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Contemporary English Version

Joel 3:8

I'll hand over your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, who live far away. I, the Lord , have spoken!

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Joel;   Sabeans;   Servant;   Sidon;   Scofield Reference Index - Israel;   Judgments;   The Topic Concordance - Day of the Lord;   Enemies;   Gathering;   Israel/jews;   Nations;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Sidonians, the;   Tyre;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Sabeans;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Sheba;   Slave;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Day of the Lord, God, Christ, the;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Javan;   Philistia;   Phoenice;   Sheba (2);   Tyre;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Joel;   Sabean;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Joel, Book of;   Sheba;   Tyre;   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Sabeans ;   Zidon, Sidon ;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Jehoshaphat (2);   Sabeans;   Smith Bible Dictionary - Tyre;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Sabeans;   Zabii;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Joel (2);   Sabaeans;   Sheba (1);   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Philistines;  

Parallel Translations

Christian Standard Bible®
I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation, for the Lord has spoken.
Hebrew Names Version
And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Yehudah, And they will sell them to the men of Sheva, To a faraway nation, For the LORD has spoken it."
King James Version
And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the Lord hath spoken it.
English Standard Version
I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away, for the Lord has spoken."
New American Standard Bible
"I will also sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation," for the LORD has spoken.
New Century Version
I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabean people far away." The Lord said this.
Amplified Bible
"Also I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation," for the LORD has spoken.
Geneva Bible (1587)
And I will send your sonnes & your daughters into the hande of the children of Iudah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people farre off: for the Lord hath spoken it.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
"Also I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation," for the LORD has spoken.
Legacy Standard Bible
Also I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a distant nation," for Yahweh has spoken.
Berean Standard Bible
I will sell your sons and daughters into the hands of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans-to a distant nation." Indeed, the LORD has spoken.
Complete Jewish Bible
class="poetry"> "After this, I will pour out my Spirit on all humanity. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions; and also on male and female slaves in those days I will pour out my Spirit. I will show wonders in the sky and on earth — blood, fire and columns of smoke. The sun will be turned into darkness and the moon into blood before the coming of the great and terrible Day of Adonai ." At that time, whoever calls on the name of Adonai will be saved. For in Mount Tziyon and Yerushalayim there will be those who escape, as Adonai has promised; among the survivors will be those whom Adonai has called.
Darby Translation
And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far off: for Jehovah hath spoken.
Easy-to-Read Version
I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah. Then they will sell them to the faraway Sabeans." This is what the Lord said.
George Lamsa Translation
And I will deliver your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off; for the LORD had spoken it.
Good News Translation
I will let your sons and daughters be sold to the people of Judah; they will sell them to the far-off Sabeans. I, the Lord , have spoken.
Lexham English Bible
I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans and to a nation far away, for Yahweh has spoken.
Literal Translation
And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far off. For Jehovah has spoken it.
American Standard Version
and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the men of Sheba, to a nation far off: for Jehovah hath spoken it.
Bible in Basic English
I will give your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah for a price, and they will give them for a price to the men of Sheba, a nation far off: for the Lord has said it.
JPS Old Testament (1917)
[4:8] and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the men of Sheba, to a nation far off; for the LORD hath spoken.
King James Version (1611)
And I will sell your sonnes and your daughters into the hande of the children of Iudah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people farre off, for the Lord hath spoken it.
Bishop's Bible (1568)
And I wyll sell your sonnes and your daughters into the handes of the children of Iuda, and they shall sell them vnto the Sabeans, to a nation that dwelleth farre of: for the Lorde hath spoken it.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Juda, and they shall sell them into captivity to a far distant nation: for the Lord has spoken it.
English Revised Version
and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the men of Sheba, to a nation far off: for the LORD hath spoken it.
World English Bible
And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hands of the children of Judah, And they will sell them to the men of Sheba, To a faraway nation, For Yahweh has spoken it."
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
And Y schal sille youre sones and youre douytris in the hondis of the sones of Juda, and thei schulen selle hem to Sabeis, a fer folc, for the Lord spak.
Update Bible Version
and I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they shall sell them to the men of Sheba, to a nation far off: for Yahweh has spoken it.
Webster's Bible Translation
And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the LORD hath spoken [it].
New English Translation
I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah. They will sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far away. Indeed, the Lord has spoken!
New King James Version
I will sell your sons and your daughtersInto the hand of the people of Judah,And they will sell them to the Sabeans, Isaiah 60:6 and Ezekiel 27:22) ">[fn] To a people far off;For the Lord has spoken."
New Living Translation
I will sell your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the people of Arabia, a nation far away. I, the Lord , have spoken!"
New Life Bible
I will sell your sons and daughters to the sons of Judah. And they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away." The Lord has spoken.
New Revised Standard
I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, to a nation far away; for the Lord has spoken.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to Sabeans, unto a nation afar off, - for, Yahweh, hath spoken.
Douay-Rheims Bible
And I will sell your sons, and your daughters, by the hands of the children of Juda, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far off, for the Lord hath spoken it.
Revised Standard Version
I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the sons of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabe'ans, to a nation far off; for the LORD has spoken."
Young's Literal Translation
And have sold your sons and your daughters Into the hand of the sons of Judah, And they have sold them to Shabeans, Unto a nation far off, for Jehovah hath spoken.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
Youre sonnes & youre doughters will I sell thorow the hondes of the childre of Iuda, & so they shal geue them forth to sell, vnto the of Saba, a people of a farre coutre: for the LORDE himself hath sayde it.

