“Yes, and what are you to me, Tyre, and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Will you repay me? And if you repay me, I will swiftly and speedily return your repayment on your own head.
Parallel Translations
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“Yes, and what are you to me, Tyre, and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Will you repay me? And if you repay me, I will swiftly and speedily return your repayment on your own head.
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Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;
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(4-4) And also what are ye to Me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the regions of Philistia? will ye render retribution on My behalf? and if ye render retribution on My behalf, swiftly, speedily will I return your retribution upon your own head.
Cross-references (17)
Passages linked to Joel 3:4 in the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge, ordered by reader-vote popularity; verse text shown in World English Bible.
- Amos 1:6-10 Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Gaza, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they carried away captive the whole community, to deliver them up to Edom; but I will send a fire on the wall of Gaza, and it will devour its palaces. I will cut off the inhabitant from Ashdod, and him who holds the scepter from Ashkelon; and I will turn my hand against Ekron; and the remnant of the Philistines will perish,” says the Lord Yahweh. Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of Tyre, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they delivered up the whole community to Edom, and didn’t remember the brotherly covenant; but I will send a fire on the wall of Tyre, and it will devour its palaces.”
- Jeremiah 47:4 because of the day that comes to destroy all the Philistines, to cut off from Tyre and Sidon every helper who remains; for Yahweh will destroy the Philistines, the remnant of the isle of Caphtor.
- Isaiah 34:8 For Yahweh has a day of vengeance, a year of recompense for the cause of Zion.
- Isaiah 59:18 According to their deeds, he will repay as appropriate, wrath to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies; he will repay the islands their due.
- Isaiah 23:1-2 The burden of Tyre. Howl, you ships of Tarshish! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of Kittim it is revealed to them. Be still, you inhabitants of the coast, you whom the merchants of Sidon that pass over the sea, have replenished.
- Ezekiel 25:12-17 “ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Because Edom has dealt against the house of Judah by taking vengeance, and has greatly offended, and taken revenge on them;” therefore the Lord Yahweh says, “I will stretch out my hand on Edom, and will cut off man and animal from it; and I will make it desolate from Teman. They will fall by the sword even to Dedan. I will lay my vengeance on Edom by the hand of my people Israel. They will do in Edom according to my anger and according to my wrath. Then they will know my vengeance,” says the Lord Yahweh. “ ‘The Lord Yahweh says: “Because the Philistines have taken revenge, and have taken vengeance with contempt of soul to destroy with perpetual hostility;” therefore the Lord Yahweh says, “Behold, I will stretch out my hand on the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethites, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast. I will execute great vengeance on them with wrathful rebukes. Then they will know that I am Yahweh, when I lay my vengeance on them.” ’ ”
- Deuteronomy 32:35 Vengeance is mine, and recompense, at the time when their foot slides; for the day of their calamity is at hand. Their doom rushes at them.”
- Judges 11:12 Jephthah sent messengers to the king of the children of Ammon, saying, “What do you have to do with me, that you have come to me to fight against my land?”
- 2 Chronicles 21:16 Yahweh stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians who are beside the Ethiopians;
- 2 Chronicles 28:17-18 For again the Edomites had come and struck Judah, and carried away captives. The Philistines also had invaded the cities of the lowland, and of the South of Judah, and had taken Beth Shemesh, Aijalon, Gederoth, Soco with its villages, Timnah with its villages, and also Gimzo and its villages; and they lived there.
- Jeremiah 51:6 “Flee out of the middle of Babylon! Everyone save his own life! Don’t be cut off in her iniquity; for it is the time of Yahweh’s vengeance. He will render to her a recompense.
- Amos 1:12-14 but I will send a fire on Teman, and it will devour the palaces of Bozrah.” Yahweh says: “For three transgressions of the children of Ammon, yes, for four, I will not turn away its punishment; because they have ripped open the pregnant women of Gilead, that they may enlarge their border. But I will kindle a fire in the wall of Rabbah, and it will devour its palaces, with shouting in the day of battle, with a storm in the day of the whirlwind;
- Zechariah 9:2-8 and Hamath, also, which borders on it; Tyre and Sidon, because they are very wise. Tyre built herself a stronghold, and heaped up silver like the dust, and fine gold like the mire of the streets. Behold, the Lord will dispossess her, and he will strike her power in the sea; and she will be devoured with fire. Ashkelon will see it, and fear; Gaza also, and will writhe in agony; as will Ekron, for her expectation will be disappointed; and the king will perish from Gaza, and Ashkelon will not be inhabited. Foreigners will dwell in Ashdod, and I will cut off the pride of the Philistines. I will take away his blood out of his mouth, and his abominations from between his teeth; and he also will be a remnant for our God; and he will be as a chieftain in Judah, and Ekron as a Jebusite. I will encamp around my house against the army, that no one pass through or return; and no oppressor will pass through them any more: for now I have seen with my eyes.
