John Calvin Commentary Joel 3:8

"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 Jehovah hath spoken it." — Joel 3:8 (ASV)

The Prophet describes here a wonderful change: the Syrians and Sidonians sold the Jews; but who will be the seller now? God himself will take this office—I, he says, will sell your children, as if he said, “The Jews will subdue you and reduce you to bondage”—by whose authority? “It will be as if they bought you from my hands.” He means that this servitude would be legitimate.

Thus, he makes the Jews different from the Syrians and Sidonians, who had been violent robbers and had unjustly seized what was not their own. And so the manner of the sale is described this way: “I myself will be the author of this change, and the thing will be done by my authority, as if I had interposed my own name.” And the Jews themselves will sell, he says, your sons and your daughters to the Sabeans, a distant nation, that is, the people of the East.

For the Prophet, I do not doubt, by mentioning a part for the whole, meant here to designate Eastern nations, such as the Persians and Medes. But he says that the Tyrians and Sidonians will be driven to the most distant countries, for the Sabeans were very far distant from the Phoenician Sea and were known as being very near the Indians.

But it may be asked here: When has God executed this judgment? For the Jews never possessed such power as to be able to subdue neighboring nations and to sell them as they pleased to unknown merchants. It would indeed be foolish and childish to insist here on a literal fulfillment.

At the same time, I do not say that the Prophet speaks allegorically, for I am inclined to keep from allegories, as there is nothing sound or solid in them. But I must still say that figurative language is used here when it is said that the Syrians and Sidonians will be sold and driven here and there into distant countries, and that this will be done for the sake of God’s chosen people and his Church, as if the Jews were to be the sellers.

When God says, “I will sell,” it does not mean that he is to descend from heaven for the purpose of selling, but that he will execute judgment on them. Then the second clause—that they will be sold by the Jews—derives its meaning from the first; and this cannot be a common sale, as if the Jews were to receive a price and make merchandise of them.

But God declares that the Jews would be the sellers because in this manner he signifies his vengeance for the wrong done to them; that is, by selling them to the Sabeans, a distant nation. We further know that the changes which then followed were such that God turned nearly the whole world upside down, for he drove the Syrians and the Sidonians to the most distant countries.

No one could have thought that this was done for the sake of the Jews, who were hated and abominated by all. But yet God declares that he would do this from regard for his Church, even selling the Syrians and the Sidonians, though it was commonly unknown to men; for it was the hidden judgment of God.

But the faithful who had already been taught that God would do this were reminded by the event how precious his heritage is to God, since he avenges those wrongs, the memory of which had long before been buried. This then is the meaning of the whole. The Prophet now adds—