Joel 3:5

Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things: BECAUSE YE HAVE TAKEN MY SILVER AND MY GOLD - i:e., the gold and silver of my people. The Philistines and Arabians had carried off all the treasures of King Jehoram's house (). Compare also ; , for the spoiling of the treasures of the temple and the king's palace (first Asa's palace; then Jehoash's palace) in Judah by Syria. AND HAVE CARRIED INTO YOUR TEMPLES MY GOODLY PLEASANT THINGS. It was customary among the pagan to hang up in the idol temples some of the spoils of war as presents to their gods....

Let us now proceed: He says that their _silver _and their _gold _had been taken away by the Syrians and the Sidonians. All who were the neighbors of that people, no doubt, derived gain from their calamity, as is usually the case. They were at first ill disposed towards them; there was then a new temptation; they gaped after booty: and they showed themselves openly their enemies, when they saw that there was hope of gain. Such was the case with the Syrians and Sidonians. There is no doubt, but that they sedulously courted the favor of the Assyrians, that they helped them with provisions and other things, that they might partake of the spoil. It was, therefore, no wonder that gold and silver was taken away by them, for the carriage of them to Assyria would have been tedious: and, as I have just hinted, it is usually the case, that conquerors gratify those by whom they have been assisted. M...

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 5. _YE HAVE TAKEN MY SILVER AND MY GOLD_] The Chaldeans had spoiled the temple, and carried away the _sacred vessels_, and put them in the temple of their own god in Babylon....

YE HAVE TAKEN MY SILVER AND MY GOLD - Not the silver and gold of the temple, (as some have thought.) At least, up to the prophet’s time, they had not done this. For the inroad of the Philistines in the reign of Jehoram was, apparently, a mere marauding expedition, in which they killed and plundered, but are not said to have besieged or taken any city, much less Jerusalem. God calls “the silver and gold” which He, through His Providence, had bestowed on Judah, “My” gold and silver; as He said by Hosea Hosea 2:8. “She knew not that I multiplied her silver and gold, whereof she made Baal;” and by Haggai, “The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts” Haggai 2:8. For they were His people, and what they had, they held of Him; and the Phili

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

BECAUSE YE HAVE TAKEN MY SILVER AND MY GOLD,.... Which is all the Lord's, Haggai 2:8; or which he had bestowed upon his people, and they had taken from them: AND HAVE CARRIED INTO YOUR TEMPLES MY GOODLY PLEASANT THINGS; either the rich furniture of the houses of his people, which they carried into their own houses, or "palaces" e, as it may be rendered; having either taken them away themselves, or bought them of others that had taken them: or else the rich vessels of the temple; as these were carried away by the Chaldeans, and put into their idol temples, Daniel 1:2; so afterward they were taken by the Romans, and put into the temples of their gods: whether any of these came into the hands of the Tyrians, c. by any means, and were put into their idol temples, as the temple of Hercules, is not certai

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...

PLEASANT THINGS. things of desire, or valuable things. Compare Daniel 11:38....