TEXT [Commentary]

  D.   The Resultant Scene (3:18-21)

18 In that day the mountains will drip with sweet wine,

and the hills will flow with milk.

Water will fill the streambeds of Judah,

and a fountain will burst forth from the LORD’s Temple,

watering the arid valley of acacias.[*]

19 But Egypt will become a wasteland

and Edom will become a wilderness,

because they attacked the people of Judah

and killed innocent people in their land.

20 “But Judah will be filled with people forever,

and Jerusalem will endure through all generations.

21 I will pardon my people’s crimes,

which I have not yet pardoned;

and I, the LORD, will make my home

in Jerusalem[*] with my people.”

NOTES

3:18 [4:18] In that day. This is a familiar prophetic formula used to introduce details relative to the eschatological future (e.g., Isa 24:21; 26:1; 27:1; Jer 30:8; Amos 9:11; Mic 4:6; Zeph 3:16; Zech 14:4).

sweet wine. Cf. the note on 1:5, where the same Hebrew word is used. The availability of wine had been cut off due to the locust plague. Its restoration was promised based on full repentance and a turning to the Lord (2:13-14, 24). Now it is prophesied to be in ready supply in that day when the Lord again dwells in Zion (cf. Amos 9:13).

milk. As the Lord had promised (Deut 27:3), God gave Israel a land “flowing with milk and honey” (Jer 32:22). Like the wine, in that future time milk will again be plentiful.

Water. The dry wadis and streambeds (1:20) will again gush with water. The presence of wine, milk, and water in great abundance was symbolic of God’s blessings.

a fountain . . . from the LORD’s temple. Joel’s eschatological perspective is in harmony with that of Ezekiel, who reports that the streams so initiated will terminate in the Dead Sea, changing that salty and lifeless body to one of fresh water (Ezek 47:7-12). Zechariah (Zech 14:8) prophesies of water flowing both eastward and westward from Jerusalem, with the former emptying into the Mediterranean Sea and the latter into the Dead Sea. The psalmist (Ps 46:4[5]) likewise speaks of a stream that “brings joy to the city of our God, the sacred home of the Most High.” In connection with the restored paradise of the new earth, John sees “a river with the water of life, clear as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and the Lamb. It flowed down the center of the main street. On each side of the river grew a tree of life” (Rev 22:1-2a). All of this clearly testifies to the abundant fertility of the land in which the Messiah will make his habitation (3:17, 21).

arid valley of acacias. The acacia tree was used extensively for construction of the Tabernacle. Like the valley of Jehoshaphat and the valley of decision, this name may be purely symbolic. In this case it may simply imply that the narrowest, deepest gorge (nakhal [TH5158, ZH5707]), now dry (1:20), will experience renewed fertility. If a literal valley is to be sought, it may be best to identify it with Wadi en-Nar, which goes out from the Kidron Valley to the Dead Sea. Acacia trees are known to grow there.

3:19 [4:19] Egypt . . . Edom. Rather than having an abundance of water, the land of these two perennial enemies of Israel will be made desolate and laid waste. The eighth-century prophets Isaiah (Isa 19; 30:1-5; 31:1-3) and Hosea (Hos 7:11; 12:1) condemn Israel’s ill-advised reliance upon Egypt. Joel’s prediction would be particularly troublesome for Egypt, which had relied on the Nile for its very existence and livelihood from time immemorial. The eighth-century king Amaziah campaigned against Edom (2 Kgs 14:7). Proud and rich from its trading enterprises (Obad 1:3, 6), Edom would be particularly hard hit if it became a wasteland.

because they attacked the people of Judah and killed innocent people. No specific occasion may be in view here. Both nations were repeatedly guilty of crimes against the Holy Land. Earlier pharaohs made frequent forays into Israel. Especially to be noted is the tenth-century BC pharaoh Sheshonq I (Shishak), who swept through much of Israel and Judah carrying away much plunder (1 Kgs 14:25-26). Edom likewise was known for its continued enmity against Israel. Already in the ninth century BC, when hostilities broke out between Israel and Edom, a coalition of Arabs and Philistines invaded Judah, taking away many members of the royal family together with many goods (2 Chr 21:8-17; 22:1). Still further hostilities erupted in the eighth century during the days of Amaziah and Uzziah (2 Kgs 14:7-14) and Ahaz (2 Chr 28:16-21). Obadiah (Obad 1:11-14) apparently speaks of yet another later occasion when Edom transgressed against Judah and Jerusalem (see commentary below).

Whether or not Joel had specific occasions in mind, Egypt and Edom were often guilty of crimes against God’s people. The tables would be turned. Israel’s neighbors would have their fertility and wealth taken away, while Israel would experience the Lord’s bountiful provision.

3:20 [4:20] through all generations. Joel varies the temporal construction he used with dor [TH1755A, ZH1887] (generation) in 2:2. There he employed the term in a general way to call attention to that which had never been seen and never would be in the future. Here the temporal clause stresses the continuous occupation of Judah throughout the succeeding ages.

