dwelleth in Zion.
These promises with which this prophecy concludes have their
accomplishments in part in the kingdom of grace, and the comforts and
graces of all the faithful subjects of that kingdom, but will have
their full accomplishment in the kingdom of glory; for, as to the
Jewish church, we know not of any event concerning that which answers
to the extent of these promises, and what instances of peace and
prosperity they were blessed with, which they may be supposed to be a
hyperbolical description of, they were but figures of better
things reserved for us, that they in their best estate without us might not be made perfect.
I. It is promised that the enemies of the church shall be vanquished
and brought down, v. 19 .
Egypt, that old enemy of Israel, and Edom, which had an inveterate
enmity to Israel, derived from Esau, these shall be a
desolation, a desolate wilderness, no more to be inhabited;
they have become the people of God's curse; so the Idumeans
were, Isa. xxxiv. 5 .
No strength nor wealth of a nation is a defence against the judgment of
God. But what is the quarrel God has with these potent kingdoms? It is
for their violence against the children of Judah, and the
injuries they had done them; see Ezek. xxv. 3, 8, 12, 15; xxvi. 2 .
They had shed the innocent blood of the Jews that fled to
them for shelter or were making their escape through their country.
Note, The innocent blood of God's people is very precious to him, and
not a drop of it shall be shed but it shall be reckoned for. In the
last day this earth, which has been filled with violence against the
people of God, shall be made a desolation, when it and all the works
that are therein shall be burnt up. And, sooner or later, the
oppressors and persecutors of God's Israel shall be brought down and
laid in the dust, nay, they will at length be brought down and laid in
the flames.
II. It is promised that the church shall be very happy; and truly happy
it is in spiritual privileges, even during its militant state, but much
more when it comes to be triumphant. Three things are here promised
it:--
1. Purity. This is put last here, as a reason for the rest
( v. 21 );
but we may consider it first, as the ground and foundation of the rest: I will cleanse their blood that I have not cleansed, that is,
their bloody heinous sins, especially shedding innocent blood; that
filth and guilt they had contracted by sin, which rendered them unfit
for communion with God, and made them odious to his holiness and
obnoxious to his justice; this they shall be washed from in the fountain opened, Zech. xiii. 1 .
That shall be cleansed by the blood of Christ which could not be
cleansed by the sacrifices and purifications of the ceremonial law. Or,
if we apply it to the happiness of a future state, it intimates the
cleansing of the saints from all these corruptions from which they were
not cleansed either by ordinances or providences in the world; there
shall not be the least remains of sin in them there. Here, though they
are washing daily, there is still something that is not cleansed; but
in heaven, even that also shall be done away. And the reason is
because the Lord dwells in Zion, dwells with his church, and
much more gloriously with that in heaven, and holiness becomes his
house for ever, for which reason, where he dwells there must be,
there shall be, a perfection of holiness. Note, Though the refining and
reforming of the church is work that goes on slowly, and still there is
something we complain of that is not cleansed, yet there is a
day coming when every thing that is amiss shall be amended, and the
church shall be all fair, and no spot, no stain in her; and we must
wait for that day.
2. Plenty, v. 18 .
This is put first, because it is the reverse of the judgment threatened
in the foregoing chapters.
(1.) The streams of this plenty overflow the land and enrich it: The
mountains shall drop new wine and the hills shall flow with
milk, such great abundance shall they have of suitable provision,
both for babes and for strong men. It intimates the
abundance of vineyards, and all fruitful; and the abundance of cattle
in the pastures that fill them with milk. And, to make the corn-land
fruitful, the rivers of Judah shall flow with water, so that the
country shall be like the garden of Eden, well-watered every where and
greatly enriched, Ps. lxv. 9 .
But this seems to be meant spiritually; the graces and comforts of the
new covenant are compared to wine and milk ( Isa. lv. 1 ),
and the Spirit to rivers of living water, John vii. 38 .
And these gifts abound much more under the New Testament than they did
under the Old; when believers receive grace for grace from
Christ's fulness, when they are enriched with everlasting
consolations, and filled with joy and peace in believing, then the mountains drop new wine, and the hills flow with
milk. Drink you, drink abundantly, O beloved! When there is
plentiful effusion of the Spirit of grace, then the rivers of Judah
flow with water, and make glad, not only the city of our God ( Ps. xlvi. 4 ),
but the whole land.
(2.) The fountain of this plenty is in the house of God, whence
the streams take their rise, as those waters of the sanctuary ( Ezek. xlvii. 1 )
from under the threshold of the house, and the river of life out of the throne of God and the Lamb, Rev. xxii. 1 .
The psalmist, speaking of Zion, says, All my springs are in
thee, Ps. lxxxvii. 7 .
Those that take temporal blessings to be meant in the former part of
the verse, yet by this fountain out of the house of the
Lord understand the grace of God, which, if we abound in temporal
blessings, we have so much more need of, that we may not abuse them.
Christ himself is the fountain; his merit and grace cleanse us, refresh
us, and make us fruitful. This is said to water the valley of
Shittim, which lay a great way off from the temple at Jerusalem, on
the other side of Jordan, and was a dry and barren valley, which
intimates that gospel-grace, flowing from Christ, shall reach far, even
to the Gentile world, to the most remote regions of it, and shall make
those to abound in the fruits of righteousness who had long lain as the
barren wilderness. This grace is a fountain overflowing, ever-flowing,
from which we may be continually drawing, and yet need not fear its
being drawn dry. This fountain comes out of the house of the
Lord above, from his temple in heaven, flows all that good which
here we are daily tasting the streams of, but hope to be shortly, hope
to be eternally, drinking at the fountain-head of.