Contextual Overview

1 At that time I, the Lord , will make Judah and Jerusalem prosperous again. 2 Then in Judgment Valley I will bring together the nations that scattered my people Israel everywhere in the world, and I will bring charges against those nations. They divided up my land 3 and gambled to see who would get my people; they sold boys and girls to pay for prostitutes and wine. 4 You people of Tyre and Sidon and you Philistines, why are you doing this? Are you trying to get even with me? I'll strike back before you know what's happened. 5 You've taken my prized possessions, including my silver and gold, and carried them off to your temples. 6 You have dragged the people of Judah and Jerusalem from their land and sold them to the Greeks. 7 But I'll make the people of Judah determined to come home, and what happened to them will happen to you. 8 I'll hand over your sons and daughters to the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans, who live far away. I, the Lord , have spoken!

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

I will: Deuteronomy 32:30, Judges 2:14, Judges 4:2, Judges 4:9

your sons: Isaiah 14:1, Isaiah 14:2, Isaiah 60:14

Sabeans: Job 1:15, Ezekiel 23:42

far off: Jeremiah 6:20

Reciprocal: Isaiah 45:14 - the Sabeans Joel 3:6 - have ye Amos 9:12 - possess Obadiah 1:15 - as Zechariah 9:4 - the Lord Zechariah 12:3 - in that

Cross-References

Genesis 3:1
The snake was sneakier than any of the other wild animals that the Lord God had made. One day it came to the woman and asked, "Did God tell you not to eat fruit from any tree in the garden?"
Genesis 3:2
The woman answered, "God said we could eat fruit from any tree in the garden,
Genesis 3:3
except the one in the middle. He told us not to eat fruit from that tree or even to touch it. If we do, we will die."
Genesis 3:9
The Lord called out to the man and asked, "Where are you?"
Genesis 3:10
The man answered, "I was naked, and when I heard you walking through the garden, I was frightened and hid!"
Genesis 3:12
"It was the woman you put here with me," the man said. "She gave me some of the fruit, and I ate it."
Genesis 3:21
Then the Lord God made clothes out of animal skins for the man and his wife.
Genesis 3:22
The Lord said, "These people now know the difference between right and wrong, just as we do. But they must not be allowed to eat fruit from the tree that lets them live forever."
Deuteronomy 5:25
But we don't want to take a chance on being killed by that terrible fire, and if we keep on hearing the Lord 's voice, we will die.
Deuteronomy 23:14
You must keep your camp clean of filthy and disgusting things. The Lord is always present in your camp, ready to rescue you and give you victory over your enemies. But if he sees something disgusting in your camp, he may turn around and leave.

