Joel 3:6

The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border. THE CHILDREN ALSO OF JUDAH ... AND OF JERUSALEM HAVE YE SOLD UNTO THE GRECIANS - literally, sons of the Javanites, i:e., the Ionians, a Greek colony on the coast of Asia Minor, who were the first Greeks known to the Jews. The Greeks themselves, however, in their original descent came from Javan (; , "The sons of Japheth ... Javan ... and the sons of Javan; Elishah, and Tarshish, Kittim, and Dodanim. By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands"). Probably the germ of Greek civilization in part came through the Jewish slaves imported into Greece from Phoenicia by traffickers...

It follows, _And the children of Judah, and the children of Jerusalem, have ye sold to the children of the Grecians _(14). There is here another complaint subjoined, — that the Syrians and Sidonians had been sacrilegious towards God, that they had cruelly treated God’s afflicted people. In the last verse, God inveighed against the Syrians, and Sidonians for having prostituted to their idols gold and silver stolen from him; he now again returns to the Jews themselves, who, he says, had been sold to the children of the Grecians; that is, to people beyond the sea: for as Javan passed into Europe, he includes under that name the nations beyond the sea. And he says, that they sold the Jews to the Greeks that they _might drive them far from their own borders, _so that there might be no hope of return. Here the cruelty of the Syrians and Sidonians becomes more evident; for they took care to dri...

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 6. _SOLD UNTO THE GRECIANS_] These were the descendants of _Javan_, Genesis 10:2-1. And with them the _Tyrians_ trafficked, Ezekiel 27:19. _THAT YE MIGHT REMOVE THEM FAR FROM THEIR BORDER._] Intending to send them _as far off_ as possible, that it might be impossible for them to get back to reclaim the land of which you had dispossessed them....

THE CHILDREN ALSO - Literally, “And the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem have ye sold to the sons of the Greeks.” This sin of the Tyrians was probably old and inveterate. The Tyrians, as they were the great carriers of the world’s traffic, so they were slave-dealers, and, in the earliest times, men-stealers. The Greek ante-historic tradition exhibits them, as trading and selling women, from both Greece and Egypt . As their trade became more fixed, they themselves stole no more, but, like Christian nations, sold those whom others stole or made captive. Ezekiel speaks of their trade in “the souls of men” Ezekiel 27:13 with “Greece” on the one side, and “Tubal and Mesech” near the Black Sea on the other. The beautiful youth of Greece of both sexes were sold even into Persia . In regard to the Moschi and Tibareni, it re

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

THE CHILDREN ALSO OF JUDAH AND THE CHILDREN OF JERUSALEM,.... Not children in age literally, as Kimchi, kidnapped or bought by the Tyrians; but the inhabitants of Judah and Jerusalem: HAVE YE SOLD UNTO THE GRECIANS; or sons of Javan; it was one part of the merchandise of Tyre to trade in the persons of men; and Javan, or the Greeks, with others, were their merchants for them, Ezekiel 27:13; and the souls of men are a part of the trade of the merchants of Rome, typified by the Tyrians, Revelation 18:13; THAT YE MIGHT REMOVE THEM FAR FROM THEIR BORDER; from their own land, or place of dwelling, that so they might not be easily redeemed, and return to it any more. Rome, the antichristian Tyre, trading with the souls of men, is to their eternal damnation, as muc

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...

CHILDREN. sons. THE GRECIANS. Hebrew the sons of the Greeks....