John Calvin Commentary Joel 3:4-6

"Yea, and what are ye to me, O Tyre, and Sidon, and all the regions of Philistia? will ye render me a recompense? and if ye recompense me, swiftly and speedily will I return your recompense upon your own head. Forasmuch as ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly precious things, and have sold the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem unto the sons of the Grecians, that ye may remove them far from their border;" — Joel 3:4-6 (ASV)

God expostulates here with Tyre and Sidon, and other neighboring nations, and shows that they harassed His people without cause. If they had 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 by these words.

What do you have to do with Me, O Tyre and Sidon? He indeed continues the subject previously explained, but He speaks of the concern here as His own. He seems not now to undertake the protection of His own people, but defends His own cause. “What do you have 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 for unjustly wronging His people and bringing many troubles on those who deserved no such things, but also that He Himself stood up in His own defense.

“What do I have 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 harder to bear.

“What then do you have to do with Me, O Syrians and Sidonians? Do I owe anything to you? Am I under any obligation to you? Are you repaying Me My recompense?” That is, “Can you boast of any reason or just pretext 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. “You do not repay,” He says, “a recompense to Me; for you cannot pretend that any wrong has been done to you by Me.”

But if you repay this to Me, He says, I will swiftly return the recompense on your head. The word גמל gimel means not only to repay, as the Hebrew scholars always 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 translation, but it is an improper and inconsistent way 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?’ So, one who first does wrong, or bestows good, is said to ‘recompense’; and this is the meaning here.

If you deal with Me in this way, He says, “swiftly,” מהרה mere, suddenly (for the word is to be taken as an adverb), I will return recompense on your head. That is, “You shall not be unpunished, since you have acted so unjustly toward Me and My people.”

We now perceive the Prophet's entire meaning: He magnifies the crime of the Syrians and Sidonians because they willfully distressed the Jews and joined themselves to their foreign enemies to seize a part of the spoil. Since, then, their nearness did not soften their hearts, their inhumanity was thereby more fully proven. But, as I have said, the Lord here places Himself between the two parties to indicate that He performs His own proper office when He ensures the safety of His Church.

He afterwards shows that this wickedness should not be unpunished: If you deal with Me in this way, He says, I shall swiftly (suddenly) return the recompense on your heads. This passage contains a remarkable consolation, for God declares that whatever evils the faithful endure are His concern. He also declares that He will not allow those under His protection and defense to be distressed without punishment, but will quickly return recompense on the heads of those who unjustly injure His heritage.

We now understand the Prophet’s design: He undoubtedly intended to support the minds of the godly with this thought: their afflictions are God's concern, and He will shortly be their avenger, however necessary it may be for them to be violently and reproachfully treated by wicked men for a time.

Let us now proceed: He says that their silver and their gold had been taken away by the Syrians and the Sidonians. All who were the neighbors of that people, no doubt, derived gain from their calamity, as is usually the case. They were at first ill-disposed toward them; then there was a new temptation; they eagerly sought plunder, and they openly showed themselves their enemies when they saw that there was hope of gain.

Such was the case with the Syrians and Sidonians. There is no doubt that they diligently courted the favor of the Assyrians, helping them with provisions and other things, so that they might share in the spoil. It was, therefore, no wonder that gold and silver were taken away by them, for transporting them to Assyria would have been tedious. And, as I have just hinted, it is usually the case that conquerors gratify those by whom they have been assisted.

Many extend this plunder generally to the whole wealth of the people; that is, that the enemies plundered what gold and silver there was in Judea, and that the Sidonians got a portion of it for themselves. But there seems to have been a special complaint that the sacred vessels of the temple were taken away by the Syrians and Sidonians. I therefore prefer to render the word as ‘temples,’ rather than ‘palaces.’

Some say, ‘You have carried away My silver and My gold to your palaces.’ Though the word is capable of two meanings, the Prophet, I have no doubt, refers here to the temples. The Syrians, then, and the Sidonians profaned the silver and gold of the temple by dedicating them to their idols; they adorned their idols with spoils taken from the only true God.

This was the reason why God was so extremely displeased. There was, indeed, a cause why God, as we have said, contended for the whole nation of Israel. But it was a far more grievous wrong to spoil the temple, to strip it of its ornaments, and then to adorn idols with its sacred vessels. For God was thus treated with scorn; and in contempt of Him, the Syrians and Sidonians built, as it were, a trophy of victory in their own dens, where they performed sacrilegious acts in worshipping false gods.

You have taken away, He says, My gold and My silver, and My desirable good things. God speaks here in a human way, for it is certain that even under the Law He stood in no need of gold or silver, or of other precious things. He wished the temple to be adorned with vessels and other valuable furniture for the sake of the ignorant (rudis—unlearned) people, for the Jews could not have been preserved in pure and right worship if God had not assisted their weak faith with these aids (adminiculis—props, aids).

But yet, as obedience is acceptable to Him, He says that whatever was an ornament in the temple was a desirable thing to Him. At the same time, by speaking thus, He took on, as I have said, a character not His own, as He has no need of such things, nor is He delighted with them.

We ought not, indeed, to imagine God to be like a child, who takes delight in gold and silver and such things. But what is said here was intended for the benefit of the people, so that they might know that God approved of that worship, for it was according to His command. He therefore calls everything that was in the temple desirable: You have, He says, carried away into your temples My desirable good things.

It follows, And the children of Judah, and the children of Jerusalem, you have sold to the children of the Grecians. Here another complaint is added: that the Syrians and Sidonians had been sacrilegious toward God and had cruelly treated God's afflicted people. In the last verse, God denounced the Syrians and Sidonians for having debased the gold and silver stolen from Him by offering it to their idols. He now returns to the Jews themselves, who, He says, had been sold to the children of the Grecians; that is, to people beyond the sea. For as Javan extended into Europe, He includes under that name the nations beyond the sea.

And He says that they sold the Jews to the Greeks so that they might drive them far from their own borders, so that there would be no hope of return. Here the cruelty of the Syrians and Sidonians becomes more evident; for they took care to drive those wretched men far away, so that no return to their country might be open to them, but that they might be wholly banished from their country.

We now perceive what the Prophet had in view: He intended that the faithful, though trodden underfoot by the nations, should yet have their grief eased by some consolation, and know that they were not neglected by God. And that though He overlooked their suffering for a time, He would yet be their defender and would defend them as His own heritage, because they had been so unjustly treated. He afterwards adds—