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Green's Literal Translation

Joel 3:2

I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, for My people and My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scatteredamong the nations; and they shared outMy land.

Bible Study Resources

Concordances:

- Nave's Topical Bible - Church;   Jehoshaphat;   Jerusalem;   Joel;   Scofield Reference Index - Israel;   Judgments;   The Topic Concordance - Day of the Lord;   Enemies;   Gathering;   Israel/jews;   Nations;   Recompense/restitution;   Torrey's Topical Textbook - Titles and Names of the Church;   Valleys;  

Dictionaries:

- American Tract Society Bible Dictionary - Jehoshaphat, Valley of;   Bridgeway Bible Dictionary - Jerusalem;   Baker Evangelical Dictionary of Biblical Theology - Day of the Lord, God, Christ, the;   Easton Bible Dictionary - Jehoshaphat, Valley of;   Kidron;   Valley;   Fausset Bible Dictionary - Jehoshaphat, Valley of;   Joel;   Holman Bible Dictionary - Ancient of Days;   Earth, Land;   Heritage;   Jehoshaphat, Valley of;   Joel;   Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible - Decision, Valley of;   Jehoshaphat, Valley of;   Joel, Book of;   Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament - Brook ;   Jerusalem (2);   Morrish Bible Dictionary - Jehoshaphat, Valley of;   The Hawker's Poor Man's Concordance And Dictionary - Church;   Jehoshaphat;   People's Dictionary of the Bible - Jehoshaphat (2);   Smith Bible Dictionary - Jehosh'aphat, Valley of;   Watson's Biblical & Theological Dictionary - Jehoshaphat;  

Encyclopedias:

- International Standard Bible Encyclopedia - Heritage;   Hinnom, Valley of;   Jehoshaphat, Valley of;   Joel (2);   Plead;   Vale;   The Jewish Encyclopedia - Day of the Lord;   Ḳohelet (Ecclesiastes) Rabbah;   Palestine, Holiness of;  

