Joel 3:1

For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

EXPOSITORY (ENGLISH BIBLE)

Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers

III.

(1) That time.—The whole course of the events of the world is shown to lead up by Divine providence to the Great Day of the Lord, when “the crooked shall be made straight, and the rough places plain, and the Lord shall be exalted.” Then will be “the times of the restitution of all things;” then will the people of God be brought out of captivity, and vengeance executed upon their enemies. This progress, with its final consummation, is the subject of the concluding lines of Joel’s prophecy.

Benson Commentary

Joel 3:1-2. For, &c. — This particle shows the connection of this chapter with the latter part of the preceding: as if he had said, As an earnest of the accomplishment of these predictions, my people shall be restored to their own land, and then their enemies shall be humbled: see note on Joel 2:28. In those days, when I shall bring again — Namely, out of Babylon, (to which deliverance this promise seems primarily to refer,) the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem — As the type of the whole remnant which shall be saved. I will also gather all nations — In the type the expression means, all those nations that had oppressed Judah; in the antitype, all the nations that had been enemies to Christ and his church. And will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat — That is, into the place of judgment; for the word Jehoshaphat signifies divine judgment, or, the place where Jehovah will execute judgment. Thus the valley of Jezreel signifies the place where God’s arm, or strength, would exert itself. The expression likewise alludes to the valley of Berachah, or of blessing, as it was afterward called, mentioned 2 Chronicles 20:26, the place in which Jehoshaphat obtained a remarkable victory; or, where God, by his miraculous interposition, so infatuated the enemies of his people, that they destroyed one another, and few or none of them that came against Judah escaped. Archbishop Newcome considers it as a prediction of an extraordinary battle which was to be won in that valley, probably, he thinks, by Nebuchadnezzar, which would utterly discomfit the ancient enemies of the Jews, and resemble that victory of Jehoshaphat. But it seems more probable that the prediction principally refers to a general discomfiture of the enemies of God’s church in the latter days, probably to that foretold Isaiah 66:16, or to the battle of Gog and Magog, described Ezekiel 39., and that of Armageddon, spoken of Revelation 16:14; Revelation 16:16. And I will plead with them — I will require of them the reason why they thus used my people. God pleads with men, and vindicates the cause of oppressed truth and righteousness by his judgments. Then the consciences of the guilty fly in their faces, and force them to acknowledge the justice of the punishments they suffer. For my people and for my heritage Israel, &c. — The prophets in the Old Testament often denounced judgments against Edom, Moab, and other hostile neighbours of the Jews, who took advantage of their calamities to vent their spite against them. But since all nations are summoned to answer the impeachment here mentioned, we may suppose the word Israel to comprehend the faithful of all ages; and then we may observe, that the judgments denounced against the church’s enemies, are chiefly for their hatred and cruelty toward God’s servants.

Matthew Henry's Concise Commentary

3:1-8 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.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

For, behold - The prophet by the word, "for," shows that he is about to explain in detail, what he had before spoken of, in sum. By the word, "behold," he stirs up our minds for something great, which he is to set before our eyes, and which we should not be prepared to expect or believe, unless he solemnly told us, "Behold." As the detail, then, of what goes before, the prophecy contains all times of future judgment on those who should oppose God, oppress His Church and people, and sin against Him in them and all times of His blessing upon His own people, until the Last Day. And this it gives in imagery, partly describing nearer events of the same sort, as in the punishments of Tyre and Sidon, such as they endured from the kings of Assyria, from Nebuchadnezzar, from Alexander; partly using these, His earlier judgments, as representatives of the like punishments against the like sins unto the end.

In those days and in that time - The whole period of which the prophet had been speaking, was the time from which God called His people to repentance, to the Day of Judgment. The last division of that time was from the beginning of the Gospel unto that Day. He fixes the occasion of which he speaks by the words, "when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem." This form was used, before there was any general dispersion of the nation. For all captivity of single members of the Jewish people had this sore calamity, that it severed them from the public worship of God, and exposed them to idolatry. So David complains, "they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, go serve other gods" 1 Samuel 26:19. The restoration then of single members, or of smaller bodies of captives, was, at that time, an unspeakable mercy. It was the restoration of those shut out from the worship of God; and so was an image "of the deliverance from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God" Romans 8:21, or of any "return" of those who had gone astray, "to the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls 1 Peter 2:25. The grievous captivity of the Jews, now, is to Satan, whose servants they made themselves, when they said, "we have no king but Caesar; His Blood be upon us and upon our children." Their blessed deliverance will be "from the power of Satan unto God" Acts 26:18. It is certain from Paul Romans 11:26, that there shall be a complete conversion of the Jews, before the end of the world, as indeed has always been believed. This shall probably be shortly before the end of the world, and God would here say, "when I shall have brought to an end the "captivity of Judah and Jerusalem," i. e., of that people "to whom were the promises" Romans 9:4, and shall have delivered them from the bondage of sin and from blindness to light and freedom in Christ, then will I gather all nations to judgment."