3. Perpetuity. This crowns all the rest
( v. 20 ): Judah shall dwell for ever (when Egypt and Edom are made a
desolation ), and Jerusalem shall continue from generation to
generation. This is a promise, and a precious promise it is,
(1.) That the church of Christ shall continue in the world to the end
of time. As one generation of professing Christians passes away,
another shall come, in whom the throne of Christ shall endure
for ever, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against
it.
(2.) That all the living members of that church (Judah and Jerusalem
are put for the inhabitants of that city and country, Matt. iii. 5 )
shall be established in their happiness to the utmost ages of eternity.
This new Jerusalem shall be from generation to generation, for
it is a city that has foundations, not made with hands, but eternal in
the heavens.
INTRODUCTION TO JOEL 3
This chapter, which some make the fourth, contains a prophecy of God's judgments on all the antichristian nations at the time of the Jews' conversion, and the reasons of them, Joe 3:1; a threatening of Tyre and Zidon, by way of retaliation, for carrying the riches of the Jews into their temples, and selling their persons to the Greeks, Joe 3:4; an alarm to prepare for the battle of Armageddon, or the destruction that shall be made in the valley of Jehoshaphat, Joe 3:9; and after that an account of the happy state of the church of Christ, their safety and security, plenty, prosperity, and purity, to the end of the world, Joe 3:16.
Ver. 1. For, behold, in those days, and at that time,.... Which Kimchi refers to the times of the Messiah; and is true of the latter times of the Messiah, of his spiritual reign yet to come:
when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem: not from the Edomites, Tyrians, and Philistines, that had carried them captive in the times of Ahaz; nor from Babylon, where they had been carried captive by Nebuchadnezzar; for nothing of what is after foretold followed upon the return of these captivities: but this designs the present captivity of the Jews, and the restoration of them to their own land; of which see Isa 52:8.
Joel 3:2
Ver. 2. I will also gather all nations,.... Or cause or suffer them to be gathered together against his people; not the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites, in the times of Jehoshaphat, as Aben Ezra; but either the Turks, prophesied of under the name of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel,
Eze 38:1; and a multitude of other nations with them, who shall be gathered together against the Jews, to regain the land of Judea from them, they will upon their conversion inhabit; or else all the antichristian kings and nations, which shall be gathered to the battle of the great day of God Almighty, Re 16:14;
and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat: Kimchi thinks this was some valley near to Jerusalem, in which Jehoshaphat built or wrought some works, and so was called by his name: Joseph Ben Gorion {x} speaks of a valley, called the valley of Jehoshaphat, which was near Jerusalem, to the further end of which one Zachariah, a good man, in the times of the Jewish wars, was rolled and died, being cast down from the top of a tower upon the wall east of Jerusalem; and which is confirmed by R. Abraham, as quoted by Lively; and the true Josephus says {y}, that the valley into which this man was cast lay directly under Jerusalem; and Benjamin of Tudela {z} makes mention of a valley of this name, which he says lies between Jerusalem and the mount of Olives; where Jerom {a} places it by the name of Caelas; with whom Mr. Maundrell {b} agrees, who says that this valley lies between Mount Moriah and Mount Olivet, and has its name from the sepulchre of Jehoshaphat: and, according to Lyra on the place, who is followed by Adrichomius {c}, it is the same with the valley of Kidron, which was so situated; but, why that should be called the valley of Jehoshaphat, no reason is given. Aben Ezra and others are of opinion that this is the same with the valley of Berachah, where Jehoshaphat obtained a very great victory over many nations, 2Ch 20:1; but it does not appear to have been called by his name, and, besides, seems to be at a great distance from Jerusalem; though there may be an allusion to it, that as many nations were there collected together and destroyed, so shall it be in the latter day; and I am of opinion that no proper name of a place is here meant, as going by it in common, but is so called from the judgment of God here executed upon his and his people's enemies. So Jarchi calls it "the valley of judgments"; Jehoshaphat signifying "the judgment" of the Lord: Kimchi says it may be so called because of judgment, the Lord there pleading with the nations, and judging them: and in the Targum it is rendered,
"the valley of the division of judgment:''
and to me it designs no other than Armageddon, the seat of the battle of Almighty God, Re 16:16; and which may signify the destruction of their troops; See Gill on "Re 16:16";
and will plead with them there for my people, and [for] my heritage Israel; the people of the Jews, who will now be converted, who will have the "loammi", Ho 1:9, taken off of them, and will be called the people of the living God again, and be reckoned by him as his portion and inheritance; though not them only, but all the saints; all that have separated from antichrist, his doctrine and worship, and have suffered by him:
whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land; Kimchi refers this to the scattering of the Jews by Titus and his army, and the partition of Judea among them, which is not amiss; in consequence of which they are still a scattered people, and their land has been parted between Turks and Papists {d}; sometimes inhabited by the one, and sometimes by the other, and now by both, on whom God will take vengeance; he will plead the cause of his people, by the severe judgments he will inflict on his and their enemies. This may respect the persecuting of the Christians from place to place, and seizing on their lands and estates, and parting them, as well as the dispersion of the Jews, and the partition of the land of Canaan.