- Matthew 11:21 “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works had been done in Tyre and Sidon which were done in you, they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.
- Luke 18:7 Won’t God avenge his chosen ones who are crying out to him day and night, and yet he exercises patience with them?
- Acts 9:4 He fell on the earth, and heard a voice saying to him, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?”
- 2 Thessalonians 1:6 Since it is a righteous thing with God to repay affliction to those who afflict you,
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain God expostulates here with Tyre and Sidon, and other…
God expostulates here with Tyre and Sidon, and other neighboring nations, and shows that they vexed his people without cause Had they been provoked some excuse might have been made; but since they made war of their own accord, the wrong was doubled. This is what God means these words. What have ye to do with me, O Tyre and Sidon? He indeed continues the subject before explained: but he speaks of the concern here as hid own; he seems not now to undertake the protection of his own people, but detents his own cause. “What have ye to do with me?” he says. God then interposes himself; as though he said, that the Syrians and Sidonians were not only called by him to judgment because they had unjustly wronged his people, and brought many troubles on men deserving no such things; but he says also, that he stood up in his own defense. “What have I to do with you, O Syrians and Sidonians?” as we say in French, Qu’avons-nous a desmeller? (what have we to decide?) Now the Prophet had this in view, that the Syrians and Sidonians became voluntary enemies to the Jews, when they had no dispute with them; and this, as we have said, was less to be borne. “What then have ye to do with me, O Syrians and Sidonians? Do I owe anything to you? Am I under any obligation to you? Do ye repay me my recompense?” that is, “Can you boast of any reason or just pretense for making, war on my people?” He then means, that there had been no wrong done to the Syrians and Sidonians, which they could now retaliate, but that they made an attack through their own wickedness, and were only impelled by avarice or cruelty thus to harass the miserable Jews: “Ye repay not,” he says, “a recompense to me; for ye cannot pretend that any wrong has been done to you by me.”
But if ye repay this to me, he says, I will swiftly return the recompense on your head. גמל gimel means not only to repay, as the Hebrew scholars ever render it, but also to confer, to bestow, (conferre, ut loquuntur Latine) as it has been stated in another place. ‘What shall I repay to the Lord for all the things which he has recompensed to me?’ This is the common version; but it is an improper and inconsistent mode of speaking. David no doubt refers to God’s benefits; then it is, ‘What shall I repay for all the benefits which the Lord has bestowed on me?’ Then he who first does wrong, or bestows good, is said to recompense; and this is the sense in this place. ‘If ye,’ he says, ‘thus deal with me, “swiftly”, מהרה mere suddenly (for the word is to be taken as an adverb,) will I return recompense on your head;’ that is, “Ye shall not be unpunished, since ye have acted so unjustly with me and my people.” We now perceive the whole meaning of the Prophet: He enhances the crime of the Syrians and Sidonians, because they willfully distressed the Jews, and joined themselves to their foreign enemies, for the purpose of seizing on a part of the spoil. As, then, vicinity softened not their minds, their inhumanity was on this account more fully proved. But, as I have said, the Lord here places himself between the two parties, to intimate, that he performs his own proper office when he takes care of the safety of his Church.
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He afterwards shows that this wickedness should not be unpunished — If ye deal thus with me, he says, I shall swiftly (suddenly) return the recompense on your heads. This passage contains a singular consolation; for God declares that whatever evils the faithful endure belong to him, and also that he will not suffer those under his protection and defense to be distressed with impunity, but will quickly return recompense on the heads of those who unjustly injure his heritage. We now understand the Prophet’s design: he doubtless intended to support the minds of the godly with this thought, — that their afflictions are objects of concern with God and that he will shortly be the avenger of them, however necessary it may be that they should for a time be thus violently and reproachfully treated by wicked men.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain He taketh the cause of his Church in hand…
He taketh the cause of his Church in hand against the enemy, as though the injury were done to himself.
Have I done you wrong, that ye will render me the like?