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown Bible Commentary

CHAPTER 3

Joe 3:1-21. God's Vengeance on Israel's Foes in the Valley of Jehoshaphat. His Blessing on the Church.

1. bring again the captivity—that is, reverse it. The Jews restrict this to the return from Babylon. Christians refer it to the coming of Christ. But the prophet comprises the whole redemption, beginning from the return out of Babylon, then continued from the first advent of Christ down to the last day (His second advent), when God will restore His Church to perfect felicity [Calvin].God’s judgments against the enemies of his people, Joel 3:1-17. His blessing upon the church, Joel 3:18-21.

Though our dividing this chapter from the former seems to some a beginning of some new matter, yet indeed the prophet prosecutes his old subject, and proceeds to declare how that great thing mentioned in the last verse of the second chapter should be effected, and in this verse you have a transition to that thing.

Behold: it is a note of great attention, and heeding what is to be here spoken.

When I shall bring again the captivity; when I shall by Cyrus the type bring Judah’s people out of Babylonish captivity, the emblem of a greater and worse captivity. Judah after the flesh as the type, but, according to the mystery of it, Judah signifieth the whole remnant or residue of those God will save.

Jerusalem, both literally and typically understood; so that beside what refers to the history of the two tribes, or kingdom of the house of David, restored out of captivity by Cyrus, the bringing back the captivity of the whole Israel of God by Christ the Messiah is here to be considered, and all along through this chapter.

Gill's Exposition of the Entire Bible

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 Isaiah 52:8.

Geneva Study Bible

For, behold, in {a} those days, and in that time, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,

(a) When I will deliver my Church, which consists of both Jews and Gentiles.

EXEGETICAL (ORIGINAL LANGUAGES)

Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges

1. For] The chapter is closely connected with Joel 2:28-32, for explaining how the faithful Israelites will be delivered (Joel 2:32); viz. on account of a judgement to be held upon the heathen world, which will have the effect of freeing the Israelites.

behold] The particle, as often, draws attention to some new and important announcement (cf. Isaiah 3:1; Isaiah 7:14; Isaiah 19:1; Amos 6:11, &c.).

in those days, and in that time] The same combination, Jeremiah 33:15; Jeremiah 50:4; Jeremiah 50:20. The time referred to is that of Israel’s deliverance (Joel 2:32).

bring again the captivity] or, perhaps, turn the fortune (comp. on Amos 9:14): upon either interpretation, a decisive change in the condition of Judah and Jerusalem is denoted by the words.

Pulpit Commentary

Verses 1-3. - These verses describe the deliverance of God's people and the destruction of his enemies because of their injurious, insulting, and ignominious treatment of his people. Verse 1. - The time referred to: In those days, and in that time, is the first point to be determined. The reference is obviously to the period spoken of in the twenty-eighth verse of the second chapter, where we read, "And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flush." This seems to fix the date at least of the commencement of the events recorded in these verses. These events must have been subsequent to that Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But a still closer specification of the time is added by way of apposition, namely (asher supplemented by bahem or bah), when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem. This form of expression includes, beside the restoration of God's people from their dispersion and redemption out of captivity or distress of any kind, their elevation also to a higher position of dignity and to greater prosperity than they had ever before enjoyed. Thus of Job we read (Job 42:10)," And the Lord turned the captivity of Job... also the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before." The ki which introduces the verse gives assurance that the blessing promised in the concluding verse of the preceding chapter shall be realized; while the hinneh directs attention to the novelty and importance of the subject introduced in the first verse of this present chapter. Joel 3:1

