Albert Barnes Commentary Joel 3:1

"For, behold, in those days, and in that time, when I shall bring back the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem," — Joel 3:1 (ASV)

For, behold - The prophet, by the word “for,” shows that he is about to explain in detail what he had previously spoken of in summary. By the word “behold,” he stirs up our minds for something great, which he is to set before our eyes, and which we would not be prepared to expect or believe unless he solemnly told us, “Behold.” As the detailed account, then, of what precedes it, the prophecy contains all periods of future judgment on those who would oppose God, oppress His Church and people, and sin against Him in them, and all periods of His blessing upon His own people, until the Last Day.

And it presents this in imagery, partly describing more immediate events of the same kind, as in the punishments of Tyre and Sidon, such as they endured from the kings of Assyria, from Nebuchadnezzar, and from Alexander; and partly using these, His earlier judgments, as representatives of similar punishments against similar sins until the end.

In those days and in that time - The whole period of which the prophet had been speaking was the time from God’s call to His people for repentance until the Day of Judgment. The final division of that time extended from the beginning of the Gospel until that Day.

He specifies the occasion he is referring to with the words from the prophet, when I shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem. This expression was used before there was any general dispersion of the nation.

For any captivity of individual members of the Jewish people had this severe affliction: it severed them from the public worship of God and exposed them to idolatry. Thus David complains, they have driven me out this day from abiding in the inheritance of the Lord, saying, go serve other gods (1 Samuel 26:19).

The restoration, then, of individual members, or of smaller groups of captives, was, at that time, an unspeakable mercy. It was the restoration of those excluded from the worship of God; and so was an image of the deliverance from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the sons of God (Romans 8:21), or of any return of those who had gone astray, to the Shepherd and Bishop of their souls (1 Peter 2:25).

The grievous captivity of the Jews is now to Satan, whose servants they made themselves when they said, we have no king but Caesar; His Blood be upon us and upon our children.

Their blessed deliverance will be from the power of Satan unto God (Acts 26:18). It is certain from Paul (Romans 11:26) that there will be a complete conversion of the Jews before the end of the world, as indeed has always been believed.

This will probably occur shortly before the end of the world. God’s meaning here would be: “When I will have brought to an end the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, (that is, of that people to whom were the promises (Romans 9:4)), and will have delivered them from the bondage of sin and from blindness to light and freedom in Christ, then I will gather all nations to judgment.”