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain Joe 3:4 Yea, and what have ye to do…
Joe 3:4 Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly [and] speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;
Ver. 4. Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, &c.] Or, what are ye to me? I value you not, but look upon you as vile persons, how great soever in the world. See Dan 11:21. Or, what have I to do with you? What wrong have I done you that ye invade my land and molest my subjects? It is an idle misprision to sever the sense of an injury done to any of his members, from the head, and it was a malapert demand of the devil, "What have I to do with thee, O Jesus, the Son of the living God?" while he vexed a servant of his. But there is an old enmity between them and their seed, Gen 3:15, and it will never be extinct while the world stands. Israel had given Tyre and Zidon as little cause to quarrel them, as once they had done Moab, whom they had assured that they would not meddle nor molest them. Howbeit, "Moab was distressed," or irked, fretted, vexed at them, Num 22:3, carried with satanical malice against God’s people, because of a different religion, and sought their ruin. Lo, this was the case of Tyre, Zidon, and Palestine, near neighbours, but bitter enemies to the Church. Bats fly against the light. Malice breaks all bonds, and vents itself by utmost inhumanity. Mercer understandeth by those nations, Joe 3:2-3, the open and professed enemies of the Church, and by these neighbouring peoples here mentioned, those more subtle adversaries, that pretend love, and can draw a fair glove upon a foul hand, but will take the first opportunity to do the saints a mischief, and to spit their poison at them. This is an old stratagem of the devil, still practised by the renegade Jesuits among us.
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Will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, &c.] Num meritum mihi refertis, an etiam infertis? so some render it. While ye afflict my people, is it to be avenged on me, for an old injury I have done you? or is it rather to pick a quarrel with me, who have done you no wrong? Surely, whether it be this or the other, I shall handle you according to your deserts.
Swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence] Repente e vestigio, while you will say, what is this? I will execute my fierce wrath upon you, and you shall soon feel what it is despitefully to spit in the face of Heaven, and to wrestle a fall with the Almighty: see Oba 1:15. God cannot bear long with sins of this high nature: he resisteth the proud persecutors.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain What have ye to do with me? what just…
What have ye to do with me? what just cause of quarrel have you against me? Have I done you any wrong which now you avenge upon my people? or do you begin to violate the law of neighbourhood and friendship, and think to escape? Do ye think you have to do with a poor oppressed people, my people, and I nothing concerned at it?
Tyre, a great mart town, which neighbour to the Jews, and ought to be friends, either joined forces with the enemy against them, or, retaining friendship with the enemy, bought the Jews for slaves, and sold them again to strangers, to Grecians: this, in his man trade, Tyre was accustomed to, Eze 27:13.
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Zidon, a famous ancient emporium, whose merchants also bought up captive Jews at cheap rates of these barbarous soldiers.
All the coasts of Palestine, which lay along the midland sea, among which were towns of trade, and merchants that bought and sold these captives.
Will ye render me a recompence? Do ye this by way of reprisal? Have I or my people so dealt with you or yours?
Speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head; I will, since you deal so with my people, and with me, certainly and speedily avenge myself and my people on you; as you have used them they shall use you. It is probable this may refer to the Assyrian invasion, when Sennacherib took all the fenced cities of Judah, and might sell the captives, or to Shalmaneser’s time’, when he captured the ten tribes; or it may be a prediction of what Tyre, and Zidon, and these cities of Palestine would do in the Babylonish successes, and a threat what God would do against them for it; but to whatever particular history it refer, who sees not this in it, that God will plead the cause of his oppressed church, and avenge it as his own cause?
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain Yea, and what have ye to do with me,…
Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine?.... The Tyrians, Zidonians, and Philistines, were near neighbours of the Jews, and implacable enemies to them; and are here put for the enemies of the true church of Christ, the Papists and Turks, and in whose possession those places now are: these are addressed by the Lord, inquiring or demanding the reason of their ill usage of him and his people: "what have ye to do with me?" to be called by my name, or accounted my people? I know you not, nor will I have any fellowship with you: or what have ye to do with my people, to disturb and distress them? what wrong have I or they done you, that you thus use them?
will ye render me a recompence? for turning you out of your land, and putting my people into it? do you think to retaliate this?
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and if ye recompense me; by doing an injury to my people:
swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head; bring swift and sudden destruction upon you.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain Yea - Have I done you any wrong, which…
Yea - Have I done you any wrong, which you avenge upon my people? Or do you begin to violate the laws of neighbourhood and friendship, and think to escape? Do ye think you have to do with a poor opprest people, my people, and I nothing concerned at it? Palestine - On which were towns of trade, and merchants that bought and sold these captives. A recompence - Have I or my people so dealt with you? And if - If you will deal thus, I will speedily avenge myself and my people of you.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain Verse 4. What have ye to do with me]…
Verse 4. What have ye to do with me] Why have the Tyrians and Sidonians joined their other enemies to oppress my people? for they who touch my people touch me.
