Joel – Message 3

Joel 2:18-3:8a

Yahweh’s heart: recovery and healing rather than retribution

Message 3 mainly refers to the army invasion, although the locusts do get a mention, but all that is merely an introduction to the main topics of Yahweh’s ministry of recovery and healing and his retribution on those who have rejected his rule and hurt his people.

You may find it helpful to have an overview of the poetic layout of this message while reading through the following. Use the link to print (single A4 page) or view on a separate screen: Joel message 3 – overview.

AYahweh’s promise of recovery
18 Then Yahweh will be jealous for his land
              and take pity on his people.
              19 Yahweh will reply to them:
     ‘I am sending you grain, new wine and oil,
              enough to satisfy you fully;
     never again will I make you
              an object of scorn to the nations.
BYahweh deals with Israel’s enemies
20 ‘I will drive the northern army far from you,
              pushing it into a parched and barren land,
     with its front columns going into the eastern sea
              and those in the rear into the western sea.
     And its stench will go up;
              its smell will rise.
CYahweh’s harvest blessings on the land and people
      ‘Surely he has done great things.
21         Be not afraid, O land;
              be glad and rejoice.
      Surely Yahweh has done great things.
22         Be not afraid, O wild animals,
              for the open pastures are becoming green.
     The trees are bearing their fruit;
              the fig tree and the vine yield their riches.
23 Be glad, O people of Zion,
              rejoice in Yahweh your God,
     for he has given you
              the autumn rains in righteousness.
     He sends you abundant showers,
              both autumn and spring rains, as before.
24 The threshing floors will be filled with grain;
              the vats will overflow with new wine and oil.
XYahweh restores his relationship with his people in his land
25 ‘I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten
              – the great locust and the young locust,
              the other locusts and the locust swarm –
      my great army that I sent among you.
26 You will have plenty to eat, until you are full,
              and you will praise the name of Yahweh your God,
              who has worked wonders for you;
      never again will my people be shamed.
27 Then you will know that I am in Israel,
              that I am Yahweh your God,
              and that there is no other;
     never again will my people be shamed.
C1Yahweh’s spiritual blessings for all
28 ‘And afterward,
              I will pour out my Spirit on all people.
      Your sons and daughters will prophesy,
              your old men will dream dreams,
              your young men will see visions.
29 Even on my servants, both men and women,
              I will pour out my Spirit in those days.
30 I will show wonders in the heavens
              and on the earth,
              blood and fire and billows of smoke.
31 The sun will be turned to darkness
              and the moon to blood
              before the coming of the great and dreadful day of Yahweh.
32 And everyone who calls
              on the name of Yahweh will be saved;
      for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
              there will be deliverance,
              as Yahweh has said,
      among the survivors
              whom Yahweh calls.
B1Yahweh deals with Israel’s enemies
3.1 ‘In those days and at that time,
              when I restore the fortunes of Judah and Jerusalem,
2  I will gather all nations
              and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.
     There I will enter into judgment against them
              concerning my inheritance, my people Israel,
     for they scattered my people among the nations
              and divided up my land.
3  They cast lots for my people
              and traded boys for prostitutes;
     they sold girls for wine
              that they might drink.
A1Yahweh’s promise of retribution
4  ‘Now what have you against me,
              O Tyre and Sidon and all you regions of Philistia?
              Are you repaying me for something I have done?
     If you are paying me back,
              I will swiftly and speedily return on your own heads
              what you have done.
5  For you took my silver and my gold
              and carried off my finest treasures to your temples.
6  You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks,
              that you might send them far from their homeland.
7  ‘See, I am going to rouse them out of the places to which you sold them,
              and I will return on your own heads what you have done.
8  I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah,
              and they will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away.’

Link to Joel – Message 4

Written: 20 February 2025

Published: 22 April 2025