{x} Hist. Heb. l. 6. c. 27. {y} De Bello Jud. l. 4. c. 5. sect. 4. {z} Massaot, sive ltinera, p. 44. {a} De locis Hebr. fol. 92. C. {b} Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 103, 106. Ed. 7. {c} Theatrum Terrae Sanctae, p. 172. {d} Written about 1750. Editor.
Joel 3:3
Ver. 3. And they have cast lots for my people,.... Not only parted their land, but cast lots for their persons, Or played at dice for them, how many captives each soldier should have, and which should be their share and property: ninety seven thousand Jews, Josephus {d} says, were carried captive by the Romans, who, very probably, cast lots for them, as was usual in such cases; see Na 3:10;
and have given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might drink; either they gave a boy to be prostituted to natural lusts, in lieu of a whore; and a girl to be debauched for a bottle of wine: or they gave a boy for the price of a whore, as the Targum and Kimchi interpret it; that is, they gave a boy, instead of money, to a whore, to lie with her, as the eunuch was given to Thais; and they gave a girl to the wine merchant for as much wine as they could drink at one sitting. These phrases both express their uncleanness and intemperance, and also the low price and value they set upon their captives; and is applicable enough to the Papists, notorious for the same abominable lusts.
{d} De Bello Jud. l. 6. c. 9. sect. 3.
Joel 3:4
Ver. 4. Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine?.... The Tyrians, Zidonians, and Philistines, were near neighbours of the Jews, and implacable enemies to them; and are here put for the enemies of the true church of Christ, the Papists and Turks, and in whose possession those places now are: these are addressed by the Lord, inquiring or demanding the reason of their ill usage of him and his people: "what have ye to do with me?" to be called by my name, or accounted my people? I know you not, nor will I have any fellowship with you: or what have ye to do with my people, to disturb and distress them? what wrong have I or they done you, that you thus use them?
will ye render me a recompence? for turning you out of your land, and putting my people into it? do you think to retaliate this?
and if ye recompense me; by doing an injury to my people:
swiftly [and] speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head; bring swift and sudden destruction upon you.
Joel 3:5
Ver. 5. Because ye have taken my silver and my gold,.... Which is all the Lord's, Hag 2:8; or which he had bestowed upon his people, and they had taken from them:
and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things; either the rich furniture of the houses of his people, which they carried into their own houses, or "palaces" {e}, as it may be rendered; having either taken them away themselves, or bought them of others that had taken them: or else the rich vessels of the temple; as these were carried away by the Chaldeans, and put into their idol temples, Da 1:2; so afterward they were taken by the Romans, and put into the temples of their gods: whether any of these came into the hands of the Tyrians, &c. by any means, and were put into their idol temples, as the temple of Hercules, is not certain; however, it is notorious that the Papists, the Tyrians are an emblem of, not only build stately temples, and dedicate them to angels and saints, but most profusely adorn them with gold and silver, and all goodly and desirable things; which is putting them to an idolatrous use they were not designed for.
{e} Mkylkyhl "in palatia vestra", Montanus, Drusius, Burkius.
Joel 3:6
Ver. 6. The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem,.... Not children in age literally, as Kimchi, kidnapped or bought by the Tyrians; but the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem:
have ye sold unto the Grecians; or sons of Javan; it was one part of the merchandise of Tyre to trade in the persons of men; and Javan, or the Greeks, with others, were their merchants for them, Eze 27:13; and the souls of men are a part of the trade of the merchants of Rome, typified by the Tyrians, Re 18:13;
that ye might remove them far from their border; from their own land, or place of dwelling, that so they might not be easily redeemed, and return to it any more. Rome, the antichristian Tyre, trading with the souls of men, is to their eternal damnation, as much as in them lies. Cocceius interprets this of the children of the church being trained up in the doctrine of Aristotle, in the times of the schoolmen.
Joel 3:7
Ver. 7. Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them,.... That is, bring them back to their own land, from their places whither they have been carried captive, and where they have dwelt in obscurity, and as if theft had been buried in graves, but now should be raised up and restored; and this their restoration will be as life from the dead. So the Targum,
"behold, I will bring them publicly from the place whither ye have sold them;''
this is to be understood, not of the same persons, but of their posterity, they being the same natural body. Kimchi interprets it of them and their children; them at the resurrection of the dead, their children at the time of salvation. Some think this had its accomplishment in Alexander and his successors, by whom the Jews, who had been detained captives in other countries, were set free; particularly by Demetrius, as Josephus {f} relates: though it may be applied to the future restoration of the Jews, out of all countries, unto their own land; or rather to the gathering together the spiritual Israel, or people of God, who have been persecuted from place to place by their antichristian enemies;
and will return your recompence upon your own head; do to them as they have done to others; pay them in their own coin; retaliate the wrongs done to his people; see Re 13:10.
{f} Antiqu. l. 13. c. 5.