Will ye render me a recompense?] Do you think by this to avenge yourselves upon the Almighty? to retaliate upon God! Proceed, and speedily will I return your recompense; I will retaliate.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain Joe 3:4. O Tyre, and Zidon, &c. — “When…
Joe 3:4. O Tyre, and Zidon, &c. — “When the Babylonians, the appointed instruments of my vengeance, afflict my land, why do you also, and the bordering nations, assist them? Do you take this occasion of avenging the former victories of my people over you? If so, this your act of revenge shall be speedily punished.” — Newcome. The expression which he here uses, What have ye to do with me? signifies the same as that other so common in the sacred books, What have I to do with you? that is, What is the reason of your so frequently invading and plundering my land and people?
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain Yea, and what have ye to do with Me?…
Yea, and what have ye to do with Me? - Literally, “and also, what are ye to Me?” The words, “And also,” show that this is something additional to the deeds of those before spoken of. Those, instanced before, were great oppressors, such as dispersed the former people of God and “divided their land.” In addition to these, God condemns here another class, those who, without having power to destroy, harass and vex His heritage. The words, “what are ye to Me?” are like that other phrase, “what is there to thee and me?” (Jos 22:24, etc; Mat 8:29, ...), i. e., what have we in common? These words, “what are ye to Me?” also declare, that those nations had no part in God. God accounts them as aliens, “what are ye to Me?” Nothing. But the words convey, besides, that they would, unprovoked, have to do with God, harassing His people without cause. They obtruded themselves, as it were, upon God and His judgments; they challenged God; they thrust themselves in, to their destruction, where they had no great temptation to meddle, noticing, but inbred malice, to impel them.
This was, especially, the character of the relations of Tyre and Zidon and Philistia with Israel. They were allotted to Israel by Joshua, but were not assailed . On the contrary, “the Zidonians” are counted among those who “oppressed” Israel, and “out of” whose “hand” God “delivered” him, when he “cried” to God Jdg 10:12. The Philistines were the unwearied assailants of Israel in the days of the Judges, and Saul, and David Jdg 13:1; 1 Sam. 4; 13; 17; 1Sa 23:1; 1 Sam. 30; 1Sa 31:1-13; during 40 years Israel was given into the hands of the Philistines, until God delivered them by Samuel at Mizpeh. When David was king of all Israel, the Philistines still acted on the offensive, and lost Gath and her towns to David in an offensive war 2Sa 5:17-25; 2Sa 8:1; 1Ch 18:1; 2Sa 21:18; 2Sa 13:9-16. To Jehoshaphat some of them voluntarily paid tribute 2Ch 17:11; but in the reign of Jehoram his son, they, with some Arabians, marauded in Judah, plundering the king’s house and slaying all his sons, save the youngest 2Ch 21:16-17; 2Ch 22:1. This is the last event before the time of Joel. They stand among the most inveterate and unprovoked enemies of God’s people, and probably as enemies of God also hating the claim of Judah that their God was the One God.
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Will ye render Me a recompense? - People never want pleas for themselves. The Philistines, although the aggressors, had been signally defeated by David. People forget their own wrong-doings and remember their sufferings. It may be then, that the Philistines thought that they had been aggrieved when their assaults were defeated, and looked upon their own fresh aggressions as a requital. If moreover, as is probable, they heard that the signal victories won over them were ascribed by Israel to God, and themselves also suspected, that these “mighty Gods” 1Sa 4:7-8 were the cause of their defeat, they doubtless turned their hatred against God. People, when they submit not to God chastening them, hate Him. This belief that they were retaliating against God, (not, of course, knowing Him as God,) fully corresponds with the strong words, “will ye render Me “a recompense?” Julian’s dying blasphemy, “Galilean, thou hast conquered,” corresponds with the efforts of his life against the gospel, and implies a secret consciousness that He whose religion he was straining to overthrow “might” be, What he denied Him to be, God. The phrase “swiftly,” literally “lightly, and speedily, denotes” the union of easiness with speed. The recompense is returned “upon” their head, coming down upon them from God.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain Me. These cities and nations had rejoiced at the…
Me. These cities and nations had rejoiced at the ruin of the Jews, Ezechiel xxv. (Calmet) --- Coast. Septuagint, "Galilee of strangers." (Haydock)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain what have ye to do with me--Ye have no…
what have ye to do with me--Ye have no connection with Me (that is, with My people: God identifying Himself with Israel); I (that is, My people) have given you no cause of quarrel, why then do ye trouble Me (that is, My people)? (Compare the same phrase, Jos 22:24; Jdg 11:12; Sa2 16:10; Mat 8:29).