Parallel Translations

Easy-to-Read Version
I will also gather all the nations together. I will bring all these nations down into Jehoshaphat Valley. There I will judge them. Those nations scattered my people, Israel. They forced them to live in other nations, so I will punish those nations. They divided up my land.
New American Standard Bible
I will gather all the nations And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations; And they have divided up My land.
New Century Version
I will gather all the nations together and bring them down into the Valley Where the Lord Judges. There I will judge them, because those nations scattered my own people Israel and forced them to live in other nations. They divided up my land
New English Translation
Then I will gather all the nations, and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. I will enter into judgment against them there concerning my people Israel who are my inheritance, whom they scattered among the nations. They partitioned my land,
Update Bible Version
I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment on them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations: and they have parted my land,
Webster's Bible Translation
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 divided my land.
Amplified Bible
I will gather together all the [Gentile] nations [that were hostile to My people] And bring them down into the Valley of Jehoshaphat (the LORD has judged). And there I will deal with them and enter into judgment with them there For [their treatment of] My people, My inheritance, Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations, And [because] they have encroached on My land and divided it up.
English Standard Version
I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, on behalf of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations and have divided up my land,
World English Bible
I will gather all nations, And will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; And I will execute judgment on them there for my people, And for my heritage, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations. They have divided my land,
Wycliffe Bible (1395)
Y schal gadere alle folkis, and Y schal lede hem in to the valei of Josephat; and Y schal dispute there with hem on my puple, and myn eritage Israel, whiche thei scateriden among naciouns; and thei departiden my lond, and senten lot on my puple;
English Revised Version
I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
Berean Standard Bible
I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will enter into judgment against them concerning My people, My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations as they divided up My land.
Contemporary English Version
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
American Standard Version
I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will execute judgment upon them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations: and they have parted my land,
Bible in Basic English
I will get together all the nations, and make them come down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and there I will take up with them the cause of my people and of my heritage Israel, whom they have sent wandering among the nations, and of my land which has been parted by them.
Complete Jewish Bible
and also on male and female slaves in those days I will pour out my Spirit.
Darby Translation
I will also gather all the nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there on account of my people and mine inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations: and they have parted my land;
JPS Old Testament (1917)
[4:2] I will gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat; and I will enter into judgment with them there for My people and for My heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and divided My land.
King James Version (1611)
I wil also gather all nations, and will bring them downe into the valley of Iehoshaphat, and wil plead with them there for my people, and for my heritage Israel, whom they haue scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
New Living Translation
I will gather the armies of the world into the valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will judge them for harming my people, my special possession, for scattering my people among the nations, and for dividing up my land.
New Life Bible
I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. There I will judge them for what they did to My people Israel. They have sent My people out among the different nations, and have divided up My land.
New Revised Standard
I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations. They have divided my land,
Geneva Bible (1587)
I will also gather all nations, and wil bring them downe into the valley of Iehoshaphat, & will pleade with them there for my people, & for mine heritage Israel, whom they haue scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
George Lamsa Translation
I will also gather all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there for the sake of my people and for the sake of my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and because they have divided up my land.
J.B. Rotherham Emphasized Bible
Then will I gather all the nations, and bring them down into the Vale of Jehoshaphat, - and will enter into judgment with them there, concerning my people, and mine inheritance Israel, whom they scattered among the nations, and, my land, they apportioned;
Douay-Rheims Bible
I will gather together all nations and will bring them down into the valley of Josaphat: and I will plead with them there for my people, and for my inheritance, Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations, and have parted my land.
Revised Standard Version
I will gather all the nations and bring them down to the valley of Jehosh'aphat, and I will enter into judgment with them there, on account of my people and my heritage Israel, because they have scattered them among the nations, and have divided up my land,
Bishop's Bible (1568)
I wyll also gather all the gentiles, and cause them to come into the valley of Iehosaphat, and I will pleade with them there for my people and heritage Israel, which they haue scattered amongst the nations, and haue parted my lande.
Brenton's Septuagint (LXX)
I will also gather all the Gentiles, and bring them down to the valley of Josaphat, and will plead with them there for my people and my heritage Israel, who have been dispersed among the Gentiles; and these Gentiles have divided my land,
Good News Translation
I will gather all the nations and bring them to the Valley of Judgment. There I will judge them for all they have done to my people. They have scattered the Israelites in foreign countries and divided Israel, my land.
Christian Standard Bible®
I will gather all the nationsand take them to the Valley of Jehoshaphat.I will enter into judgment with them therebecause of my people, my inheritance Israel.The nations have scattered the Israelitesin foreign countriesand divided up my land.
Hebrew Names Version
I will gather all nations, And will bring them down into the valley of Yehoshafat; And I will execute judgment on them there for my people, And for my heritage, Yisra'el, whom they have scattered among the nations. They have divided my land,
King James Version
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.
Lexham English Bible
I will gather all the nations, and I will bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat, and I will argue a case against them there concerning my people and my inheritance Israel whom they have scattered among the nations, and my land that they have divided.
Young's Literal Translation
Then I have gathered all the nations, And caused them to go down unto the valley of Jehoshaphat, And I have been judged with them there, Concerning My people and Mine inheritance -- Israel, Whom they scattered among nations, And My land they have apportioned.
Miles Coverdale Bible (1535)
I shal gather all people together, & brynge the in to the valley of Iosaphat: and there wil I reason with the, because of my people & heretage of Israel: who they haue scatred aboute in the nacions, & parted my lode:
New King James Version
I will also gather all nations, And bring them down to the Valley of Jehoshaphat; And I will enter into judgment with them there On account of My people, My heritage Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations; They have also divided up My land.
New American Standard Bible (1995)
I will gather all the nations And bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat. Then I will enter into judgment with them there On behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel, Whom they have scattered among the nations; And they have divided up My land.
Legacy Standard Bible
I will gather all the nationsAnd bring them down to the valley of Jehoshaphat.Then I will enter into judgment with them thereOn behalf of My people and My inheritance, Israel,Whom they have scattered among the nations;And they have divided up My land.

Contextual Overview

1 For, behold, in those days and in that time, when I bring again the exiles of Judah and Jerusalem, 2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat. And I will enter into judgment with them there, for My people and My inheritance, Israel, whom they have scatteredamong the nations; and they shared outMy land. 3 And they have cast lots for My people. And they have given a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine, and they drank. 4 And also, what are you to Me, Tyre and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? Are you restoring repayment to Me? And if you are repaying Me, I will turn your reward on your own head, swiftly, speedily, 5 in that you have taken My silver and My gold and have carried My good treasures to your temples. 6 You have also sold the sons of Judah and the sons of Jerusalem to the sons of the Greeks, that you might remove them far from their border. 7 Behold, I am arousing them from the place where you have sold them, and will return your reward on your own head. 8 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.