Joel 3:8
Ver. 8. And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah,.... That is, deliver them into their hands, to dispose of them; this is thought to have been literally fulfilled in the Tyrians, when thirty thousand {g} of them were sold for slaves, upon the taking of their city by Alexander, who put some of them into the hands of the Jews, they being in friendship with him: it mystically designs the power that the Jewish church, converted, and in union with Gentile Christians, will have over the antichristian states:
and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off; the inhabitants of Sheba, a country by the Jews reckoned the uttermost parts of the earth; see Mt 12:42. These are not the same with the Sabeans, the inhabitants of Arabia Deserts, that took away Job's oxen and asses; but rather those who were the inhabitants of Arabia Felix, which lay at a greater distance. So Strabo {h} says, the Sabeans inhabited Arabia Felix; and Diodorus Siculus {i} reckons the Sabeans as very populous, and one of the Arabian nations, who inhabited that Arabia which is called Felix, the metropolis of which is Saba; and he, as well as Strabo, observes, that this country produces many odoriferous plants, as cassia, cinnamon, frankincense, and calamus, or the sweet cane; hence incense is said to come "from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country", Jer 6:20; and since the Jews traded with these people for those spices, it is easy to conceive how they sold their captives to them: now these lived at a great distance, in the extreme parts of Arabia, both towards the Indian sea and the Arabian gulf. And Diodorus Siculus {k} observes, that dia ton ektopismov, because of the distance of their situation, they never came into the power or under the dominion of any, or were never subdued. These seem to be the descendants of Cush, the son, of Ham; and if they were the descendants of Joktan, the son of Shem, as some think, these are placed by Vitringa {l} in Carmania; and where Pliny {m} makes mention of a city called Sabe, and of the river Sabis; and it is worthy of notice that the ancient Greek fathers {n}, with one consent, interpret the Sabeans of the Saracens: and whether they may not design the Turks, in whose possession this country now is, and into whose hands the antichristian powers may be delivered by means of the Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, may be considered;
for the Lord hath spoken [it]; and therefore it shall be accomplished. The Targum is,
"for by the word of the Lord it is so decreed;''
whose counsels and decrees can never be frustrated. This, in an ancient book of the Jews called Mechilta, is referred to the prophecy of Noah concerning Canaan, whose sons inhabited Tyre, "a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren", Ge 9:25, as Jarchi observes.
{g} Arriam. de Exped. Alexand. l. 2. c. 24. {h} Geograph. l. 16. p. 536. {i} Bibliothec. l. 3. p. 179, 180. {k} Ibid. p. 181. {l} Comment. in Jessiam, c. 43. 3. {m} Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 23. {n} In Catena Graec. Patr. apud Spanhem. Hist. Jobi, c. 3. p. 47.
Joel 3:9
Ver. 9. Proclaim ye this among the Gentiles,.... This decree of God, concerning the deliverance of his church; and the destruction of their enemies; which is to be proclaimed among them, to the terror of them, and the comfort of God's people, encouraging them to the battle, since they might be sure of victory; for the prophet here returns to give an account of the armies to be gathered together, and to be destroyed in the valley of Jehoshaphat, as appears from Joe 3:12; and to this end heralds are here ordered to make proclamation of war throughout the nations, and to gather them to the battle of Almighty God; whether seriously, or ironically, may be considered; what follows seems to be spoken in the latter way, to the enemies of the church; though they may be interpreted as spoken seriously to the people of God themselves:
prepare war; get all things ready for it, men and arms:
wake up the mighty men; generals, captains, and other officers, men of strength and courage; let them arouse from the sleep and lethargy in which they are, and get themselves in a readiness for war, and put themselves at the head of their troops:
let all the men of war draw near, let them come up; to the land of Judea, and to Jerusalem; that is, either the Christian powers with their armies, to defend Jerusalem against the Turks, and deliver it out of their hands; let them appear on the behalf of the Jews: or else let the enemies of Christ's church and people come up against them, even the most powerful of them; let them muster up all their forces, and do the most they can, they shall not prevail.
Joel 3:10
Ver. 10. Beat your ploughshares into swords, and your pruning hooks into spears,.... Let not only soldiers, and such as have been trained up in military discipline, appear in the field on this occasion; but let husbandmen and vinedressers leave their fields and vineyards, and turn their instruments of husbandry and vinedressing into weapons of war; let them not plead want of armour, but convert these to such uses: on the contrary, when this battle will be over, swords shall be beaten into ploughshares, and spears into pruning hooks, Isa 2:4;
let the weak say, I [am] strong; such as are weak, through sickness, or old age, let them not plead their weakness to excuse them from engaging in this war; but let them make the best of themselves, and say they are strong and healthy, and fit for it, and enter in it with all courage and bravery: this is said either ironically to the enemies of God's people, suggesting that all hands would be wanted, and should be employed, weak and strong, and all little enough; when they had made the utmost effort they could, it would be in vain: or else they are seriously spoken to the people of God, that none of them should excuse themselves, or be discouraged because of their weakness from engaging in this last and more battle; but take heart, and be of good courage, and quit themselves like men, and be strong, since they might be sure of victory beforehand. The Apostle Paul refers to this text in
2Co 12:10; and applies it to spiritual weakness and strength; and indeed the weakest believer, that is so in faith and] knowledge, may say he is strong, in comparison of what he once was, and others are; strong, not in himself, but in Christ, and the power of his might, and in the grace that is in him; nor should he excuse himself from fighting the Lord's battles, against sin, Satan, and the world, and false teachers; or from doing the Lord's work, any service he calls him to; or from bearing the cross he lays on him on account of his weakness; nor should he: be discouraged by it from those things; but let him strengthen himself, as Aben Ezra interprets it, take heart, and be of good courage.
