Joel 3:4-8

Context

3:4 Why are you doing these things to me, Tyre and Sidon?¹

Are you trying to get even with me, land of Philistia?²

I will very quickly repay you for what you have done!³

3:5 For you took my silver and my gold

and brought my precious valuables to your own palaces.⁴

3:6 You sold Judeans and Jerusalemites to the Greeks,

removing them far from their own country.⁵

3:7 Look! I am rousing them from that place to which you sold them.

I will repay you for what you have done!⁶

3:8 I will sell your sons and daughters to⁷ the people of Judah.⁸

They will sell them to the Sabeans,⁹ a nation far away.

Indeed, the Lord has spoken!

[3:4] ¹tn Heb “What [are] you [doing] to me, O Tyre and Sidon?”

[3:4] ²tn Or “districts.”

[3:4] ³tn Heb “quickly, speedily, I will return your recompense on your head.” This is an idiom for retributive justice and an equitable reversal of situation.

[3:5] ⁴tn Or perhaps, “temples.”

[3:6] ⁵tn Heb “border.”

[3:7] ⁶tn Heb “I will return your recompense on your head.”

[3:8] ⁷tn Heb “into the hand of.”

[3:8] ⁸tn Heb “the sons of Judah.”

[3:8] ⁹sn The Sabeans were Arabian merchants who were influential along the ancient caravan routes that traveled through Arabia. See also Job 1:15; Isa 43:3; 45:14; Ps 72:10.