3:21 [4:21] I will pardon my people’s crimes, which I have not yet pardoned. This sentence is notoriously difficult. The LXX (cf. Peshitta) suggests the meaning “I will avenge their blood and will not acquit (it/them).” Such a reading requires some emendation and envisions the pronouncement to be a continuance of the denunciation of Egypt and Edom. Stuart (1987:264-265) views it similarly but treats the sentence as a question and answer: “Will I leave their bloodshed unpunished? I will not leave it unpunished!” Both understandings take the word dam [TH1818, ZH1947] (“blood[shed]”; NLT, “crimes”) to be referring to the same event. Keil (1954:232) also takes the bloodshed as referring to Egypt and Edom, remarking, “The eternal desolation of the world-kingdoms mentioned here will wipe out all the wrong which they have done to the people of God, and which has hitherto remained unpunished.” The NLT follows the MT but takes the reference to be to Judah and Jerusalem, mentioned in the previous verse. The waw on the suffix conjugation construction with which the verse begins favors this understanding. This understanding of the verse strengthens the indication that God’s people who inhabit Judah and Jerusalem will be a repentant and purified people (cf. Zeph 3:9-13). Indeed, because God does not acquit the guilty (Exod 34:7; Num 14:18), his forgiveness would be on the basis of repentance and confessed sin (1 John 1:9). The former blood guiltiness of Judah and Jerusalem thus stands in contrast to the innocent blood shed by Egypt and Edom.

I, the LORD, will make my home in Jerusalem. Lit., “the LORD dwells in Zion.” The verb here (shakan [TH7931, ZH8905]) is the same translated “live” in v. 17. Both concluding sections (3:9-17, 18-21) thus end with the same theme: God’s permanent dwelling in the city of Zion (i.e., Jerusalem; cf. Ezek 48:35). From the root for the verb “dwell” came the later Hebrew word Shekinah, which became a technical term for God’s visible presence among his people.

COMMENTARY [Text]

Joel ends his prophecy on a high note. He predicts that the environment where God’s future people will live will be marked by superabundant fertility. All that had been lost in the locust plague will, as God promised (2:18-27), be restored in effusive quantity. The landscape will flourish again; the streams and even the dry wadis will flow freely, bringing life and health to the land and all its inhabitants. Jerusalem’s underground water sources will also gush forth, bringing refreshing vitality to ground that has long been parched with aridity. Even the Dead Sea will come alive and be rejuvenated by the fresh waters of Jerusalem’s Temple Mount (see note on 3:18).

The fortunes of Israel’s long-standing enemies, typified by Egypt and Edom, however, will be reversed. God’s judgment will rest upon them, leaving them barren. By way of contrast, God’s land and city will be inhabited forever by a repentant and redeemed people. With their sins forgiven, a purified people will thus be made ready for life with the Holy One who will reside in their midst (3:19-21).

Several truths stand out in this closing section. The mention of the ready availability of wine and water give testimony to the fact that God is a promise-keeping God. He had given assurance that there would be restoration from the effects of the locust plague if genuine repentance and change of life should occur. Joel now declares that God will keep that promise. God is like that. What he promises, he does (Josh 23:5, 10, 14-15; Pss 119:140; 145:13). Therefore, believers ought to have confidence in God (Ps 119:148) and live so as to realize God’s promises to those who keep his commandments. This should be the case regardless of what may happen in their lives (1 Kgs 9:4-5; Isa 43:12).

Just as God fulfilled his promise to bring Israel into a land flowing with milk and honey (Deut 6:1-3; Jer 32:22), so Joel sees that God will not only put his purified people in a land of fruitfulness (wine) and vitality (water), but he will give added benefits. The goats and cattle, fattened by the extreme fertility of the land, will yield their milk in full measure. How good God is! Truly, “The LORD will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right” (Ps 84:11). All of this is a reminder of the riches of God’s grace, which is bestowed freely on his own (Eph 2:7). May today’s believers, even as those in the day which Joel predicts, claim God’s promises and live faithful and godly lives in the knowledge of the coming of the One in whom all of God’s promises shall be realized (Heb 10:32-38; 2 Pet 1:3-11).

The final divine promise that Joel records is that God will reside permanently among his redeemed people, even as he had promised so long ago (Lev 26:3-12). This truth is the culmination of frequent scriptural indications of God’s active presence among his people—yet in great power and splendor (the Shekinah glory). Joel’s prophecy looks on to John’s revelation of the glorious, everlasting reign of Christ over a refreshed and glorified earth, when he will dwell among a believing humankind (Rev 21:3).

John, however, declares that before that great era to come, there was a prior dwelling of God among people, which was no less glorious (John 1:14). When Christ “became human,” it was no less than a visitation of the Shekinah glory. He was the promised Immanuel—God with us! Nor was he less glorious when he hung on the cross for our salvation and rose triumphantly from the grave (John 12:23-28; 17:1-4).

Paul reminds us that with Christ’s incarnate mission, accomplished at Calvary and in the resurrection, the ascended Lord has taken the believer into union with himself (Eph 2:19-22). Accordingly, the Christian has not only a sure hope of that glorious future (Col 1:27) that Joel and John foretold but an ever-present source of strength in his spiritual service (2 Cor 12:9) to reveal that one to others (Gal 1:16). Herein the future can be realized in the present.

May Joel’s great prophecy be an encouragement to believers everywhere. May the assurance of life lived throughout the future ages with the Lord himself be increasingly confirmed in a life lived in the conscious reality of Christ’s ever-abiding presence even now—“Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Col 1:27, NIV).