Tyre . . . Zidon . . . Palestine-- (Amo 1:6, Amo 1:9).
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if ye recompense me--If ye injure Me (My people), in revenge for fancied wrongs (Eze 25:15-17), I will requite you in your own coin swiftly and speedily.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain 4-8. The prophet turns aside for a moment to…
4-8. The prophet turns aside for a moment to address the nations who had been especially hostile to the Jews; he points out their special wrongdoings and promises to them swift and righteous retribution for their crimes. Tyre, Zidon [“Sidon”] — The two chief cities of Phoenicia; both are extremely old, Sidon being commonly, though perhaps wrongly, considered the older (Gen_10:15). Tyre was situated originally on the mainland, but to protect it against invaders it was transferred to a neighboring rocky island. Tyre was nearer to Israel than Sidon; this fact and the ever-increasing power of the city account for the priority of Tyre in the great majority of Old Testament passages in which the two are named together. Here the two cities stand for all Phoenicia.
Coasts of Palestine — Better, R.V., “regions of Philistia.” The territory in southwest Canaan, about fifty miles long and fifteen miles wide, divided among five chief cities; independent in time of peace, ordinarily united in time of war. “Regions,” literally, circles, probably refers to this division. The Philistines were exceedingly hostile to the Jews throughout their entire history, from the time of the Exodus on.
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What have ye to do with me? — R.V., “what are ye to me?” This question, which is addressed to the nations, is left uncompleted, but it is taken up again and explained in the following question. The translation in the margin of R.V. brings out the thought best: “will ye repay a deed of mine, or will ye do aught unto me? swiftly and speedily will I return your deed upon your own head.” Explain your hostile attitude toward my people. Have I done any wrong to you which you would avenge by assailing my people, or is this attack upon them without any provocation? A rhetorical question, to which but one answer can be given: There is nothing to avenge, no occasion for an attack upon my people. But, if you think that you have an occasion that demands retaliation, let me warn you that I will, and that speedily, bring back your doings upon your own head (Oba_1:15; Lam_3:64; Psa_7:16).
Joe_3:5-6 explain what these nations have done to Jehovah: they have stolen his silver and gold and filled their temples with his precious things, and his children they have sold as slaves.
My silver… my gold,… my goodly pleasant things — Not exclusively the things stolen from the temple, but also those taken from the palaces and homes of the rich. These things belong to Jehovah, because they are the possessions of his people. In ancient times plundering always followed the conquest of a city (1Ki_14:26; 2Ki_14:14). The temple was rich in golden vessels, the palaces full of jewels and valuables of every kind; these the enemies put into their own temples — The Hebrew word means palace as well as temple (Isa_13:22; Amo_8:3; Pro_30:28). Those who insist on an early date for Joel regard this a reference to the invasion of the Philistines and Arabs (2Ch_21:16 ff.); but there the Phoenicians are not mentioned. Neither do we know of a postexilic event to which this accusation could apply. It is impossible, therefore, to say with certainty what invasion is in the prophet’s mind. The historical books of the Old Testament do not give a record of all the events in the history of Israel; especially concerning postexilic times is our knowledge very limited. Not only Jehovah’s possessions but also his people have they maltreated.
Sold — As slaves.
The Grecians — Not the inhabitants of a city in Arabia Felix (Credner), nor Yawan in Yemen (Hitzig), but the Grecians; literally, Ionians (Gen_10:2; Isa_66:19; Eze_27:13; Eze_27:19, etc.). The slave traffic of the Phoenicians is frequently mentioned in the Old Testament and in post-biblical writings (Amo_1:9; Eze_27:13; 1Ma_3:41). That the Phoenicians and the Greeks had commercial intercourse at a very early period is attested by Greek writers; that slave trade may have been carried on at that early period cannot be denied; that an extensive slave trade between these nations was carried on in postexilic times is certain. In the fifth century B.C., and later, Syrian slaves — and that would include Jewish — were sought after in Greece.
Far from their border — So that there would be no possibility of returning. Such separation from home would be a severe blow to the Jews who thought of a foreign country and a foreign nation as unclean. The prophet may have in mind the distant western colonies of the Ionians.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain 4. And also what are ye to me?] i.e.,…
4. And also what are ye to me?] i.e., apparently, what would ye do to me? the following words, will ye repay &c. explaining in what sense the question is meant.
all the districts of Philistia] lit. circles, i.e. (probably) the districts ruled by the five ‘lords’ of the Philistines: see Jos_13:2 f., where the same expression also occurs (A.V. “borders,” R.V. “regions”; Heb. gelîlôth), and comp. 1Ma_5:15, where πᾶσα Γαλιλαία ἀλλοφύλων (“all Galilee[48] of the foreigners”) must, it seems, represent the same Hebrew original (ἀλλόφυλοι standing often in LXX. for Philistines).
