Joel 3:18

And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim. THE MOUNTAINS SHALL DROP DOWN NEW WINE - figurative for abundance of vines, which were cultivated in terraces of earth between the rocks on the sides of the hills of Palestine (, "The mountains," instead of mist or vapour, shall distill that which maketh glad the heart of man, new wine, ). AND THE HILLS SHALL FLOW WITH MILK - i:e., they shall abound in flocks and herds yielding milk plentifully, through the richness of the pastures. And all the rivers of Judah shall flow with w...

The Prophet here declares that God will be so bountiful to his people, that no good things will be wanting to them either in abundance or variety. When God then shall restore his Church, it will abound, he says, in every kind of blessing: for this is the meaning of this language, _Distill new wine shall the mountains, and the hills shall make milk to run down; and all rivers also shall have abundant waters, and a fountain shall arise from the house of Judah to irrigate the valley of Shittim. _We now perceive the design of Joel. But we must remember that when the Prophets so splendidly extol the blessings of God, they intend not to fill the minds of the godly with thoughts about eating and drinking; but profane men lay hold on such passages as though the Lord intended to gratify their appetite. We know, indeed, that God’s children differ much from swine: hence God fills not the faithful w...

18-21 There shall be abundant Divine influences, and the gospel will spread speedily into the remotest corners of the earth. These events are predicted under significant emblems; there is a day coming, when every thing amiss shall be amended. The fountain of this plenty is in the house of God, whence the streams take rise. Christ is this Fountain; his sufferings, merit, and grace, cleanse, refresh, and make fruitful. Gospel grace, flowing from Christ, shall reach to the Gentile world, to the most remote regions, and make them abound in fruits of righteousness; and from the house of the Lord above, from his heavenly temple, flows all the good we daily taste, and hope to enjoy eternally....

Verse 18. _IN THAT DAY_] After their return from their captivities. _THE MOUNTAINS SHALL DROP DOWN NEW WINE_] A poetic expression for great fertility. Happy times: peace and plenty. The vines shall grow luxuriantly on the sides of the mountains; and the hills shall produce such rich pastures that the flocks shall yield abundance of milk. _AND ALL THE RIVERS OF JUDAH_] Far from being generally dry in the summer, shall have their _channels_ always full of water. _AND A FOUNTAIN SHALL COME FORTH OF THE HOUSE OF THE LORD_] See the account of the _typical waters_ in Ezekiel, Ezekiel 47:1, to which this seems to have a reference; at least the subject is the same, and seems to point out the _grace of the Gospel_, the _waters_ _of salvation_, that shall flow from Jerusalem, and wat

AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS IN THAT DAY - After the destruction of antichrist, there will, it seems, still be a period of probation, in which the grace of God will abound and extend more and more widely. The prophet Zechariah, who continues on the image, of the “living waters going out from Jerusalem” Zechariah 14:8, places this gift after God had gathered all nations against Jerusalem, and had visibly and miraculously overthrown them Zechariah 14:2. But in that the blessings which he speaks of, are regenerating, they belong to time; the fullness of the blessing is completed only in eternity; the dawn is on earth, the everlasting brightness is in heaven. But though the prophecy belongs eminently to one time, the imagery describes the fulness of spiritual blessings which G

EXPOSITION JOEL 3:1 These verses describe the deliverance of God's people and the destruction of his enemies because of their injurious, insulting, and ignominious treatment of his people. JOEL 3:1 The _time _referred to: IN THOSE DAYS, AND IN THAT TIME, is the first point to be determined. The reference is obviously to the period spoken of in the twenty-eighth verse of the second chapter, where we read, "And it shall come to pass _afterward_,_ _that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flush." This seems to fix the date at least of the commencement of the events recorded in these verses. These events must have been subsequent to that Pentecostal outpouring of the Holy Spirit. But a still closer specification of the time

AND IT SHALL COME TO PASS IN THAT DAY,.... When antichrist shall be destroyed; the Jews converted; the power of godliness revived, and the presence of God among his people enjoyed. Vitringa, in his Commentary on Isaiah, frequently applies this, and such like prophecies, to the times of the Maccabees; though, he owns, they were but an emblem of better times under the Gospel dispensation; nor does he deny the mystical and spiritual sense of them; [THAT] THE MOUNTAINS SHALL DROP DOWN NEW WINE; which, and the following expressions, are to be understood not in a strict literal sense, as Lactantius t seems to have understood them; who says, that, in the Millennium, God will cause a rain of blessing to descend morning and evening; the earth shall bring forth all kind of fruit without the labour of man; honey shall drop from the rocks, and the fountains of milk and wine shall overflow: but hype...

III. THE EVENTS OF THE DAY OF THE LORD: ISRAEL'S ENEMIES JUDGED AND THE KINGDOM ESTABLISHED CHAPTER 3 _ 1. The judgment of the nations (Joel 3:1) _ 2. The preceding warfare of the nations and how it ends (Joel 3:9) 3. Jehovah in the midst of His People (Joel 3:17) Joel 3:1. The first verse specifies the time when Jehovah will do what He announces in the two verses which follow. It will be in those days, in that time, when the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem is brought back. Clearly then up to this time this cannot yet have been, for the captivity of His people is not yet ended. They are still scattered in the great dispersion

THE FUTURE FELICITY OF JUDAH CONTRASTED WITH THE DESOLATION OF HER OPPRESSORS. In that golden age when Yahweh shall dwell in Zion miraculous fertility shall transform the land, covering it with vineyards and pastures. The watercourses, now treacherous because in the heat they become dry beds of sand, shall then be brimming with perennial streams. From the Temple shall issue a spring which shall pass through the Wady of the Acacias. Egypt the oldest of Judah's oppressors and Edom most bitterly hated of her later foes shall be destroyed and become desert; but Judah shall be inhabited for ever, and Yahweh shall dwell eternally (so render dwelleth) in Zion. JOEL 3:18. VALLEY OF SHITTIM: rather, Wady of the Acacias. Probably not the name of a definite gorge, but typical; the place-names of this chapter are of the same kind as those used by Bunyan. Acacias grow in arid regions. _Cf._ f

THAT DAY. Compare Joel 3:1. MOUNTAINS... HILLS. Compare Amos 9:13. DROP DOWN. distil. NEW WINE. sweet wine, or mead. Hebrew. _'asis._ App-27. RIVERS. Hebrew. _'aphikim. See_ note on "channels", 2 Samuel 22:16. JUDAH. The country; not the People. A FOUNTAIN, &c. Ezekiel 47:1.Zechariah 14:8; Revelation 22:1. See App-68. SHITTIM. the acacias. Reference to Pentateuch ...