Joel 3:11
Ver. 11. Assemble yourselves,.... From divers parts into one place: "be ye gathered"; or "gather yourselves together", as the Targum and Kimchi; get together in a body, muster up all the forces you can collect together, Jarchi, from Menachem, by the change of a letter, renders it, "make ye haste"; lose time in preparing for this battle; get men, and arms for them, as fast as you can; be as expeditious as possible:
and come, all ye Heathen; antichristian nations, Mahometan or Papal; which latter, especially, are sometimes called Heathen and Gentiles, because of the Heathenish rites introduced into their worship,
Ps 10:16;
and gather yourselves round about: from all parts, to the valley of Jehoshaphat or Armageddon, Re 16:14; this is spoken ironically to them, to use their utmost endeavours to get most powerful armies against the people of God, which would be of no avail, but issue in their own destruction; or it may signify what should be done by the providence of God, bringing such large numbers of them together to their own ruin:
thither cause thy mighty ones to come down, O Lord; which is a prayer of the prophet, or of the church, to God, that he would send down his mighty ones, the angels that excel in strength, and destroy this great army thus gathered together, as an angel in one night destroyed the army of Sennacherib. So Kimchi and Aben Ezra interpret if of angels, and many other interpreters; but perhaps it may be better to understand it of Christian princes and their forces, those armies clothed in white, and riding on white horses, in token of victory; with Christ at the head of them, Re 19:14; who may be said to be caused to "come down"; because, being assembled shall go down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, where their enemies are gathered together, and discomfit them, The Targum is,
"there the Lord shall, break the strength of their strong ones.''
Joel 3:12
Ver. 12. Let the Heathen be awakened, and come to the valley of Jehoshaphat,.... That is, let the enemies of Christ and his church be aroused from that state of security in which they are, and prepare for their own defence; for in such a state the antichristian powers will be before their destruction; see Re 18:7; let them bestir themselves, and exert all the rigour and strength they have; let them come in high spirits against the people of God; let them invade the holy land, and come even to the valley of Jehoshaphat; and, when come thither, let them, descend into the place appointed for their ruin: the land of Judea being said to be higher than other countries, going to it is generally expressed by going up to it; otherwise it is more usual to say that men go down a valley than come up to it; and, mention being made again of this valley, shows that the same thing is referred to here as in Joe 3:2; these words are said in answer to the petition in Joe 3:11; for they are spoken by the Lord, as appears by what follows:
for there will I sit to judge all the Heathen round about; thither gathered together from all parts: the allusion is to a judge upon the bench, sitting to hear and try causes, and pass a definitive sentence; and here it signifies the execution of that sentence; such a pleading the cause of his people, as to take vengeance and inflict just punishment upon their enemies; see Ps 9:4.
Joel 3:13
Ver. 13. Put ye in the sickle, for the harvest is ripe,.... This is said to the mighty ones sent, the Christian princes, the executioners of God's vengeance on antichrist; the angels that will pour out the vials of his wrath on the antichristian states, compared to reapers, with a sharp sickle in their hands, to cut them down, as grain is cut when reaped; as the same states are compared to a harvest ripe, the measure of their sins being filled up, and the time of their destruction appointed for them come; see Re 14:15;
come, get ye down; to the valley: or "go tread ye" {o}; for another simile is made use of: the reference here is to the treading of clusters of grapes in the winepress, as appears by what follows: and so the Targum renders it,
"descend, tread their mighty men;''
in like manner Jarchi interprets it; and so the Septuagint, Syriac, and Arabic versions, render it: and Dr. Pocock observes, that the word
in the Arabic language signifies to tread, as men tread grapes in a press: the reasons follow,
for the press is full; of clusters of the vine; or the valley is full of wicked men, compared unto them, destined to destruction:
the fats overflow; with the juice of grapes squeezed out, denoting the great effusion of blood that will be made; see
Re 14:18;
for their wickedness [is] great; is come to its height, reaches even to heaven, and calls aloud for vengeance; an end is come to it, and to the authors of it, Re 18:5. The Targum of the whole is,
"draw out the sword against them, for the time of their end is come; descend, tread their mighty men slain, as anything is trodden in a winepress; pour out their blood, for their wickedness is multiplied.''
{o} wdr pateite, "calcate", Sept. so Syr. Ar.
Joel 3:14
Ver. 14. Multitudes, multitudes in the valley of decision,.... The same with the valley of Jehoshaphat before mentioned; which shows that not any valley of that name is intended, but a certain place so called from the judgments of God in it; and here named "the valley of decision", because here their judgment will be determined, as Kimchi and Jarchi; and at this time the controversy between God, and his people's enemies, will be decided, and at an end: or "the valley of concision", as the Vulgate Latin version; because in this place, and at this time, the nations gathered together in it will be cut to pieces: or, as others, "the valley of threshing" {p}; because, as, in Jehoshaphat's time, the Moabites and Ammonites were threshed by the Jews in the valley of Berachah, to which the allusion is; so at this time the antichristian kings and their armies will be threshed and beaten, and destroyed by the men of Judah, God's professing people; see Mic 4:13; these seem to be the words of the prophet, breaking out into this pathetic exclamation, upon a sight of the vast multitudes gathered together in this valley, and slain in it; and the doubling of the word serves to express the prodigious number of them: and this shows that this prophecy refers either to the vast army of the Turks, under the name of Gog, and the great slaughter that will be made of them; and that this valley may be the same with the valley of Hamongog, that is, the valley of the multitude of Gog, where their multitude of slain shall be buried, Eze 39:11; or to that vast carnage of the antichristian kings and their armies at Armageddon,
Re 16:14; the Targum is,
"armies, armies, in the valley of the division of judgment:''
for the day of the Lord [is] near in the valley of decision; that is, the great and terrible day of the Lord, to take vengeance on all the antichristian powers, both eastern and western, is nigh at hand, which will be done in this valley.