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

also: Zephaniah 3:8, Zechariah 14:2-4, Revelation 16:14, Revelation 16:16, Revelation 19:19-21, Revelation 20:8

the valley: Joel 3:12, 2 Chronicles 20:26, Ezekiel 39:11, Zechariah 14:4

will plead: Isaiah 66:16, Ezekiel 38:22, Amos 1:11, Obadiah 1:10-16, Zechariah 12:3, Zechariah 12:4, Revelation 11:18, Revelation 16:6, Revelation 18:20, Revelation 18:21

and parted: Jeremiah 12:14, Jeremiah 49:1, Ezekiel 25:8, Ezekiel 35:10, Zephaniah 2:8-10

Reciprocal: Leviticus 25:23 - for ever 2 Kings 10:21 - And they came Isaiah 51:22 - pleadeth Isaiah 66:18 - that I Jeremiah 12:7 - have forsaken Jeremiah 25:31 - plead Jeremiah 50:17 - a scattered Jeremiah 51:12 - the standard Ezekiel 38:15 - and many Joel 3:11 - Assemble Joel 3:14 - multitudes Amos 9:14 - I will bring Micah 4:3 - and rebuke Micah 4:11 - many Zephaniah 3:19 - I will undo Zechariah 2:8 - the nations Zechariah 14:3 - General Zechariah 14:12 - the plague wherewith Matthew 22:7 - his

Cross-References

Psalms 58:4
Their poison is like the poison of a snake; like the deaf adder he stops his ear,

Gill's Notes on the Bible

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 his name: Joseph Ben Gorion x speaks of a valley, called the valley of Jehoshaphat, which was near Jerusalem, to the further end of which one Zachariah, a good man, in the times of the Jewish wars, was rolled and died, being cast down from the top of a tower upon the wall east of Jerusalem; and which is confirmed by R. Abraham, as quoted by Lively; and the true Josephus says y, that the valley into which this man was cast lay directly under Jerusalem; and Benjamin of Tudela z makes mention of a valley of this name, which he says lies between Jerusalem and the mount of Olives; where Jerom a places it by the name of Caelas; with whom Mr. Maundrell b agrees, who says that this valley lies between Mount Moriah and Mount Olivet, and has its name from the sepulchre of Jehoshaphat: and, according to Lyra on the place, who is followed by Adrichomius c, it is the same with the valley of Kidron, which was so situated; but, why that should be called the valley of Jehoshaphat, no reason is given. Aben Ezra and others are of opinion that this is the same with the valley of Berachah, where Jehoshaphat obtained a very great victory over many nations, 2 Chronicles 20:1; but it does not appear to have been called by his name, and, besides, seems to be at a great distance from Jerusalem; though there may be an allusion to it, that as many nations were there collected together and destroyed, so shall it be in the latter day; and I am of opinion that no proper name of a place is here meant, as going by it in common, but is so called from the judgment of God here executed upon his and his people's enemies. So Jarchi calls it "the valley of judgments"; Jehoshaphat signifying "the judgment" of the Lord: Kimchi says it may be so called because of judgment, the Lord there pleading with the nations, and judging them: and in the Targum it is rendered,

"the valley of the division of judgment:''

and to me it designs no other than Armageddon, the seat of the battle of Almighty God, Revelation 16:16; and which may signify the destruction of their troops; Revelation 16:16- :;

and will plead with them there for my people, and [for] my heritage Israel; the people of the Jews, who will now be converted, who will have the "loammi", Hosea 1:9, taken off of them, and will be called the people of the living God again, and be reckoned by him as his portion and inheritance; though not them only, but all the saints; all that have separated from antichrist, his doctrine and worship, and have suffered by him:

whom they have scattered among the nations, and parted my land; Kimchi refers this to the scattering of the Jews by Titus and his army, and the partition of Judea among them, which is not amiss; in consequence of which they are still a scattered people, and their land has been parted between Turks and Papists d; sometimes inhabited by the one, and sometimes by the other, and now by both, on whom God will take vengeance; he will plead the cause of his people, by the severe judgments he will inflict on his and their enemies. This may respect the persecuting of the Christians from place to place, and seizing on their lands and estates, and parting them, as well as the dispersion of the Jews, and the partition of the land of Canaan.

x Hist. Heb. l. 6. c. 27. y De Bello Jud. l. 4. c. 5. sect. 4. z Massaot, sive ltinera, p. 44. a De locis Hebr. fol. 92. C. b Journey from Aleppo to Jerusalem, p. 103, 106. Ed. 7. c Theatrum Terrae Sanctae, p. 172. d Written about 1750. Editor.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

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 then the end shall come and lie shall sit on the throne of His glory to judge all nations. Then shall none escape of those gathered against Judah and Jerusalem, but shall be judged of their own consciences, as those former enemies of His people fell by their own swords.

