The Glorious Future: Joel ends his book by portraying the glorious future that awaits the people of God. Their enemies have been destroyed, and peace reigns on the earth (cf. Ps. 46:8–11). In the place of the catastrophes that they knew in the past, they have become inheritors of abundant life. Indeed, Joel’s portrayals of that life, borrowing partially from Amos 9:13, pick up the themes of his first chapter and show their exact opposite. Once the sweet, new wine was cut off from Judah (1:5), but now the mountainsides with their vineyards will yield it in abundance. Once the cattle gave no milk, because there was no pasture for them (1:18), but now in God’s kingdom abundant pastureland on the hills will ensure copious supply. Once, in the drought, there was no water (1:17–20), but now even the dry wadis of Judah will be filled abundantly. More than that, a fountain will flow forth from the temple and water the dry Valley of the Acacias.

In referring to the river issuing forth from the temple, Joel is once again picking up a prophetic theme from the past and envisioning its fulfillment in the future (cf. Ezek. 47:1–12; Zech. 14:8; Ps. 46:4; Rev. 22:1–2). Joel is similarly drawing on the prophetic theme used earlier in Isaiah 55:1–3, in which wine, milk, and water depicted God’s salvation.

3:18–19 As the NIV points out in a footnote, Joel 3:18 reads literally in the Hebrew, “the Valley of Shittim,” which is that deep and rocky portion of the Kidron Valley or wadi that begins northwest of Jerusalem, bends around east of the city, and then continues through a deep gorge southeast toward the Dead Sea. Usually the valley is dry, but acacias grew in abundance in its dry soil in biblical times, and the valley was often named the Wadi or Valley of the Acacias, as the NIV has correctly interpreted.

The OT, rarely is satisfied with generalities. When it pictures all of Israel’s former enemies destroyed, it must also specifically name two, in verse 19. The mention of water, in verse 18, brings to mind the enemy Egypt, which was so abundantly supplied with the waters of the Nile. Thus, in the reversal of Israel’s fortunes, plentifully watered Egypt will become dry and desolate. The mention of the continuing inhabitation of Judah in verse 20 connects with the thought of Edom, who took advantage of the fall and exile of Judah and Jerusalem to Babylon in 587 BC (cf. Obad.). In the reversal brought in the kingdom of God, Edom will become a desert without inhabitants, verse 19. Verses 18, 19, and 20 are all linked closely together. Moreover, Egypt and Edom are typically named in earlier prophetic oracles against the foreign nations (cf. Ezek. 30–32; Jer. 46; Isa. 34), and Joel is indicating that no prophetic word concerning the day of the Lord will be left unfulfilled in the future.

3:21 Verse 21 is perplexing in this context and has been variously translated and interpreted (see the additional note below). The NRSV takes the meaning to be that God will avenge the slaying of the Israelites by their enemies. If that is the proper interpretation, then the line may belong after verse 19, as many scholars have suggested. On the other hand, the NIV understands the verse as referring to God’s forgiveness of the people for their bloodguilt, i.e., for their shedding of innocent blood, but such a thought has appeared nowhere else in Joel and is intrusive here. One can either omit the line, or place it after verse 19, with the NRSV’s reading, or confess inability to deal with it. This commentator would choose the latter course. Perhaps some day the meaning will be clear, but it is not at this time, and we sometimes have to acknowledge our inability to deal with the word until God sheds further light.

The most important statement in verse 21 is that with which the verse ends, however: The LORD will dwell in Zion. And surely it is to be read in the future tense. Joel looks forward to the Kingdom of God, when God’s enemies will have been eliminated from the earth, when abundant life will be given to his people, and when the Lord will dwell in the midst of his faithful people, bound to them by an everlasting covenant. The vision is really one of Genesis 17:7–8 fully fulfilled.

Additional Note

3:21 The LXX reads “And I will avenge their blood, and will not leave it unavenged,” a reading presupposed also by the Syr. and Tg. On the basis of manuscript evidence, the NRSV approaches the proper meaning: “I will avenge their blood, and I will not clear the guilty.” The Hb. is: “And I will avenge their blood not avenged.” Perhaps the v. should be moved to the end of v. 19 to form a meditation on the shedding of innocent blood, v. 19d.