You have taken my silver and gold and all my precious treasures, and have carried them off to your pagan 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:
- BSB For you took My silver and gold and carried off My finest treasures to your temples.
- 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,
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 24:13He carried out from there all the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and the treasures of the king’s house, and cut in pieces all the vessels of gold, which Solomon king of Israel had made in Yahweh’s temple, as Yahweh had said.
- 2 Chr 21:16–17Yahweh stirred up against Jehoram the spirit of the Philistines, and of the Arabians who are beside the Ethiopians;
- 2 Kgs 18:15–16Hezekiah gave him all the silver that was found in Yahweh’s house, and in the treasures of the king’s house.
- 2 Kgs 12:18Jehoash king of Judah took all the holy things that Jehoshaphat and Jehoram and Ahaziah, his fathers, kings of Judah, had dedicated, and his own holy things, and all the gold that was found in the treasures of Yahweh’s house, and of the king’s house, and sent it to Hazael king of Syria; and he went away from Jerusalem.
- 2 Kgs 16:8Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in Yahweh’s house, and in the treasures of the king’s house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria.
- Jer 51:11“Make the arrows sharp! Hold the shields firmly! Yahweh has stirred up the spirit of the kings of the Medes, because his purpose is against Babylon, to destroy it; for it is the vengeance of Yahweh, the vengeance of his temple.
- Dan 5:2–3Belshazzar, while he tasted the wine, commanded to bring the golden and silver vessels which Nebuchadnezzar his father had taken out of the temple which was in Jerusalem; that the king and his lords, his wives and his concubines, might drink from them.
- Jer 50:28Listen to those who flee and escape out of the land of Babylon, to declare in Zion the vengeance of Yahweh our God, the vengeance of his temple.
- 1 Sam 5:2–5The Philistines took God’s ark, and brought it into the house of Dagon, and set it by Dagon.
- 2 Kgs 25:13–17The Chaldeans broke up the pillars of brass that were in Yahweh’s house and the bases and the bronze sea that were in Yahweh’s house, and carried the brass pieces to Babylon.
- Dan 11:38But in his place shall he honor the god of fortresses; and a god whom his fathers didn’t know shall he honor with gold, and silver, and with precious stones, and pleasant things.
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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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