Yea also, what have ye to do with me, O Tyre and Zidon, and all the districts of Philistia? Will ye render me a recompence? But if ye recompense me, swiftly [and] speedily will I bring your recompence upon your own head;
Joel 3 is God's case against the nations that wronged His people. Here He names three neighbours, and asks whether they really have a score to settle with Him.
The chapter is God's own case, argued about His people and His land. One writer sums up how He frames the charges against Tyre, Sidon and Philistia:
He recounts all the grievances of His people as done to Himself. Through them He would pay the same evils back in judgment on the nations that inflicted them.
Two things explain the "payment back": stolen temple wealth and trafficked children. One summary of the case against Sidon lists both:
The Lord says of Sidon, together with Tyre, that they had taken His gold and silver and His precious things and carried them into their heathen temples, and had also sold the children of Judah to the Greeks, to remove them far from their own border.
Notice the pronouns. The silver, the gold and the treasures are His. The captives are His people. Robbing Judah was robbing God.
These were not distant strangers. Tyre and Sidon had once been friends of Israel's kings:
The Phoenicians, that is, the people of Tyre and Sidon, who in the days of David and Solomon were allies, had in later times become the enemies of Judah. They too had been guilty of selling Jewish prisoners to the Greeks. Joel predicts that they also will be punished for this crime. That prediction came true in the time of Uzziah, 811–759 B.C. This proves that Joel must have prophesied before the days of Uzziah.
So part of this verse already has an answer in history.
The third party named is a narrow strip of coast, not a whole country. One study of the Hebrew word marks its limits:
The Hebrew word, Pelesheth, occurs only four times. It did not refer to the whole land of Canaan, the way the name Palestine is used today. It covered only part of the Mediterranean coast, occupied by the Philistines. In Joel 3:4, Tyre and Sidon are not included in the term.
Another writer notes when Scripture uses that name:
These people owned only a very small strip of the land of Canaan. Yet the land has taken its name from them, for Palestine means the land of the Philistines. But Scripture only gives the land this name when it foretells judgment on it.
This is measured repayment, not random violence. And it waits for a day still to come:
In that day God will judge all the nations as nations in this world. So this passage lists the insults they had done to Israel, and the Lord declares that He will return their recompense. He holds to righteous retribution. What they caused Israel to suffer, they must suffer themselves. In God's eyes it is right that they should receive what they gave to the Jews. These nations wronged and insulted Israel not only under the law, but right to the end, after Christianity. "I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away."
The whole exchange is turned around. The traffickers' children now go to Judah:
And now we reach Joel 3. The Lord comes with a recompense. Now, as the end is in view, things are changed. The last are first. The captive is the spoiler. Israel is the head and not the tail.
The cities warned here were not written off forever. Long after Joel, the Lord Himself walked their coasts and compared them with the towns that saw His miracles:
The Lord visited the borders of Tyre. He declared that if the mighty works done in Chorazin and Bethsaida had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented.
- Personal. God takes wrongs done to His people as wrongs done to Himself. So He asks whether Tyre and Sidon have any claim on Him.
- Itemised. The charges are exact. They carried His silver, gold and precious things into pagan temples. They sold Judah's children to buyers far away.
- Named. All three are neighbours. Two were old allies of David and Solomon. The third is a thin coastal strip, and Scripture names it when it foretells judgment.
- Returned. The payback fits the crime. What they made Israel suffer, they suffer. The captive becomes the spoiler, and the sellers are sold.
- Yet open. The Lord Himself later walked those coasts. He said they would have repented if they had seen what Chorazin and Bethsaida saw.
because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my beautiful pleasant things,
This verse sits inside a courtroom scene, where God charges Tyre and Sidon with looting what belonged to Him. Why does He call a robbed nation's treasure "my silver and my gold," and what will He do about it?
The place of this trial has a name, and the name says what happens there.
In Joel 3 the Spirit describes the last days in more detail. These are the days when God would bring back the captives of Judah and Jerusalem. It is the judgment of the nations, a judgment needed to vindicate the rights of God towards His oppressed people... Israel is His inheritance. The word "Jehoshaphat" means "the judgment, or the sceptre, of Jehovah or Jah." There, in judgment, He pleads with the nations for His people, whom they had scattered. He pleads for His land, which they had divided.
The stolen goods were Judah's. God speaks of them as His own because of how He keeps the account.
He recounts all the grievances of His people as done to Himself. By the same means those same evils would be repaid in judgment on the nations that inflicted them.
The charge has two halves: what they did with the treasure, and what they did with the people.
Jehovah says of Sidon, together with Tyre, that they had taken His gold and silver and pleasant things and carried them into their pagan temples. They had also sold the children of Judah to the Greeks, to move them far away from their border.
Where the ESV has "rich treasures," older translations read "pleasant things." The plunder did not simply get spent — it ended up in the temples of other gods.
These cities had not always been enemies of Israel.
The Phoenicians, that is, those of Tyre and Sidon, who in the days of David and Solomon were allies, had in later times become the enemies of Judah. They too had been guilty of selling Jewish prisoners to the Greeks. Joel predicts that they also will be punished for this crime — a prediction fulfilled in the time of Uzziah.
