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About this book

Joel

About this book
Chapter 3

1 “For look! In those days and at that time I will return the exiles to Judah and Jerusalem. 2 Then I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. I will enter into judgment against them there concerning my people Israel who are my inheritance, whom they scattered among the nations.⁠ They partitioned my land, 3 and they cast lots for my people.⁠ They traded a boy for a prostitute; they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink. 4 Why are you doing these things to me, Tyre and Sidon? Are you trying to get even with me, land of Philistia? If you are, I will very quickly repay you for what you have done! 5 For you took my silver and my gold and brought my precious valuables to your own palaces. 6 You sold Judeans and Jerusalemites to the Greeks, removing them far from their own country. 7 Look! I am rousing them from that place to which you sold them. I will repay you for what you have done! 8 I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah. They will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away.” Indeed, the Lord has spoken. 9 Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for a holy war! Call out the warriors! Let all these fighting men approach and attack! 10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I too am a warrior!’⁠ 11 Lend your aid and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves to that place.” Bring down, O Lord, your warriors! 12 “Let the nations be roused and let them go up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit in judgment on all the surrounding nations.⁠ 13 Rush forth with the sickle, for the harvest is ripe! Come, stomp the grapes, for the winepress is full! The vats overflow. Indeed, their evil is great!”⁠ 14 Crowds, great crowds are in the Valley of Decision, for the day of the Lord is near in the Valley of Decision! 15 The sun and moon are darkened; the stars withhold their brightness. 16 The Lord roars from Zion; from Jerusalem his voice bellows out.⁠ The heavens and the earth shake.⁠ But the Lord is a refuge for his people; he is a stronghold for the citizens of Israel.⁠ 17 “You will be convinced that I, the Lord, am your God, dwelling on Zion, my holy mountain. Jerusalem will be holy— conquering armies will no longer pass through it. 18 On that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine,⁠ and the hills will flow with milk. All the dry stream beds of Judah will flow with water. A spring will flow out from the temple of the Lord, watering the Valley of Acacia Trees.⁠ 19 Egypt will be desolate,⁠ and Edom will be a desolate wilderness because of the violence they did to the people of Judah, in whose land they shed innocent blood. 20 But Judah will reside securely forever, and Jerusalem will be secure from one generation to the next. 21 I will avenge their blood that I had not previously acquitted.” It is the Lord who dwells in Zion!

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Compare Joel 3:10 and Micah 4:3

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Micah describes a future where nations abandon war and reshape weapons into farming tools, expressing peace after divine judgment. Joel reverses this, calling for plows to be turned into swords because of the gathering of nations for a final battle.

Passages

Joel 3:10

Hebrew Bible
8 I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah. They will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away.” Indeed, the Lord has spoken. 9 Proclaim this among the nations: “Prepare for a holy war! Call out the warriors! Let all these fighting men approach and attack! 10 Beat your plowshares into swords and your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, ‘I too am a warrior!’ 11 Lend your aid and come, all you surrounding nations, and gather yourselves to that place.” Bring down, O Lord, your warriors! 12 “Let the nations be roused and let them go up to the Valley of Jehoshaphat, for there I will sit in judgment on all the surrounding nations.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Joel

Micah 4:3

Hebrew Bible
1 And in future days the Lord’s Temple Mount will be the most important mountain of all; it will be more prominent than other hills. People will stream to it. 2 Many nations will come, saying, “Come on! Let’s go up to the Lord’s mountain, to the temple of Jacob’s God, so he can teach us his ways and we can live by his laws.” For instruction will proceed from Zion, the Lord’s message from Jerusalem. 3 He will arbitrate between many peoples and settle disputes between many distant nations. They will beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nations will not use weapons against other nations, and they will no longer train for war. 4 Each will sit under his own grapevine or under his own fig tree without any fear. The Lord of Heaven’s Armies has decreed it. 5 Though all the nations follow their respective gods, we will follow the Lord our God forever.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Micah

References

"... One of the few prophetic books without a date, Joel was probably written after the Babylonian Exile. Its first two chapters describe a vague and terrifying threat to Jerusalem (1:1–2:11) that culminates in a call to collective repentance (2:12–17) and a divine response (2:18–32). Chapters 3 and 4 describe God’s intervention on Judah’s behalf, the restoration of its fortunes, and its engagement in a cosmic battle against national foes. Joel marks an important transition from the language of earlier prophecy to the apocalyptic eschatological ideas that become prominent in post-biblical Judaism and early Christianity. Joel frequently refers to prior scripture, transforming its meaning in the process. For example, Joel 3:10 reverses the call to beat swords into plowshares found in Micah 4:3 and Isaiah 2:4. Joel also reimagines the “Day of YHWH,” an important theological concept in early Israel. Originally, it referred to the belief in God’s climactic intervention in history to defend the nation (Isaiah 34). Amos had mocked naive faith in YHWH’s uncritical support of Israel, suggesting instead that the Day of YHWH meant judgment and not salvation (Amos 5:18–20). For Joel, the Day of YHWH retains this ambivalent character (1:15–18), but the conflict swiftly escalates from an earthly battle (2:1, 11) to a cosmic war (4:14–16). In this new understanding, the Day of YHWH also describes the nation’s ultimate restoration (4:17–18) ..."
Judith R. Baskin, ed., The Cambridge Dictionary of Judaism and Jewish Culture (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2011), 330.

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Joel 3:10 and Micah 4:3

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