That valley, however, is nowhere called “the valley of Jehoshaphat.” It continued to be “called the valley of Berachah,” the writer adds, “to this day.” And it is so called still. Caphar Barucha, “the village of blessing,” was still known in that neighborhood in the time of Jerome ; it had been known in that of Josephus . Southwest of Bethlehem and east of Tekoa are still 3 or 4 acres of ruins , bearing the name Bereikut , and a valley below them, still bearing silent witness to God’s ancient mercies, in its but slightly disguised name, “the valley of Bereikut” (Berachah). The only valley called the “valley of Jehoshaphat” , is the valley of Kedron, lying between Jerusalem and the Mount of Olives, incircling the city on the east.

There Asa, Hezekiah, and Josiah cast the idols, which they had burned 1 Kings 15:13; 2Ch 30:14; 2 Kings 23:6, 2 Kings 23:12. The valley was the common burying-place for the inhabitants of Jerusalem . “There” was the garden where Jesus oftentimes resorted with His disciples; “there” was His Agony and Bloody Sweat; there Judas betrayed Him; thence He was dragged by the rude officers of the high priest. The temple, the token of God’s presence among them, the pledge of His accepting their sacrifices which could only be offered there, overhung it on the one side. There, under the rock on which that temple stood, they dragged Jesus, “as a lamb to the slaughter” Isaiah 53:7. On the other side, it was overhung by the Mount of “Olives,” from where, “He beheld the city and wept over it,” because it “knew” not “in” that its “day, the things which belong to its peace;” whence, after His precious Death and Resurrection, Jesus ascended into, heaven.

There the Angels foretold His return, “This heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen Him go into heaven” Acts 1:11. It has been a current opinion, that our Lord should descend to judgment, not only in like manner, and in the like Form of Man, but in the same place, over this valley of Jehoshaphat. Certainly, if so it be, it were appropriate, that He should appear in His Majesty, where, for us, He bore the extremest shame; that He should judge “there,” where for us, He submitted to be judged. “He sheweth,” says Hilary (in Matthew 25:0), “that the Angels bringing them together, the assemblage shall be in the place of His Passion; and meetly will His Coming in glory be looked for there, where He won for us the glory of eternity by the sufferings of His humility in the Body.” But since the Apostle says, “we shall meet the Lord in the air,” then, not “in” the valley of Jehoshaphat, but “over” it, in the clouds, would His throne be. : “Uniting, as it were, Mount Calvary and Olivet, the spot would be well suited to that judgment wherein the saints shall partake of the glory of the Ascension of Christ and the fruit of His Blood and Passion, and Christ shall take deserved vengeance of His persecutors and of all who would not be cleansed by His Blood.”

God saith, “I will gather all nations,” of the gathering together of the nations against Him under antichrist, because He overrules all things, and while they, in “their” purpose, are gathering themselves against His people and elect, He, in His purpose secret to them, is gathering them to sudden destruction and judgment, “and will bring them down;” for their pride shall be brought down, and themselves laid low. Even Jewish writers have seen a mystery in the word, and said, that it hinteth “the depth of God’s judgments,” that God “would descend with them into the depth of judgment” , “a most exact judgment even the most hidden things.”

His very presence there would say to the wicked , “In this place did I endure grief for you; here, at Gethsemane, I poured out for you that sweat of water and Blood; here was I betrayed and taken, bound as a robber, dragged over Cedron into the city; hard by this valley, in the house of Caiaphas and then of Pilate, I was for you judged and condemned to death, crowned with thorns, buffeted, mocked and spat upon; here, led through the whole city, bearing the Cross, I was at length crucified for you on Mount Calvary; here, stripped, suspended between heaven and earth, with hands, feet, and My whole frame distended, I offered Myself for you as a Sacrifice to God the Father. Behold the Hands which ye pierced; the Feet which ye perforated; the Sacred prints which ye anew imprinted on My Body. Ye have despised My toils, griefs, sufferings; ye have counted the Blood of My covenant an unholy thing; ye have chosen to follow your own concupiscences rather than Me, My doctrine and law; ye have preferred momentary pleasures, riches, honors, to the eternal salvation which I promised; ye have despised Me, threatening the fires of hell.

