For you took My silver and gold and carried off My finest treasures to your temples.
Parallel translations
- WEB Because you have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried my finest treasures into your temples,
- KJV Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things:
- NKJV Because you have taken My silver and My gold, And have carried into your temples My prized possessions.
- NASB Since you have taken My silver and My gold, brought My precious treasures to your temples,
- NLT You have taken my silver and gold and all my precious treasures, and have carried them off to your pagan temples.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
The nations are condemned for plundering God's silver, gold, and treasures and placing them in their temples. They robbed God's people and dishonored Him with the spoils.
Overview
Joel charges the nations with looting Judah's wealth and even its sacred treasures, carrying them into pagan temples. This was not only theft but an affront to Yahweh himself. The verse underscores that wrongs done to God's people are wrongs done to God, and that He will hold accountable all who plunder and dishonor what belongs to Him.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 11
- 2 Kgs 24:13As the LORD had declared, Nebuchadnezzar also carried off all the treasures from the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and he cut into pieces all the gold articles that Solomon king of Israel had made in the temple of the LORD.
- 2 Chr 21:16–17Then the LORD stirred against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines and Arabs who lived near the Cushites.
- 2 Kgs 18:15–16Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the royal palace.
- 2 Kgs 12:18So King Joash of Judah took all the sacred objects dedicated by his fathers—Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, and Ahaziah, the kings of Judah—along with his own consecrated items and all the gold found in the treasuries of the house of the LORD and the royal palace, and he sent them to Hazael king of Aram. So Hazael withdrew from Jerusalem.
- 2 Kgs 16:8Ahaz also took the silver and gold found in the house of the LORD and in the treasuries of the king’s palace, and he sent it as a gift to the king of Assyria.
- Jer 51:11Sharpen the arrows! Fill the quivers! The LORD has aroused the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because His plan is aimed at Babylon to destroy her, for it is the vengeance of the LORD—vengeance for His temple.
- Dan 5:2–3Under the influence of the wine, Belshazzar gave orders to bring in the gold and silver vessels that Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, so that the king could drink from them, along with his nobles, his wives, and his concubines.
- Jer 50:28Listen to the fugitives and refugees from the land of Babylon, declaring in Zion the vengeance of the LORD our God, the vengeance for His temple.
- 1 Sam 5:2–5carried it into the temple of Dagon, and set it beside his statue.
- 2 Kgs 25:13–17Moreover, the Chaldeans broke up the bronze pillars and stands and the bronze Sea in the house of the LORD, and they carried the bronze to Babylon.
- Dan 11:38And in their place, he will honor a god of fortresses—a god his fathers did not know—with gold, silver, precious stones, and riches.
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Christ at the center
The promised outpouring of the Spirit on all flesh and the call to 'everyone who calls on the name of the LORD' are fulfilled at Pentecost in the name of Jesus.
How Joel 3:5 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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