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[48] “Galilee” is properly “the gâlîl (or ‘circle’)”, Jos_20:7; in full, “the gâlîl (or ‘circle’) of the nations” (Is. 8:23).
will ye repay a deed of mine, or will ye do aught unto me? (R.V. marg.)] i.e. is there any injustice that I have done to you (through Israel) which you would avenge, or would you even assail me gratuitously? The question is a rhetorical one, to which of course a negative answer is expected: their treatment of Israel has been unprovoked; it is they, and not Israel, who merit vengeance; accordingly the retort follows, Swiftly and speedily will I return your deed (R.V. marg.) upon your own head.
upon your head] for the phrase, comp. Oba_1:15 (where ‘reward’ is properly doing, or deed, as here); also Jdg_9:57; 1Sa_25:39, &c.
4–8. The Phoenicians and Philistines are here singled out as the nations which have sinned especially against Israel: they have not only enriched their own palaces with the plunder of Judah, but have also sold Judahite captives into slavery to the Greeks; a swift and just retribution is accordingly pronounced against them.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain (4) What have ye to do with me?—Rather, What…
(4) What have ye to do with me?—Rather, What are ye to me? God, identifying Himself with His people, threatens retaliation upon their enemies for the wrongs they had inflicted upon them. Tyre and Zidon had oppressed the Jews in the time of the judges, and would do so again: the Philistines also were to the last the inveterate enemies of Israel; but in the end, could they measure strength with God?
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain Vers. 4-8. In these verses the prophet pauses before…
Vers. 4-8. In these verses the prophet pauses before proceeding to describe the final judgment of the world-powers for their hostility to and oppression of his Church, and points out the bitter enmity of neigh-bouring nations to the covenant people in the prophet"s own day, with a prediction of the righteous retribution that awaited them.
The northern sea-board of the Phoenicians, including the famous cities of Tyre and Sidon, also the southern sea-coast and plain of the Philistines, with their five principalities, are joined by vegam with the nations notorious for injuring and oppressing the people of God. The words rendered in the Authorized Version, What have ye to do with me? rather mean, What would ye with me? or still better, What are ye to me? that is. how worthless and despicable in my sight! The disjunctive question which follows becomes clearer by adopting the rendering of Keil and Wunsche, Will ye repay me a deed, or do anything against me? that is, will ye repay me some wrong-doing which ye fancy I have inflicted on you? or will ye, without such supposed provocation, and of your own free will, do or attempt to do anything against me? The double question with veim instead of im repeats, in other words or in a modified form, the preceding question; while the question itself, as often, implies a negative sense to the effect that they had neither right nor reason for averting themselves on the people of God for God here identifies himself with his people nor for attempting wantonly and gratuitously to harm them. The consequence would only be a swift and speedy return of the mischief on their own head, so that, as is usual with the wicked, they fall themselves into the pit which they dig for others. The idea of revenge rather than of punishment gets too great prominence in the old versions and commentators. The comment of Kimchi is instructive, though more in harmony with the rendering of the Authorized Version than with that which we prefer; it is as follows: "What have I to do with you, that ye enter my land while ye are neighbours? and it behoved you to do good to my people, but ye have not done so; but when ye saw that the kings of the nations (Gentiles)came upon them, ye allied yourselves with them to plunder and spoil.... Why is it, then, that ye are doing evil to me, if ye think to avenge yourselves of me because I have done you evil? When did I do you evil? Or if you will say that of yourselves ye are doing evil to me now, for he that does evil to Israel from his thought of doing evil to me, they are my children... swiftly and suddenly will I return your doing on your own head."
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain Joe_3:4. With me] i.e. my people, with whom God…
CRITICAL NOTES.
Joe_3:4. With me] i.e. my people, with whom God identifies himself. Recompense] “If ye injure me” (my people) “in revenge for fancied wrongs” (Eze_25:15-17), “I will requite you in your own coin swiftly and speedily.”
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Joe_3:5. Taken] Not only plundered the temple and its treasury, but palaces and houses of rich, which always followed conquest of towns (1Ki_14:26; 2Ki_14:14). Your temples] Spoils of war were often hanged up in heathen temples. They spoiled Jehovah’s temple and profaned their own.