Now ye see whom ye have despised; now ye see that My threats and promises were not vain, but true; now ye see that vain and fallacious were your loves, riches, and dignities; now ye see that ye were fools and senseless in the love of them; but too late. “Depart, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels.” But ye who believed, hoped, loved, worshiped Me, your Redeemer, who obeyed My whole law; who lived a Christian life worthy of Me; who lived soberly, godly and righteously in this world, looking for the blessed hope and this My glorious Coming, “Come ye blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom of heaven prepared for you from the foundation of the World - And these shall go into everlasting fire; but the righteous into life eternal.” Blessed he whoso continually thinketh or foreseeth, provideth for these things.”

And will plead with them there - Woe to him, against whom God pleadeth! He saith not, “judgeth” but “pleadeth,” making Himself a party, the Accuser as well as the Judge , “Solemn is it indeed when Almighty God saith, “I will plead. He that hath ears to hear let him hear.” For terrible is it. Wherefore also that “Day of the Lord” is called “great and terrible.” For what more terrible than, at such a time, the pleading of God with man? For He says, “I will plead,” as though He had never yet pleaded with man, great and terrible as have been His judgments since that first destruction of the world by water. Past are those judgments on Sodom and Gomorrah, on Pharaoh and his hosts, on the whole people in the wilderness from twenty years old and upward, the mighty oppressions of the enemies into whose hands He gave them in the land of promise; past were the four Empires; but now, in the time of antichrist, “there shall be tribulation, such as there had not been from the beginning of the world.” But all these are little, compared with that great and terrible Day; and so He says, “I will plead,” as though all before had not been, to “plead.””

God maketh Himself in such wise a party, as not to condemn those unconvicted; yet the “pleading” has a separate awfulness of its own. God impleads, so as to allow Himself to be impleaded and answered; but there is no answer. He will set forth what He had done, and how we have requited Him. And we are without excuse. Our memories witness against us; our knowledge acknowledges His justice; our conscience convicts us; our reason condemns us; all unite in pronouncing ourselves ungrateful, and God holy and just. For a sinner to see himself is to condemn himself; and in the Day of Judgment, God will bring before each sinner his whole self.

For My people - o: “God’s people are the one true Israel, “princes with God,” the whole multitude of the elect, foreordained to eternal life.” Of these, the former people of Israel, once chosen of God, was a type. As Paul says, “They are not all Israel which are of Israel” Romans 9:6; and again, “As many as walk according to this rule” of the Apostle’s teaching, “peace be on them and mercy, and upon the Israel of God” Galatians 6:16, i. e., not among the Galatians only, but in the whole Church throughout the world. Since the whole people and Church of God is one, He lays down one law, which shall be fulfilled to the end; that those who, for their own ends, even although therein the instruments of God, shall in any way injure the people of God, shall be themselves punished by God. God makes Himself one with His people. “He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of My eye” Zechariah 2:8. So our Lord said, “Saul, Saul, why persecutest thou Me?” Acts 9:4 and in the Day of Judgment He will say, “I was an hungered and ye gave me no meat. Forasmuch as ye did it not unto one of the least of these My brethern, ye did it not to Me” Matthew 25:34-35. : “By calling them “My heritage,” He shows that He will not on any terms part with them or suffer them to be lost, but will vindicate them to Himself forever.”

Whom they have scattered among the nations - Such was the offence of the Assyrians and Babylonians, the first ““army,” which God sent against His people. And for it, Nineveh and Babylon perished. : “Yet he does not speak of that ancient people, or of its enemies only, but of all the elect both in that people and in the Church of the Gentiles, and of all persecutors of the elect. For that people were a figure of the Church, and its enemies were a type of those who persecute the saints.” The dispersion of God’s former people by the pagan was renewed in those who persecuted Christ’s disciples from “city to city,” banished them, and confiscated their goods. Banishment to mines or islands were the slightest punishments of the early Christians .

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

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.


 
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