Gill's Notes on the Bible

And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of the children of Judah,.... That is, deliver them into their hands, to dispose of them; this is thought to have been literally fulfilled in the Tyrians, when thirty thousand g of them were sold for slaves, upon the taking of their city by Alexander, who put some of them into the hands of the Jews, they being in friendship with him: it mystically designs the power that the Jewish church, converted, and in union with Gentile Christians, will have over the antichristian states:

and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, to a people far off; the inhabitants of Sheba, a country by the Jews reckoned the uttermost parts of the earth; see Matthew 12:42. These are not the same with the Sabeans, the inhabitants of Arabia Deserts, that took away Job's oxen and asses; but rather those who were the inhabitants of Arabia Felix, which lay at a greater distance. So Strabo h says, the Sabeans inhabited Arabia Felix; and Diodorus Siculus i reckons the Sabeans as very populous, and one of the Arabian nations, who inhabited that Arabia which is called Felix, the metropolis of which is Saba; and he, as well as Strabo, observes, that this country produces many odoriferous plants, as cassia, cinnamon, frankincense, and calamus, or the sweet cane; hence incense is said to come "from Sheba, and the sweet cane from a far country", Jeremiah 6:20; and since the Jews traded with these people for those spices, it is easy to conceive how they sold their captives to them: now these lived at a great distance, in the extreme parts of Arabia, both towards the Indian sea and the Arabian gulf. And Diodorus Siculus k observes, that δια τον εκτοπισμος, because of the distance of their situation, they never came into the power or under the dominion of any, or were never subdued. These seem to be the descendants of Cush, the son, of Ham; and if they were the descendants of Joktan, the son of Shem, as some think, these are placed by Vitringa l in Carmania; and where Pliny m makes mention of a city called Sabe, and of the river Sabis; and it is worthy of notice that the ancient Greek fathers n, with one consent, interpret the Sabeans of the Saracens: and whether they may not design the Turks, in whose possession this country now is, and into whose hands the antichristian powers may be delivered by means of the Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, may be considered;

for the Lord hath spoken [it]; and therefore it shall be accomplished. The Targum is,

"for by the word of the Lord it is so decreed;''

whose counsels and decrees can never be frustrated. This, in an ancient book of the Jews called Mechilta, is referred to the prophecy of Noah concerning Canaan, whose sons inhabited Tyre, "a servant of servants shall he be to his brethren", Genesis 9:25, as Jarchi observes.

g Arriam. de Exped. Alexand. l. 2. c. 24. h Geograph. l. 16. p. 536. i Bibliothec. l. 3. p. 179, 180. k Ibid. p. 181. l Comment. in Jessiam, c. 43. 3. m Nat. Hist. l. 6. c. 23. n In Catena Graec. Patr. apud Spanhem. Hist. Jobi, c. 3. p. 47.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

I will sell your sons - God Himself would reverse the injustice of people. The sons of Zion should be restored, the sons of the Phoenicians and of the Philistines sold into distant captivity. Tyre was taken by Nebuchadnezzar, and then by Alexander, who sold “more than 13,000” of the inhabitants into slavery ; Sidon was taken and destroyed by Artaxerxes Ochus, and it is said, above 40,000 of its inhabitants perished in the flames . The like befell the Philistines (see the notes at Zephaniah 2:4-7). The Sabaeans are probably instanced, as being the remotest nation in the opposite direction, a nation, probably, the partner of Tyre’s traffic in people, as well as in their other merchandise, and who (as is the way of unregenerate nature) would as soon trade in Tyrians, as with Tyrians. The Sabaeans were like the Phoenicians, a wealthy merchant people, and, of old, united with them in the trade of the world, the Sabaeans sending forth their fleets across the Indian Ocean, as the Tyrians along the Mediterranean. Three fathers of distinct races bore the name Sheba; one, a descendant of Ham, the other two, descended from Shem. The Hamite Sheba was the son of Raamah, the son of Cush Genesis 10:7, and doubtless dwelt of old in the country on the Persian gulf called by the name Raamah . Traces of the name Sheba occur there, and some even after our era . The Shemite Sabaeans, were, some descendants of Sheba, the tenth son of Joktan Genesis 10:28; the others from Sheba, the son of Abraham and Keturah Genesis 25:3. The Sabaeans, descended from Joktan, dwelt in the southwest extremity of Arabia, extending from the Red Sea to the Sea of Babel-mandeb. The country is still called “ard-es-Seba” , “land of Saba;” and Saba is often mentioned by Arabic writers .