The judgment falls on the nations as nations, and it follows a fixed rule.
But the nations, all nations, will be judged as nations in this world in that day. So the prophet describes the various insults they had done to Israel, and Jehovah declares that He will repay them. He holds to righteous retribution. What they caused Israel to suffer, they must suffer themselves.
One writer sees the same habit at work today.
The same thing happens in our day. Men who have never entered the kingdom of God by being born again belong to it in name only, and they are now its accepted leaders and teachers. They have tacked the name of Christ onto their own philosophical fables. They have taken the good and pleasant things of our holy faith and attached them to man as he is in his fallen nature. They act as though there were no need for regeneration and redemption, and a new creation in Christ Jesus.
English and Hebrew Bibles divide Joel differently. In a Hebrew Bible, chapter 3 verse 5 lands on a promise of rescue instead.
I turn again to this chapter, that is, Joel 2 (in Hebrew, chapter 3, in part)... Verses 30-32 (in Hebrew, chapter 3:3-5) come before the great and terrible day, and there is deliverance for those who call, and whom Jehovah will call.
- Theft. Tyre and Sidon carried off Judah's gold and silver and put it in their own temples. They also sold the people themselves to the Greeks.
- Ownership. God counts every wrong done to His people as done to Himself, so their treasure is His treasure.
- Betrayal. These cities were allies under David and Solomon. Later they sold Jewish prisoners to the Greeks.
- Reckoning. In the valley of Jehoshaphat — "the judgment, or the sceptre, of Jehovah" — He pleads for His scattered people and His divided land. What they made Israel suffer, they must suffer themselves.
- Warning. The same habit lives on wherever men take the good and pleasant things of faith and attach them to fallen human nature.
and the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the children of the Greeks, that ye might remove them far from their border.
Tyre and Sidon carried God's gold and silver into their pagan temples. Then they sold His people into slavery far across the sea, and two questions follow: who bought them, and why does God gather all nations to judgment over one old slave sale?
The charge covers a double theft: God's treasures first, then God's people. One reference work sets it out:
The Lord says of Zidon, together with Tyre, that they had taken His gold and silver and pleasant things, and carried them into their pagan temples. They had also sold the children of Judah to the Greeks, to remove them far from their border. Joel 3:4-8.
The same work names who these buyers were:
The sons of Javan are the Greeks. Tyre and Sidon had sold the children of Israel to them. Joel 3:6.
What makes the crime worse is who committed it:
The Phoenicians — that is, the people of Tyre and Sidon — were allies in the days of David and Solomon. In later times they became the enemies of Judah. They too had been guilty of selling Jewish prisoners to the Greeks. Joel predicts that they also shall be punished for this crime — a prediction fulfilled in the time of Uzziah, B.C. 811-759.
Some critics use the mention of Greeks to date Joel's book very late. One commentator answers them:
Critics also object to an early date because chapter 3:6 mentions the Greeks. But an inscription of Sargon (about 710 B.C.) mentions the Greeks too, and the far older Amarna letters mention a Greek as well.
God speaks here as the injured party. One writer sums up the whole section in a sentence:
He recounts all the grievances of His people as done to Himself. Through them the same evils will come back in judgment on the nations that inflicted them.
This is why God judges the nations at all. It holds true even when He used those same nations to punish Israel:
From the moment God is in Israel He identifies Himself with His people. So He treats the nations according to how they treated Israel. "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… In all these chapters we see the nations judged by God because they trampled on His people, though He also used them to punish His people.
God's judgment matches the crime. One writer draws out the rule behind it:
But God will judge the nations, all nations, as nations in this world on that day. So the passage lists the insults they had done to Israel, and the Lord declares that He will pay them back. He holds to righteous retribution. What they caused Israel to suffer, they must suffer themselves. In God's eyes it is right that these nations should receive what they gave to the Jews. They wronged and insulted Israel under the law, and kept doing it to the last, after Christianity came.
The Phoenician slave sales were only the start. One writer traces the same crime on a far larger scale:
In Joel's day people knew this wickedness only in part — casting lots for His people, and selling boys and girls. The Philistines had done this, as well as Tyre and Sidon. But these words came true during the Babylonian captivity, and in the great scattering that the Roman Empire brought about. After the destruction of Jerusalem in the year 70, the very thing the prophet spoke of happened… Jews were sold for a price as small as a measure of barley. Thousands were sold off in this way.
- Sold far. Tyre and Sidon took God's gold and silver, then sold Judah's people to the Greeks — far enough away that they could not come home.
- Sold by friends. Allies in the days of David and Solomon became Judah's enemies. God punished them for this very crime in Uzziah's reign.
- Sold His own. God lists their injuries to His people as injuries to Himself; to touch Israel is to touch the apple of His eye.
- Sold again. The measure comes back: what they made Israel suffer, they must suffer themselves, when God judges all nations.
- Still selling. Babylon, then Rome after A.D. 70, repeated the traffic on a vast scale — which is why the account is not closed but kept for the day of judgment.