Joe_3:6. Far] Captive Jews cut off from all hope of return.
Joe_3:7-8.] The nations repaid by the lex talionis. God’s people would regain liberty, and sell their enemies as they had been sold by them.
HOMILETICS
RIGHTEOUS RECOMPENSE.—Joe_3:4-8
Before depicting final judgment upon hostile nations of the world, Joel glances at the enmity which the neighbouring peoples displayed towards Israel, and foretells a righteous retribution for sins they had committed against God’s people.
I. The sins of which they were guilty. In their idolatries they grievously sinned; but their greatest offence was insult to God and his people.
1. They sold the people as slaves in captivity. They had scattered them among the nations, and forced them to seek for shelter where they could. (a) It was cruel captivity. They were dispersed and divided for fear of incorporation with the common inhabitants. (b) It was hopeless captivity. “Ye have sold them unto the Grecians that ye might remove them far from their border.” By selling their fighting men they would weaken the Jews, and taking them afar would render more hopeless the return to the land they loved. They displayed great malice, were delighted with the distress of the persecuted, and sought to triumph over God himself. Traffic in the souls of men, slave-dealing and men-stealing, is the worst kind of traffic, branded with infamy, and will bring down the curse of Heaven. What has become of American slave-trade, “State rights,” and secession? God has broken in pieces the oppressor; and well did Abraham Lincoln say: “This is a world of compensations, and he who would be no slave must consent to have no slave. Those who deny freedom to others deserve it not for themselves, and under a just God cannot long retain it.”
2. They plundered the temple and palaces of the land. “Ye have taken my silver and my gold.” The vessels of the temple and the treasures of the palace were carried away, and the land treated as conquered territory. The Prophet says my gold. All the wealth bestowed upon Israel and upon us, in the providence of God, belongs to him, and should be recognized as the gift of God (Hos_2:8). If we are his people, what we have we hold from him, and should devote to him. “The silver is mine, and the gold is mine, saith the Lord of Hosts” (Hag_2:8).
3. They profaned the sacred things of God. “And have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things.” They dedicated the spoils to their gods, hung up the vessels of the holy sanctuary on the walls of their temples, and attributed victory over God’s people to the power of their idols. The ark was put in the temple of Dagon, the gold and silver adorned Belshazzar’s feast, but God maintained his honour, and defended his cause. Robbery itself is most unjust, but when the spoils are consecrated to idolatry, and given to support cruelty and false religion, this will prove most destructive to the worshipper. “He entangleth his soul in the snares of death who resumeth unto a profane use that which is once consecrated unto God,” says Bishop Hall. “It is a snare to the man who devoureth that which is holy.”
II. Divine recompense upon these sins. “Will ye render a recompense?” &c., indicate that they had no cause to retaliate upon God or his people; that if repayment is the question, God will very speedily settle that for them, and bring back their doings upon their own heads (Isa_5:26).
1. Retribution is declared. The life as well as the death of his saints is precious in the sight of God. Those who injure them injure him. He will not suffer them to be insulted and enslaved. He will demand an account for them. Suffering and blood cry to Heaven for justice. Martyred saints and God’s captives will not be forgotten. He will honour, spare, and avenge them. “When he maketh inquisition for blood, he remembereth them: he forgetteth not the cry of the humble.”
2. Retribution in kind. “And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the land,” &c. As they had sold and scattered the Jews, so they would “be paid back in their own coin;” they in turn would be sold by the Jews. Here we have the true lex talionis. The rod which men make to smite others, shall smite themselves. “Curses are like young chickens, they always come home to roost.” “As he loveth cursing, so let it come to him” (Psa_109:17). Dogs licked the blood of Ahab in the vineyard of Naboth. The evil deeds of persecutors will fall upon themselves in this world, or that which is to come. “His mischief shall return upon his own head, and his violent dealing upon his own pate.”
3. Retribution with certainty. “For the Lord hath spoken it.” This was fulfilled in the time of Alexander the Great and his successors, when Jewish prisoners were set at liberty, and Phœnician territories were under Jewish sway. Sooner or later retribution will come, and there is no escape. No idols can deliver them. The inhabitants of Tyre chained their gods, that they might not forsake them when besieged by Alexander, but the word was spoken, and the city is no more.
4. Retribution with speed. “Swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense.” God threatens these piratical slave-dealers with the vengeance of their captives, whom he redeems. When they pride themselves in triumph and forgetfulness, a sudden change shall come. With ease and speed God will send the punishment and “judge his people.” God seems to delay, but at length unexpectedly does he surprise men. And when once he begins, he hastens on and makes short work in the execution of his judgments. “According to their deeds, accordingly he will repay fury to his adversaries, recompense to his enemies.”