To the Greeks and Latins they were known by the name of one division of the race (Himyar) Homeritae. Their descendants still speak an Arabic, acknowledged by the learned Arabs to be a distinct language from that which, through Muhammed, prevailed and was diffused ; a “species” of Arabic which they attribute “to the times of (the prophet) Hud (perhaps Eber) and those before him.”

It belonged to them as descendants of Joktan. Sabaeans are mentioned, distinct from both of these, as “dwelling in Arabia Felix, next beyond Syria, which they frequently invaded, before it belonged to the Romans.” These Sabaeans probably are those spoken of as marauders by Job ; and may have been descendants of Keturah. Those best known to the Greeks and Romans were, naturally, those in the south western corner of Arabia. The account of their riches and luxuries is detailed, and, although from different authorities consistent; else, almost fabulous.

One metropolis is said to have had 65 temples , private individuals had more than kingly magnificence . Arabic historians expanded into fable the extent and prerogatives of their Paradise lands, before the breaking of the artificial dike, made for the irrigation of their country . They traded with India, availing themselves doubtless of the Monsoon, and perhaps brought thence their gold, if not also the best and most costly frankincense . The Sheba of the prophet appears to have been the wealthy Sheba near the Red Sea. Indeed, in absence of evidence to the contrary, it is natural to understand the name of those best known.

Solomon unites it with Seba Psalms 72:10, (the Aethiopian Sabae.) The known frankincense-districts are on the southwest corner of Arabia . The tree has diminished, perhaps has degenerated through the neglect consequent on Muslim oppression, diminished consumption, change of the line of commerce; but it still survives in those districts ; a relic of what is passed away. Ezekiel indeed unites “the merchants of Sheba and Raamah” Ezekiel 27:22, as trading with Tyre. “The merchants of Sheba and Raamah, they were thy merchants; with the chief of all spices and with all precious stones and gold they occupied in thy fairs.” It may be that he joins them together as kindred tribes yet it is as probable that he unites the two great channels of merchandise, east and west, Raamah on the Persian Gulf, and Sheba near the Red Sea. Having just mentioned the produce of Northern Arabia as poured into Tyre, he would, in this case, enumerate north, east, and west of Arabia as combined to enrich her.

Agatharcides unites the Sabaeans of southwest Arabia with the Gerrhaeans, who were certainly on the Persian Gulf . “No people,” he says , “is apparently richer than the Sabaeans and Gerrhaeans, who dispense forth everything worth speaking of from Asia and Europe. These made the Syria of Ptolemy full of gold. These supplied the industry of the Phoenicians with profitable imports, not to mention countless other proofs of wealth.” Their caravans went to Elymais, Carmania; Charrae was their emporium; they returned to Gabala and Phoenicia . Wealth is the parent of luxury and effeminacy. At the time of our Lord’s Coming, the softness and effeminacy of the Sabaeans became proverbial. The “soft Sabaeans” is their characteristic in the Roman poets . Commerce, navigation, goldmines, being then carried on by means of slaves, and wealth and luxury at that time always demanding domestic slaves, the Sabaeans had need of slaves for both. They too had distant colonies , where the Tyrians could be transported, as far from Phoenicia, as the shores of the Aegean are from Palestine. The great law of divine justice, “as I have done, so God hath requited me” Judges 1:7, was again fulfilled. It is a sacred proverb of God’s overruling Providence, written in the history of the world and in people’s consciences.

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

Verse 8. I will sell your sons — When Alexander took Tyre, he reduced into slavery all the lower people, and the women. Arrian, lib. ii., says that thirty thousand of them were sold. Artaxerxes Ochus destroyed Sidon, and subdued the other cities of Phoenicia. In all these wars, says Calmet, the Jews, who obeyed the Persians, did not neglect to purchase Phoenician slaves, whom they sold again to the Sabeans, or Arabs.


 
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