Joel 3:19

Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a desolate wilderness, for the violence against the children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in their land. EGYPT SHALL BE A DESOLATION, AND EDOM SHALL BE A DESOLATE WILDERNESS. "Edom" was subjugated by David, but revolted under Jehoram (2 Chronicles 21:8), and at every subsequent opportunity tried to injure Judah. "Egypt" under Shishak spoiled Jerusalem under Jehoram (2 Chronicles 13:2) of the treasures in the temple and the king's house. Subsequently to the captivity it inflicted, under the Ptolemies, various injuries on Judea. Antiochus spoiled Egypt (). Edom was made "desolate" under the Maccabees...

But he afterwards joins, that the Egyptians and Idumeans would be sterile and dry in the midst of this great abundance of blessings, for they were professed enemies to the Church. Hence God in this verse declares that they shall not be partakers of his bounty; that though all Judea would be irrigated, though it would abound in honeys milk, and wine, yet these would remain barren and empty; _Mizraim, _then, _shall be a solitude, Edom shall be a desert of solitude. _Why? _Because of the troubles, he says, brought on the children of Judah. _God again confirms this truth, that he has such a concern for his Church, that he will avenge wrongs done to it. God, then, does not always come to our help when we are unjustly oppressed, though he has taken us under his protection; but he suffers us for a time to endure our evils; and yet the end will show, that we have been ever dear to him and precio...

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 19. _EGYPT SHALL BE A DESOLATION_] While peace, plenty, and prosperity of every kind, shall crown my people, all their _enemies_ shall be as a _wilderness_; and those who have _used violence_ against the saints of God, and _shed the blood of innocents_ (of the holy MARTYRS) _in their land_, when they had _political power_; these and all such shall fall under the just judgments of God....

EGYPT SHALL BE A DESOLATION - “Egypt” and “Edom” represent each a different class of enemies of the people of God, and both together exhibit the lot of all. Egypt was the powerful oppressor, who kept Israel long time in hard bondage, and tried, by the murder of their male children, to extirpate them. Edom was, by birth, the nearest allied to them, but had, from the time of their approach to the promised land, been hostile to them, and showed a malicious joy in all their calamities (Obadiah 1:10; Ezekiel 25:12; Ezekiel 35:15; Ezekiel 36:5;...

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

EGYPT SHALL BE A DESOLATION, AND EDOM SHALL BE A DESOLATE WILDERNESS,.... These two nations having been the implacable enemies of Israel, are here put for the future adversaries of the church of Christ, Pagan, Papal, and Mahometan; who will all be destroyed as such, and be no more: Rome is called, spiritually or mystically, Egypt, Revelation 11:8; and Edom is a name that well agrees with it, it signifying "red", as it is with the blood of the saints: and it is common, with the Jewish writers, by Edom to understand Rome; which though it may not be true of all places they so interpret, yet is of many, and so here. Kimchi, by Egypt understands the Ishmaelites, or the Turks; and, by Edom, Rome; FOR THE VIOLENCE [OF] THE CHILDREN OF JUDAH, BECAUSE THEY HAVE SHED INNOCENT BLOOD IS THEIR LAND; either in the land of Judah; or rather in their own land, Egypt and

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

VIOLENCE AGAINST. Genitive of Relation. App-17. innocent blood. Reference to Pentateuch (Deuteronomy 19:10; Deuteronomy 27:25)....