And Jehovah will roar from Zion, and utter his voice from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake and Jehovah will be a shelter for his people, and the refuge of the children of Israel.
Joel's final chapter ends with the nations massed for battle. God answers with a sound that shakes creation. One voice does two opposite things at once: it makes heaven and earth tremble, and it shelters a people.
This verse is the climax of a summons. God calls the nations to a valley whose name is already a verdict.
In this last chapter the prophecy looks on to the time of full blessing and glory. But first it shows us how God prepares the world for it by His sweeping judgment on the nations. Zion is the place that judgment goes out from. God summons the nations to the valley of Jehoshaphat ("Jehovah judges"). We see them in their multitudes in the valley of threshing. Then the Lord roars out of Zion and the very heavens shake at the sound.
One commentator sets this moment apart from the Lord's call to His own to meet Him in the air. The place here is Jerusalem on earth, and the sound is a lion's roar against enemies.
But here the picture is so different that it must mean a completely different time. This is the Jerusalem on earth, not the heavenly one. This is not the Lord's shout calling His own to meet Him in the air. It is His lion-like roar against His enemies on earth. He is dwelling in Zion, His holy mountain, so that the holiness of Jerusalem is no longer a mockery but a blessed reality.
Some read every scene of shaking as the final judgment at the end of all things. The details of this verse rule that out — God is still roaring out of Zion, and He is still dwelling there.
What follows makes it plain that the ones judged here are the living only — the wicked nations of the earth, judged by an outpouring of divine judgment while they think of nothing more than a campaign or politics. This is not a rising from the dead to be judged according to their works… At the judgment of the dead Jehovah will not roar out of Zion as He does here, and He will not be dwelling there, making Jerusalem holy. For earth and heaven will have fled away.
Behind the noise is an act of government. The same act that judges the rebels gives God's people their confidence.
But Jehovah Himself would take back the reins of government on earth and make His voice heard from Jerusalem. The heavens and earth would tremble when He stepped in. And though His stepping in meant judgment on the rebellious, the One who stepped in, Jehovah, would be the hope of His people — Himself the strength of the children of Israel. So they would know Him as Jehovah their God, dwelling in Zion, His holy mountain… We see that this is effectual and sovereign grace.
The ESV calls God "a refuge" and "a stronghold" here. Older translations say "the hope of his people, and the strength of the children of Israel." The idea behind the words is a place you run to when everything else is falling apart.
But for His people He has something very different in store. He is their hope, or their "place of repair," their "harbour," in that day.
Joel's closing words become the opening words of Amos. There the same roar has a different target.
Amos opens where Joel ends… But how solemn it is that Jehovah utters His voice from the very centre of His worship and government — not to comfort and guide, but to denounce. And He denounces not strangers and enemies, but His own people!
- One voice. God speaks from Zion. That one sound shakes heaven and earth and shelters His people. The verse turns on the word "but."
- Roar. The image is a lion's roar: judgment aimed at enemies on earth, not the shout that calls His own to meet Him in the air.
- Living, not dead. God is still dwelling in Zion when this happens. So this cannot be the final judgment, when heaven and earth have fled.
- Refuge. The promise is a harbour and a fortress — a place to run to while everything around is being shaken.
- Warning. Amos opens with Joel's closing line. There the same roar denounces God's own people.
And ye shall know that I, Jehovah, [am] your God, dwelling in Zion, my holy mountain; and Jerusalem shall be holy, and no strangers shall pass through her any more.
The last chapter of Joel gathers the nations for judgment and then turns to the city at the centre of it all. It promises knowledge, God's presence, and a city no invader can enter — which leaves one question: when?
The words "so you shall know" point to knowledge Israel long refused. One writer ties it to a person they once rejected.
Like nearly all the other prophetic books, Joel ends with a vision of the kingdom. In it the Lord dwells among His people. He will appear in all His glory. The Lord will be a refuge for His people. Then they will come to that knowledge which they so long refused — that the delivering Lord is their God. But the Lord who appears there is none other than the Lord Jesus Christ. He was among them, and the people handed Him over to be crucified.
The verse does not only say blessing comes to Zion. It says God Himself lives there, and that changes who may set foot on it.
Here we find a very important thing. Not only will God establish blessing in Zion, but He Himself will dwell there. He will take exclusive possession of it. No stranger's foot shall ever again defile that holy mountain.
Dwelling there also means reigning there, and the glory does not stay put.
He will dwell in Zion, the mountain of glory. The glory from above will find a resting place on that holy hill. There He will be enthroned as King. From there the glory will spread over all.
Jerusalem carried the name holy while being anything but. One writer says the promise makes the name real, and he fixes both the place and the time.
It is the earthly Jerusalem, not the heavenly. This is not the Lord's shout calling His own to meet Him in the air, but His lion-like roar against His enemies on earth. He dwells in Zion, His holy mountain, and so makes the holiness of Jerusalem a blessed reality instead of a mockery. It is the time when all things are restored, as the full stream of prophetic testimony says. But it is in no way the last hour of that day. In that hour everything must be destroyed, to make way for the eternal judgment and the new heavens and new earth.
The strangers of this verse are not visitors. They are foreign powers who treated the city as plunder. Once they are gone, blessing pours over the land.
Jerusalem would be holy. Strangers would no longer pass through it, defiling it as their prey. And that is not all. Rich blessing would come on the land of His people. Wine would flow down from their mountains, and milk from their hills… Egypt and Edom would be made desolate. But Judah and Jerusalem would live in everlasting blessing, for the Lord would have cleansed them. We can see that this is effectual and sovereign grace.
Israel has returned to the land before. So has God already kept this promise? One writer checks it against the sieges the city has actually suffered.
This passage matters even more because Jerusalem comes back to blessing, never to be trampled down again. No strangers will pass through her any more. But the Gentiles who helped bring her affliction are destroyed forever. In the time of Nebuchadnezzar, when Jerusalem was in trouble, and again when Titus besieged and took it, the Gentiles were not destroyed at all. When Cyrus sent back a remnant to Jerusalem, they remained captive, and strangers are still in Jerusalem.
This dwelling is not only future. One writer applies it to believers through the risen Christ.
To this also we have come. For in the risen Lord we are brought to the very dwelling-place of God. We do not only find God fully revealed, for the blessing of His people. We find that He is pleased to dwell among them, in infinite rest and satisfaction. God could not dwell in a scene where there was anything contrary to Christ. But where the excellence and fragrance of Christ fills the whole air, where all is of Him, God can dwell with unspeakable delight.
- Dwelling. The centre of the verse is not a restored city but a resident God — He takes Zion for Himself and reigns there.
- Knowing. Because He dwells there, Israel at last knows their deliverer as God — the One they handed over to be crucified.
- Holiness. Because He dwells there, Jerusalem's holiness stops being a title and becomes fact.
- Cleared. Because He dwells there, the strangers who treated her as plunder are gone, and never return.
- Ours. The same rule holds for believers now. God dwells where all is of Christ.