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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!

Texts in conversation

Compare Joel 3:18 and Zechariah 14:8

Hebrew Bible

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Summary

Joel describes a future when streams will flow from Jerusalem, turning dry places fertile, language echoed in Zechariah where living water flows out from the city. Both passages use water as a symbol of future renewal and abundance.

Passages

Joel 3:18

Hebrew Bible
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.
600–501 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Joel

Zechariah 14:8

Hebrew Bible
6 On that day there will be no light—the sources of light in the heavens will congeal. 7 It will happen in one day—a day known to the Lord—not in the day or the night, but in the evening there will be light. 8 Moreover, on that day living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it will happen both in summer and in winter. 9 The Lord will then be king over all the earth. In that day the Lord will be seen as one with a single name. 10 All the land will change and become like the rift valley from Geba to Rimmon, south of Jerusalem. Jerusalem will be raised up and will stay in its own place from the Benjamin Gate to the site of the First Gate and on to the Corner Gate, and from the Tower of Hananel to the royal winepresses.
500–401 BCE (scholarly estimate) Read in Zechariah

References

"... The feast of Tabernacles in Jerusalem centered on a water-pouring ritual whereby priests, having drawn water from the pool of Siloam, would pour out those waters upon the altar. As a prayer for abundant rainfall to make Zion fertile and fruitful, the ritual symbolized the outpouring of the Spirit upon God’s people. The imagery, once more, derived from Isaiah ... Noting the parallelism between water and Spirit, and between the thirsty land and God’s people, the later divine invitation of Isaiah, in terms of thirst, is clarified: “Come, everyone who thirsts, come to the waters!” (Isaiah 55:1). Israel’s liturgy, the psalms, also uses the imagery of dry land for a person’s spiritual thirst for God—“my soul thirsts for you, my flesh yearns for you, in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water” (Psalm 63:1), “my soul is as a thirsty land for you” (Psalm 143:6)—a motif that uncovers the deep significance of the feast of Tabernacles for Israel. Other prophets also proclaimed the blessings of the outpoured Spirit as life-yielding waters, flowing into the symbolism of the feast. “On that day,” declared Zechariah, “living waters will flow out from Jerusalem” (Zechariah 14:8). So, too, Joel announced “a fount will come forth from the house of Yahweh” (Joel 3:18), and Ezekiel described waters issuing forth from the house of Yahweh, eastward, and wherever the river flows, it brings life and healing to creation (Ezekiel 47; note also Psalms 36:8; 46:4; 65:9) ..."
L. Michael Morales, Exodus Old and New: A Biblical Theology of Redemption (Downers Grove, IL: IVP Academic, 2020), 238–239.

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Joel 3:18 and Zechariah 14:8

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