For behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall turn again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
Joel's final chapter opens with a time marker. God names a coming day when He will reverse the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem. Older translations read "turn again the captivity," and the writers below use that wording. Two questions follow. When are "those days"? And what captivity does God still have to turn back?
The opening words fix a time near the end of history. That time has its own character, and it comes before the age of blessing.
In Joel 3 the Spirit sets out the circumstances of the last days in more detail. These are the days when God would bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem. This period comes before the time of peace and blessing, when the curse will be taken away completely. It is the judgment of the nations. That judgment is needed to defend God's rights over His oppressed people. It also shows the nations what He is in His government of the earth.
The natural objection is that Judah did come home from Babylon long ago. One writer answers that the return recorded in history never matched what the prophets promised.
The captivity of Judah and Jerusalem is no real difficulty. In a certain sense the Jews have never yet come back to the land in the way the prophets give them ground to expect. They are still suffering the results of being led captive over and over again, and in that sense they still count as captives... God dates the captivity from the day they were carried away from Palestine and scattered through all lands — first by the Babylonians, then by the Romans. They may do well for themselves in the lands of the Gentiles... But their captivity turns back only when God restores them by His power and mercy, and that has not yet happened.
The verse names Judah and Jerusalem, not the whole nation. That narrowing is deliberate, and it does not shut anyone out.
Clearly this cannot yet have happened, for the captivity of His people is not yet ended. They are still scattered in the great dispersion among the nations of the earth. The day when God brings back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem is still future. Joel does not name Israel, the ten tribes, here, but the prophecy includes them; they too will come back. He names only Judah because he addressed his prophecy to Judah and Jerusalem.
There is a reason the promise centres on that one city.
Before the full blessing of His people, God must take up His direct government of them again, in the same place where He had given it up. He takes possession once more of the seat of that government — a seat He had chosen Himself.
The little word "when" carries weight. What God does for His city sets the date for what He does with the nations. The same order shows up elsewhere in the prophets.
Notice that in both Joel and Zechariah the restoring and comfort of the Land depend on a first restoring of Judah and Jerusalem... Deliverance is in Mount Zion and Jerusalem. So the prophet says that in those days, when God brings back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem — the first thing — He will then gather all nations and plead with them. Psalm 126 keeps the same order: "When the Lord turned again the captivity of Zion."
God does not gather the nations at random. He gives His reason, and it reaches back to how they treated a people He calls His own.
The time in view is the one when the Lord will bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem. God declares that at that time He will also gather all nations. His purpose in gathering them is to plead with them for Israel, His people and His heritage, whom they have oppressed so cruelly.
God takes these wrongs personally. He "recounts all the grievances of His people as done to Himself" (J. N. Darby).
For all the judgment that follows, the chapter begins as good news for the people addressed.
Joel 3 opens with words of comfort and consolation for the Israel of the future... So the reader will see how well the voices of the prophets agree with the song of Moses. Both of them set out and establish the great truth of Israel's future restoration, supremacy and glory — fully, clearly and beyond dispute.
- When — "those days" are the last days, the stretch that comes before the time of peace when the curse is lifted.
- Whose — the restoring named here belongs to Judah and Jerusalem. The ten tribes are not the subject here, but the promise still includes them.
- What — the captivity in view still runs. God counts it from the scattering by Babylon and Rome, and only His power ends it.
- Then — the restoring of Judah and Jerusalem comes first; the gathering of the nations follows from it.
- Why — God pleads with the nations for a people He calls His heritage, treating their grievances as done to Himself.
I will also gather all the nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of my people and mine inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and they have parted my land;
Joel 3 promises that God will restore Judah and Jerusalem. In the same breath He summons the nations to one valley to answer for what they did to His people and His land. Two questions follow. When does this happen, and where is this valley?
The verse is chained to the clause before it — this judgment falls at the moment God brings back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem. One writer treats that clause as a dating device, and draws a plain conclusion from the state of the Jewish people today:
The first verse tells us when Jehovah will do what He announces in the next two verses. It will be in those days, in that time, when God brings back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem. So this cannot have happened yet, because the captivity of His people is not yet over. They are still scattered in the great dispersion among the nations of the earth... One day the heavens will be silent no longer. Jehovah in His power will begin to fulfil His promises, and their captivity will end. That will mean judgment for the nations.
The name of the valley says what happens there:
Here God also names the place where this great judgment of the nations will happen. It will be in the valley of Jehoshaphat. Translated, the word means "Jehovah judges."
But where is it? One writer looks close to Jerusalem, and wonders whether the ground itself still has to be made:
We must look for the valley of Jehoshaphat close to Jerusalem. Most people place it in the Kidron valley, east of the city. It may not exist yet... When the Lord appears, His feet will stand on the Mount of Olives in that day. The Mount of Olives will then split down the middle, forming a very great valley (Zech. 14:4). This great valley may be the valley where the Lord judges the nations.
Notice how often God says "My" here — My people, My heritage, My land. Two charges follow: they scattered His people and carved up His land. The case is about His own rights:
This is the judgment of the nations. It is needed to vindicate the rights of God over His oppressed people, and to show the nations what He is in His government of the earth... There He will plead in His power with all the nations that dispute His rights. He shows Himself among His people, dwelling with them, and maintaining their rights as belonging to Himself. Israel is His inheritance... There, in judgment, He pleads with the nations for His people, whom they had scattered, and for His land, which they had divided up.
God is not a distant judge here. He dwells in the middle of this people:
From the moment God is in Israel, He identifies Himself with His people. So He treats the nations as they treated Israel. "Truly, I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me," says the King. The moment they touch Israel, they touch the apple of His eye.
The sentence fits the crime. Each nation gets back what it handed out:
But in that day God will judge the nations, all nations, as nations, here in this world. So the prophecy describes the insults they had heaped on Israel, and Jehovah declares that He will pay them back. He holds to righteous retribution. What they caused Israel to suffer, they must suffer themselves. These nations wronged and insulted Israel, not only under the law, but right up to the end, after Christianity came. In God's eyes it is right that they should receive what they gave to the Jews.
The same standard runs through the prophets and into the Gospels:
The great sin of the nations, the Gentile world-powers, is the sin against Israel. God's prophets say this again and again. The judgment of the nations that our Lord describes in Matthew 25 rests on the same ground: how they treated the Jew.
The word "nations" fixes what kind of judgment this is. It is not the scene where the dead stand before the throne:
This passage speaks of the judgment of the living, as every passage on that judgment does. It refers to the time when Jehovah will bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem, and will plead with the nations there for His people. (Joel 3:1-2.)
- Timing — this judgment comes when God brings back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem. They are still scattered, so the day is still ahead.
- Place — a valley near Jerusalem named "Jehovah judges." It may be the valley made when the Mount of Olives splits at His appearing.
- Ownership — God calls them My people, My heritage, My land. The trial defends His rights, not just Israel's.
- Identification — what the nations did to Israel, they did to Him. Christ judges the nations by the same standard in Matthew 25.
- Recompense — what the nations dealt out, they receive. This is a reckoning with living nations, not the judgment of the dead.