Keil and Delitzsch Biblical Commentary on the Old Testament

(Heb. Bib. ch. 4.) Judgment upon the World of Nations, and Glorification of Zion- Joel 3:1, Joel 3:2. "For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall turn the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will gather together all nations, and bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will contend with them there concerning my people and my inheritance Israel, which they have scattered among the nations, and my land have they divided. Joel 3:3. And for my people they cast the lot; and gave the boy for a harlot, and the maiden they have sold for wine, and drunk (it)." The description of the judgment-day predicted in Joel 2:31 commences with an explanatory כּי. The train of thought is the following: When the day of the Lord comes, there will be deliverance upon Zion only for those who call upon the name of the Lord; for then will all the heathen nations that have displayed hostility to Jehovah's inheritance be judged in the valley of Jehoshaphat. By hinnēh, the fact to be announced is held up as something new and important. The notice as to the time points back to the "afterward" in Joel 2:28 : "in those days," viz., the days of the outpouring of the Spirit of God. This time is still further described by the apposition, "at that time, when I shall turn the captivity of Judah," as the time of the redemption of the people of God out of their prostrate condition, and out of every kind of distress. שׁוּב את שׁבוּת is not used here in the sense of "to bring back the prisoners," but, as in Hosea 6:11, in the more comprehensive sense of restitutio in integrum, which does indeed include the gathering together of those who were dispersed, and the return of the captives, as one element, though it is not exhausted by this one element, but also embraces their elevation into a new and higher state of glory, transcending their earlier state of grace. In וקבּצתּי the prediction of judgment is appended to the previous definition of the time in the form of an apodosis. The article in כּל־הגּוים (all the nations) does not refer to "all those nations which were spoken of in Hosea 1:1-11 and 2 under the figure of the locusts" (Hengstenberg), but is used because the prophet had in his mind all those nations upon which hostility towards Israel, the people of God, is charged immediately afterwards as a crime: so that the article is used in much the same manner as in Jeremiah 49:36, because the notion, though in itself an indefinite one, is more fully defined in what follows (cf. Ewald, 227, a). The valley of Yehōshâphât, i.e., Jehovah judges, is not the valley in which the judgment upon several heathen nations took place under Jehoshaphat (2 Chronicles 20), and which received the name of Valley of blessing, from the feast of thanksgiving which Jehoshaphat held there (2 Chronicles 20:22-26), as Ab. Ezra, Hofmann, Ewald, and others suppose; for the "Valley of blessing" was not "the valley of Kidron, which was selected for that festival in the road back from the desert of Tekoah to Jerusalem" (see Bertheau on 2 Chronicles c.), and still less "the plain of Jezreel" (Kliefoth), but was situated in the neighbourhood of the ruins of Bereikût, which have been discovered by Wolcott (see Ritter, Erdkunde, xv. p. 635, and Van de Velde, Mem. p. 292). On the other hand, the valley of Jehoshaphat is unquestionably to be sought for, according to this chapter (as compared with Zechariah 14:4), in or near Jerusalem; and the name, which does not occur anywhere else in either the Old or New Testament, excepting here and in Joel 3:12, is formed by Joel, like the name ‛ēmeq hechârūts in v. 14, from the judgment which Jehovah would hold upon the nations there. The tradition of the church (see Euseb. and Jerome in the Onom. s.v. κοιλάς, Caelas, and Itiner. Anton. p. 594; cf. Robinson, Pal. i. pp. 396, 397) has correctly assigned it to the valley of the Kidron, on the eastern side of Jerusalem, or rather to the northern part of that valley (2 Samuel 18:18), or valley of Shaveh (Genesis 14:17). There would the Lord contend with the nations, hold judgment upon them, because they had attacked His people (nachălâthı̄, the people of Jehovah, as in Joel 2:17) and His kingdom ('artsı̄). The dispersion of Israel among the nations, and the division (חלּק) of the Lord's land, cannot, of course, refer to the invasion of Judah by the Philistines and Arabians in the time of Joram (2 Chronicles 21:16-17). For although these foes did actually conquer Jerusalem and plunder it, and carried off, among other captives, even the sons of the king himself, this transportation of a number of prisoners cannot be called a dispersion of the people of Israel among the heathen; still less can the plundering of the land and capital be called a division of the land of Jehovah; to say nothing of the fact, that the reference here is to the judgment which would come upon all nations after the outpouring of the Spirit of God upon all flesh, and that it is not till Joel 3:4-8 that Joel proceeds to speak of the calamities which neighbouring nations had inflicted upon the kingdom of Judah. The words presuppose as facts that have already occurred, both the dispersion of the whole nation of Israel in exile among the heathen, and the conquest and capture of the whole land by heathen nations, and that in the extent to which they took place under the Chaldeans and Romans alone.