{p} Uwrxh qmeb "in valle triturationis", Piscatsr.
Joel 3:15
Ver. 15. The sun and moon shall be darkened,.... Both the politic and ecclesiastic state of antichrist shall be ruined and destroyed; it shall "fare" with Rome Papal as it did with Rome Pagan, at the time of its dissolution; see Re 6:12;
and the stars shall withdraw their shining: antichristian princes and nobles in the civil state, and the clergy of all ranks in the church state, shall lose their glory.
Joel 3:16
Ver. 16. The Lord also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem,.... Christ, the Lamb, shall now appear as the Lion of the tribe of Judah, and utter his voice in his providence and judgments on the behalf of his church and people, signified by Zion and Jerusalem; and therefore said to roar, and utter his voice from thence; he will be heard far and near, and strike terror in the hearts of his enemies; see
Jer 25:30;
and the heavens and the earth shall shake; great revolutions will be made in the world, both in church and state, among the antichristian powers; and such as will also make them shake and tremble, as well as alter the form and frame of things among them; see Re 16:18; changes in government, civil and ecclesiastic, are sometimes signified by such phrases, Hag 2:6;
but the Lord [will be] the hope of his people; the object, author, ground, and foundation of their hope of salvation here and hereafter; in whom they may hope for and expect safety and security in the worst of times; since he will be their "refuge", or their "harbour" {q} as it may be rendered; to whom they may have recourse, to shelter and screen them from the rage and wrath of their enemies, and where they will be safe, till the indignation of God be over and past; and while calamities and judgments are upon the unchristian and ungodly world, they will have nothing to fear amidst these storms, being in a good harbour:
and the strength of the children of Israel; of the spiritual Israel; of all such who are Israelites indeed, the Lord's chosen, redeemed, and called people, both Jews and Gentiles; the author and giver of their spiritual strength, the strength of their lives and of their hearts, of their graces and of their salvation; by whom they are furnished with strength to do the duties of religion; to exercise grace; to wrestle with God in prayer; to withstand spiritual enemies; to bear afflictions patiently, and to persevere to the end: or he is their "fortress" {r}; their strong hold and place of defence, where they are safe from every enemy, free from all distresses, enjoy solid peace and comfort, and have plenty of provisions, Isa 33:16.
{q} hoxm "refugium", Tigurine version, Burkius; "receptus", Tarnovius. {r} Nwem "prsesidium", Tarnovius; "arx", Cocceius.
Joel 3:17
Ver. 17. So shall ye know that I [am] the Lord your God dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain,.... The church of God, which is his dwelling place; and will appear more manifestly to be so at this time, when Christ the Lamb will stand on Mount Zion, with an 144,000, having his Father's name in their foreheads, Re 14:1; and which presence of the Lord will be clearly discerned by his people; by the destruction of their enemies, and by his protection of them; by his being their hope and strength, their refuge and their fortress; they will experimentally know his divine inhabitation among them:
then shall Jerusalem be holy; or "holiness" {s}; not Jerusalem, literally taken, as Kimchi; though, it being now rebuilt, will be inhabited by holy persons, the converted Jews, and so all manner of holiness practised in it; but rather the whole church of God everywhere, consisting of holy persons, made so through the holiness of Christ imputed to them, and the sanctifying grace of his Spirit wrought in them; not that they will be perfectly holy in themselves, as the saints will in the New Jerusalem state, Re 21:2; but they will be greatly so; holiness will be predominant and universal among men; there will be more real saints, and fewer hypocrites will be in the churches; see Isa 4:3;
and there shall no strangers pass through her any more; to hurt and annoy the church of God; for there shall be none in these times to molest, disturb, and hurt, in all the holy mountain of the Lord,
Isa 11:9; or to pollute her with false doctrine, superstitious worship, or morality; or her communion shall not be interrupted and made uncomfortable, or she be pestered with hypocrites and ungodly persons, strangers to God and godliness, to Christ, his Spirit, and the power of religion; see Isa 52:1.
{s} vdq "sanctitas", Munster, Mercerus, Vatablus, Piscator, Tarnovius.
