Joel 3:7
What does Joel 3:7 mean?
A plain-English look at Joel 3:7 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What Joel 3:7 means
God declares His counter-move: He will stir His people from the very places of their sale and “return your recompense upon your own head.” No ocean lane, slave market, or foreign court can block His hand. He not only sees; He acts to reverse. The phrase “stir them up” suggests awakening the scattered and energizing their return. Justice here is not abstract—it is restorative and retributive. Those who profited by selling God’s children will pay in kind. Divine retribution fits the crime, and God Himself ensures the reckoning, demonstrating His lordship over nations, commerce, and the destinies of His people.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000behold, I will stir them up out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head;
KJV
King James Version · 1611Behold, I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompence upon your own head:
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901behold, I will stir them up out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head;
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949See, I will have them moved from the place where you have sent them, and will let what you have done come back on your head;
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862Lo, I am stirring them up out of the place Whither ye have sold them, And I have turned back your recompence on your head,
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752Behold, I will raise them up out of the place wherein you have sold them: and I will return your recompense upon your own heads.
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890Behold, I will raise them up out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will bring your recompence upon your own head.
Context
After listing transgressions, Joel turns to promised justice. Verse 7 answers the dispersal of verse 6 with a decisive reversal engineered by God. It sets up the measure-for-measure principle that becomes explicit in verse 8, where the traffickers’ own families face sale under Judah’s hand. Together, these verses transition from accusation to sentence.
v.6and 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;
v.7This passage
v.8and 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.
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Matthew 7:2
For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured unto you.
- Jeremiah 31:8
Behold, I will bring them from the north country, and gather them from the uttermost parts of the earth, and with them the blind and the lame, the woman with child and her that travaileth with child together: a great company shall they return hither.
- 2 Thessalonians 1:6
if so be that it is a righteous thing with God to recompense affliction to them that afflict you,
- James 2:13
For judgment is without mercy to him that hath showed no mercy: mercy glorieth against judgment.
- Ezekiel 38:8
After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, that is gathered out of many peoples, upon the mountains of Israel, which have been a continual waste; but it is brought forth out of the peoples, and they shall dwell securely, all of them.
- Ezekiel 36:24
For I will take you from among the nations, and gather you out of all the countries, and will bring you into your own land.
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