HOMILETIC HINTS AND OUTLINES
Joe_3:4. What have ye to do with me?
1. The words and also show that there is something additional to the deeds of those spoken of before. Those instanced before were great oppressors, such as dispersed the former people of God, and divided their land. In addition to these, God condemns here another class, those who, without having power to destroy, harass and vex his heritage.
2. The words, what are ye to me? are like that other phrase (Jos_22:24; Mat_8:29), what is there to thee and me? i.e. what have we in common?
3. These words, what are ye to me? also declare that those nations had no part in God. God accounts them aliens. What are ye to me? Nothing.
4. But the words convey, besides, that they would have to do with God for harassing his people without cause. They obtruded themselves, as it were, upon God and his judgments; they challenged God; they thrust themselves in, to their destruction, where they had no great temptation to meddle, nothing but inbred malice to impel them. They stand among the most inveterate and unprovoked enemies of God and his people [Pusey].
Joe_3:7. I will raise. I. Deliverance of God’s people. Though carried far away and put under grievous bondage, God will gather them again. Neither former judgment nor present distress shall hinder. Though like men asleep, he will raise or awake them, as the word imports. Though their condition be hopeless as the dead, he can deliver them (Eze_37:11-12). The might of the foe and the wonderfulness of the promise should not impede our faith. “Behold, I will raise.” II. Destruction of God’s enemies. “I will return your recompense.”
1. The agent. God himself, not chance, nor mere change of circumstances. “I will sell.”
2. The instrument. The Church, the people themselves who were persecuted. What wisdom, power, and providence!
3. The measure. God repaid in the same proportion which they gave to his people. The guilt of these nations was great, beyond ordinary persecution, hence the retribution severe, and in kind upon their own heads. History confirms the fact that men get back what they give to others, (a) in quality, good or bad; (b) in quantity, so much, whatever the measure may be. “For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again.”
Retributive judgment. I. Often given by men. In society men reap as they sow. Kindness begets love, and cruelty begets hatred. The suspicious are suspected, the dishonest robbed, and the tyrants in turn led into captivity. “There is an important element,” says a writer, “of the judicial action of God in the retributive instincts of men. It is one of his ways of bringing the self-conceited and the censorious to his bar. He whose hand or tongue is against every man, need not wonder that Divine providence should so balance the scales of justice, that every man’s hand or tongue will be ultimately against him. He reaps what he sows.” II. Always administered by God. “The Lord hath spoken it.” All retribution comes from him, given by men or laws of nature. In the present it is true—“With the merciful, thou wilt show thyself merciful; with an upright man, thou wilt show thyself upright; with the pure, thou wilt show thyself pure; with the froward, thou wilt show thyself froward.” But the Bible predicts a retribution, most just, adequate, and terrible. The innocent will then be cleared, and the persecutor condemned.
Oh! blind to truth and God’s whole scheme below,
Who fancy bliss to vice, to virtue woe.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 3
Joe_3:4-8. Retribution. Society is like the echoing hills. It gives back to the speaker his words, groan for groan, song for song. Wouldest thou have thy social scenes to resound with music? then speak ever in the melodious strains of truth and love. “With what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again” [Dr Thomas].
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 General Information:
General Information:
Yahweh continues the speech he began in Joel 2:25, promising good things for the people of Israel.
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why are you angry at me ... Philistia?
Yahweh is encouraging the people of Judah, who can hear him, by scolding the people of Tyre, Sidon, and Philistia, who cannot hear him, as if they can. The names of the towns are metonyms for the people who live in the towns. These words can be translated as a statement. AT: "you have no right to be angry at me ... Philistia." (See: Rhetorical Question)
Will you repay me?
"Will you get revenge on me?" God uses this question to make the people think about what they are doing. AT: "You think you can get revenge on me, but you cannot." (See: Rhetorical Question)
I will immediately return your retribution on your own head
Here the word "head" refers to the person. Yahweh will make them suffer the pain they wanted him to suffer. AT: "I will cause you to suffer the retribution that you tried to put on me" (See: Synecdoche and Idiom)
retribution
"revenge" or "payback"
translationWords
Tyre
Sidon
Philistia
head
silver
gold
temple
kingdom of Judah
Jerusalem
Greek
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 3:4-6 The Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon and…
3:4-6 The Phoenician cities of Tyre and Sidon and the cities of Philistia were guilty of looting the precious treasures of Jerusalem and selling its people as slaves to the Greeks (see Amos 1:6, 9).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.