Joel 3:18
Ver. 18. And it shall come to pass in that day,.... When antichrist shall be destroyed; the Jews converted; the power of godliness revived, and the presence of God among his people enjoyed. Vitringa, in his Commentary on Isaiah, frequently applies this, and such like prophecies, to the times of the Maccabees; though, he owns, they were but an emblem of better times under the Gospel dispensation; nor does he deny the mystical and spiritual sense of them;
[that] the mountains shall drop down new wine; which, and the following expressions, are to be understood not in a strict literal sense, as Lactantius {t} seems to have understood them; who says, that, in the Millennium, God will cause a rain of blessing to descend morning and evening; the earth shall bring forth all kind of fruit without the labour of man; honey shall drop from the rocks, and the fountains of milk and wine shall overflow: but hyperbolically, just as the land of Canaan is said to flow with milk and honey; not that it really did, but the phrase is used to denote the fertility of it, and the abundance of temporal blessings in it. The literal sense is this, that the mountains shall be covered with vines, on which they are often planted; these vines shall be full of large clusters of grape; and these grapes, being pressed, shall yield a large quantity of new wine; and so, by a metonymy, the mountains are said to drop it down {u}, that is, abound with it, or produce an abundance of it: but the spiritual or mystical sense is, that the churches of Christ in those times, comparable to mountains, and so to hills in the next clause, for their exalted and visible glorious state in which they now will be; and for the rich gifts and graces of the Spirit within them; and for the pasture upon them, and the trees of righteousness that grow thereon; and also for their firmness and stability, their immovableness and perpetual duration; these shall abound with fresh and large discoveries of the love of God and Christ, which is better than wine, So 1:2; like wine, cheering and refreshing; like new wine, though old as to its original, yet new in the manifestations of it; and which are usually made in the church, and the ordinances of it, to the making glad the hearts of the Lord's people; also they shall abound with the blessings of grace, the fruits of love, such as pardon, peace, justification, &c. which, like wine, fill with joy, revive and comfort; and though they are ancient blessings, provided long ago, they are exhibited under the Gospel dispensation in a new covenant way; and the application of them is made in the churches, in Zion, where the Lord commands the blessing, even life for evermore. This may also take in the Gospel, which brings the good news of these blessings, and so is very reviving and cheering; and, though ordained and preached of old, is newly revealed under the present dispensation; and will be more clearly in later times, when all the mountains or churches will abound with it, and even the whole earth be filled with the knowledge of it, Isa 11:9; likewise the ordinance of the Lord's supper, that feast of fat things, of wines on the lees well refined, made in the mountain of the Lord, for all his people may be included; and both in that, and in the ministry of the word, the Lord is sometimes pleased, as he may more abundantly hereafter, to give his saints some foretaste of that new wine, which Christ and they shall partake of in his Father's kingdom; see So 7:9
Mt 26:29;
and the hills shall flow with milk: that is, there shall be much pasturage upon them, and a great number of cattle feeding thereon, which shall yield large quantities of milk; and so, by the same figure as before, the hills may be said to flow with it {w}. The spiritual meaning is, that the churches of Christ, comparable to hills, for the reasons before given, shall abound with the means of grace, with the sincere milk of the word; to which the Gospel is compared for its whiteness and purity, for every word of God is pure and purifying; for assuaging the wrath the law produces; it being easy of digestion, even to newborn babes; and its salutary nourishing virtue and efficacy; and of this there will be great abundance in the latter day; see So 4:11 1Pe 2:2;
and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters; that is, the channels in which the rivers run; these, in a time of drought, are sometimes empty, and the bottoms of them to be seen, but now full of water, and flow with it: grace is often in Scripture compared to "water" because of its refreshing, cleansing, and fructifying nature; and "rivers" denote, an abundance of it; and the "channels", through which it is conveyed to men, out of the fulness of Christ, are the ordinances; see Zec 4:12; and the prophecy suggests, that these should not be dry and empty, but that large measures of grace shall be communicated by means of them to the souls of men, to their great comfort and edification, and for the supply of their wants; see
Eze 36:25;
and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord; not meaning baptism, as some; nor Christ, the fountain of grace, life, and salvation; but the Gospel, the word of the Lord, that fountain full of excellent truths and doctrines; of the blessings of grace; of exceeding great and precious promises; and of much spiritual peace, joy, and comfort: this is the law or doctrine of the Lord, that should come out of Zion, or the church, Isa 2:3; the living waters that shall come out of Jerusalem, Zec 14:8; and the same with the waters in Ezekiel's vision, that came from under the threshold of the house, Eze 47:1; it seems to denote the small beginnings of the Gospel, and the great increase and overflow of it in the world, as it does in all the above passages: this is referred by the ancient Jews {x} to the times of the Messiah;
and shall water the valley of Shittim; a plain or valley near Jordan, upon the borders of Moab, at the farther end of Canaan that way,
Nu 33:49. Benjamin of Tudela {y} says, that from the mount of Olives may be seen the plain and brook of Shittim, unto or near Mount Nebo, which was in the land of Moab. This valley or plain, as the Targum, was so called, either from the "shittah" tree, Isa 41:19; of which was the wood "shittim", so much used for various things in the tabernacle and temple, that grew there; and which Jerom on this place says was a kind of tree that grew in the wilderness, like a white thorn in colour and leaves, though not in size, for otherwise it was a very large tree, out of which the broadest planks might be cut, and its wood very strong, and of incredible, smoothness and beauty; and which grew not in cultivated places, nor in the Roman soil, but in the desert of Arabia; and therefore one would think did not grow in this plain near Jordan, and so could not be denominated from hence: but Dr. Shaw {z} observes, that the Acacia is by much the largest and the most common tree of these deserts (that is, of Arabia), as it might likewise have been of the plains of Shittim, over against Jericho, from whence it took its name; and adds, we have some reason to conjecture that the shittim wood, whereof the various utensils, &c. of the tabernacle, &c.
