Joel 3:2

I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land. I WILL ALSO GATHER ALL NATIONS, AND WILL BRING THEM DOWN INTO THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT. Parallel to Zechariah 14:2 ("I will gather all nations against Jerusalem to battle; and the city shall be taken, and the houses rifled, etc. Then shall the Lord go forth, and fight against those nations, as when he fought in the day of battle. And His feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives, which is before Jerusalem on the east," etc.), where the "mount of Olives" answers to the "valley of Jehoshaphat" here. The latter is called 'the valley of blessing' (Berachah) ...

We also see that the Prophet Haggai speaks in the same manner of the second temple, — that the glory of the second temple shall be greater than that of the first, (Haggai 2:3) He, however referred, no doubt, to the prophecy of Ezekiel; and Ezekiel speaks of the second temple, which was to be built after the return of the people from exile. Be it so, yet Ezekiel did not confine to four or five ages what he said of the second temple: on the contrary he meant that the favor of God would be continued to the coming of Christ: so also Joel means here, when he says, _When God shall restore the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, he will then call together all the nations; _as though he said, “God will pour out not a small portion of grace, but will become the complete Redeemer of his people; and when the whole world shall rise against him, he will yet prevail; he will undertake the cause of his C...

1-8 The restoration of the Jews, and the final victory of true religion over all opposers, appear to be here foretold. The contempt and scorn with which the Jews have often been treated as a people, and the little value set upon them, are noticed. None ever hardened his heart against God or his church, and prospered long....

Verse Joel 3:2. _THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT_] There is no such valley in the land of Judea; and hence the word must be _symbolical_. It signifies the _judgment of God_, or _Jehovah judgeth_; and may mean some place (as Bp. _Newcome_ imagines) where Nebuchadnezzar should gain a great battle, which would utterly discomfit the ancient enemies of the Jews, and resemble the victory which Jehoshaphat gained over the Ammonites, Moabites, and Edomites, 2Ch 20:22-26. _AND PARTED MY LAND._] The above nations had frequently entered into the territories of Israel; and divided among themselves the lands they had thus overrun. While the Jews were in captivity, much of the land of Israel was seized on, and occupied by the _Philistines_, and other nations that bordered on Judea....

I WILL GATHER ALL NATIONS AND BRING THEM DOWN TO THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT - It may be that the imagery is furnished by that great deliverance which God gave to Jehoshaphat, when “Ammon and Moab and Edom come against” him, “to cast God’s people out of” His “possession,” which “He gave” them “to inherit” 2 Chronicles 20:11, and Jehoshaphat appealed to God, “O our God, wilt Thou not judge them?” and God said, “the battle is not yours but God’s,” and God turned their swords everyone against the other, “and none escaped. And on the fourth day they assembled themselves in the valley of Berachah” (blessing); “for there they blesed the Lord” 2 Chronicles 24:26. So, in the end, He shall destroy antichrist, not by human aid, but “by the breath of His mouth,” and

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

I WILL ALSO GATHER ALL NATIONS,.... Or cause or suffer them to be gathered together against his people; not the Moabites, Ammonites, and Edomites, in the times of Jehoshaphat, as Aben Ezra; but either the Turks, prophesied of under the name of Gog and Magog in Ezekiel, Ezekiel 38:1; and a multitude of other nations with them, who shall be gathered together against the Jews, to regain the land of Judea from them, they will upon their conversion inhabit; or else all the antichristian kings and nations, which shall be gathered to the battle of the great day of God Almighty, Revelation 16:14; AND WILL BRING THEM DOWN INTO THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT: Kimchi thinks this was some valley near to Jerusalem, in which Jehoshaphat built or wrought some works, and so was called by

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

YAHWEH WILL RECOMPENSE WITH PUNISHMENT THE NATIONS THAT HAVE OPPRESSED HIS PEOPLE. In that Day, when Yahweh will restore the fortunes of His people, He will bring into the Valley of Jehoshaphat all nations, and there confront them, as defendants in a law-court, with the charge that they have parcelled out His land among colonists and dispersed His people into far countries, selling them into slavery for contemptuously small sums which they have expended upon the satisfaction of their lusts. Especially the Phœ nicians and Philistines are named. Acting thus were they, asks Yahweh, repaying a grudge they had against Him? Or were they injuring Him without provocation? (read _mg._ in Joel 3:4). In either case swift shall be His vengeance. Not content with robbing His people of their treasures they have sold their persons to the Greek slave-traders. Yahweh will gather again His people from exi...

I WILL ALSO GATHER. Compare Zechariah 14:2. ALL NATIONS. Put by Figure of speech _Synecdoche_ (of the Whole), App-6, for representatives or people from all nations. THE VALLEY OF JEHOSHAPHAT. Between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives. The name then existing is still preserved in the village of _Sh'afat;_ now the _Wady Sidi Miriam_ and _Wady Far'aun_. Mentioned only here, and in Joel 3:12. the event recorded in 2 Chronicles 20:21 being typical of this scene of the future judgment of the nations. Note "to this day". JEHOSHAPHAT. Jehovah hath judged. WILL PLEAD WITH THEM. will judge them. Note the Figure of speech Paronomasia (App-6) for emph