Ex 25:10, &c. were made, was the wood of the acacia. Or it may be this place had its name from the rushes which grew on the banks of Jordan, near to which it was; for so, is the word interpreted by some {a}: and Saadiah Gaon says, this valley is Jordan; so called, because Jordan was near to a place called Shittim: however, be it as it will, this can never be understood in a literal sense, that any fountain should arise out of the temple, and flow as far as beyond Jordan, and water any tract of land there; but must be understood spiritually, of the same waters of the sanctuary as in Ezekiel's vision, Eze 47:1; at most, the literal sense could only be, that the whole land should be well watered from one end to the other, and, become very fertile and fruitful, by the order and direction of the Lord, that dwells in his temple. The mystical sense is best. Jarchi makes mention of a Midrash, that interprets it of the expiation of the sins of the Israelites, in the affair of Baalpeor at Shittim, Nu 25:1; but the true spiritual sense is, that the Gospel shall be carried to the further parts of the earth; that the whole world shall be filled and watered with it, and become fruitful, which before was like a desert; these living waters shall flow, both toward the former and the hinder seas, the eastern and west: era, as in Zec 14:8; see Isa 11:9. Some render it, "shall water the valley of cedars" {b}; the shittim wood being a kind of cedar, of which many things belonging to the tabernacle, a type of the church, was made, being firm, sound, incorruptible, and durable; see
Ex 25:10; saints are compared to cedars for their height in Christ, their strength in him, and in his grace; their large and spreading leaves, branches, and roots, or growth in grace; and for their duration and incorruption; see Nu 24:5; a valley may signify the low estate of God's people; or be an emblem of lowly, meek, and humble souls, to whom the Gospel is preached, and who are watered and revived by it, and to whom more grace is given; see
Isa 40:4. It is by Symmachus rendered "the valley of thorns"; and so Quinquarboreus {c} says the word signifies and designs such who are barren in good works.
{t} Epitome Divin. Institut. c. 11. Vid. Institut. l. 7. c. 24. {u} "Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva, Et durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella". Virgil. Eclog. 4. l. 29, 30. {w} "Flumina jam lactis, jam flumina nectaris ibant, Flavaque de viridi stillabant ibice mella". Ovid. Metamorph. l. 1. {x} Midrash Kohelet, fol. 63. 2. {y} Itineranium, p. 44. {z} Travels, c. 3. p. 444, 459. Ed. 2. {a} Vid. Relaud. Palestina Illustrata, l. 1. c. 54, p. 351, 352. {b} Myjvh lxn ta "vallem cedrorum lectissimorum", Junius & Tremellius, Tarnovius. {c} Scholia in Targum in loc.
Joel 3:19
Ver. 19. Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness,.... These two nations having been the implacable enemies of Israel, are here put for the future adversaries of the church of Christ, Pagan, Papal, and Mahometan; who will all be destroyed as such, and be no more: Rome is called, spiritually or mystically, Egypt,
Re 11:8; and Edom is a name that well agrees with it, it signifying "red", as it is with the blood of the saints: and it is common, with the Jewish writers, by Edom to understand Rome; which though it may not be true of all places they so interpret, yet is of many, and so here. Kimchi, by Egypt understands the Ishmaelites, or the Turks; and, by Edom, Rome;
for the violence [of] the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood is their land; either in the land of Judah; or rather in their own land, Egypt and Edom. This respects the violences and outrages committed by the antichristian states upon the true professors of the Christian religion, the Waldenses and Albigenses, and others, whose innocent blood, in great quantities, has been spilled by them. Antichrist is represented as, drunk with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus, and in whom will be found the blood of all the prophets and saints; and for this reason ruin and destruction will come upon him and his followers, and blood will be given them to drink, for they are worthy, Re 17:6.
Joel 3:20
Ver. 20. But Judah shall dwell for ever,.... The converted Jews shall dwell in their own land for ever, to the end of the, world and never more be carried captive, Eze 37:25; and the true professing people of God, as Judah signifies, shall continue in a church state, evermore, and never more be disturbed by any enemies, they shall dwell safely and peaceably to the end of time:
and Jerusalem from generation to generation; shall dwell so in like manner, age after age; that is, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, or the members of the true church of Christ, who shall see and enjoy peace and prosperity, both temporal and spiritual, as Jerusalem signifies.
Joel 3:21
Ver. 21. For I will cleanse their blood [which] I have not cleansed,.... Which some understand, as the Targum, of the Lord's, inflicting further punishments on the, enemies of his people, for shedding their innocent blood; and that he will not expiate their sins, nor hold them guiltless, or suffer them to go unpunished; but rather this is to be interpreted in a way of grace and mercy, as a benefit bestowed on Judah and Jerusalem, who are the immediate antecedents to the relative here; and in the words a reason is given why they should dwell safely and peaceably for ever, because the Lord will justify them from their sins; forgive their iniquities; cleanse them from all their pollution, signified by blood; of which grace they will have had no application made to them till this time; but now all their guilt and faith will be removed; and particularly God will forgive, and declare to be forgiven their sin of crucifying Christ; whose blood they had imprecated upon themselves and their children, and which has remained on them; but now will be removed, with all the sad effects of it. Though this may also refer to the conversion of the Gentiles, and the pardon of their sins, and the sanctification of their persons, in such places and parts of the world, where such blessings of grace have not been bestowed in times past for many ages, if ever;
for the Lord dwelleth in Zion; and therefore will diffuse his grace, and spread the blessings of it all around: or "even the Lord [that] dwelleth in Zion" {d}; he will do what is before promised; being the Lord, he can do it; and dwelling in Zion his church, it may be believed he will do it; and this will be for ever, when his Shechinah shall return thither in the days of the Messiah, as Kimchi observes.
{d} hwhyw "even I the Lord", margin of our Bibles.
John Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible.
The restoration of the Jews, and the final victory of true
religion over all opposers, appear to be here foretold. The contempt
and scorn with which the Jews have often been treated as a people,
and the little value set upon them, are noticed. None ever hardened
his heart against God or his church, and prospered long.
The restoration of the Jews, and the final victory of true
religion over all opposers, appear to be here foretold.
None ever hardened
his heart against God or his church, and prospered long.
Sources: Matthew Henry; Gill's Exposition; Matthew Henry Concise
Commentary
Commentary