3:1 For, behold, in a those days, and in that time, when I
shall bring again the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem,
(a) When I will deliver my Church, which consists of both
Jews and Gentiles.
3:2 I will also gather all nations, and will bring them down
into the b valley of Jehoshaphat, and will plead with them
there for my people and [for] my heritage Israel, whom they
have scattered among the nations, and parted my land.
(b) It appears that he alludes to the great victory of
Jehoshaphat, whom God used without man's help to destroy
the enemies, (2Ch 20:20-26); also he is referring
to this word Jehoshaphat, which signifies pleading or
judgment, because God would judge the enemies of his
Church, as he did there.
3:3 And they have cast lots for my people; and have c given a
boy for an harlot, and sold a girl for wine, that they might
drink.
(c) That which the enemy received for the sale of my people,
they bestowed upon harlots and drink.
3:4 Yea, and d what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon,
and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me e a
recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly [and] speedily
will I return your recompence upon your own head;
(d) He takes the cause of his Church in hand against the
enemy, as though the injury were done to himself.
(e) Have I done you wrong, that you will render me the same?
3:8 And I will sell your sons and your daughters into the hand
of the children of Judah, and they f shall sell them to
the Sabeans, to a people far off: for the LORD hath spoken
[it].
(f) For afterward God sold them by Nebuchadnezzar and
Alexander the Great, because of the love he had for his
people, and by this they were comforted, as though they
themselves had sold them.
3:10g Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks
into spears: let the weak say, I [am] strong.
(g) When I will execute my judgments against my enemies, I
will cause everyone to be ready, and to prepare their
weapons to destroy one another, for my Church's sake.
3:13 Put ye in the h sickle, for the harvest is ripe: come,
get you down; for the press is full, the fats overflow; for
their wickedness [is] great.
(h) In this way he will encourage the enemies when their
wickedness is completely ripe to destroy one another,
which he calls the valley of God's judgment.
3:16 The LORD also shall roar out of Zion, and utter his voice
from Jerusalem; and the heavens and the earth shall shake:
but the LORD [will be] the i hope of his people, and the
strength of the children of Israel.
(i) God assures his own against all trouble, that when he
destroys his enemies, his children will be delivered.
3:17 So shall ye know that I [am] the LORD your God dwelling in
Zion, my holy mountain: then shall Jerusalem be holy, and
there shall no strangers pass k through her any more.
(k) The strangers will no longer destroy his Church: and if
they do, it is the fault of the people, who by their
sins make the breach for the enemy.
3:18 And it shall come to pass in that day, [that] the mountains
shall l drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with
milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters,
and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD,
and shall water the valley of Shittim.
(l) He promises to his Church abundance of graces,
(see Geneva "Eze 47:1"), which would water and comfort
the most barren places; (Am 9:13).
3:19m Egypt shall be a desolation, and Edom shall be a
desolate wilderness, for the violence [against] the
children of Judah, because they have shed innocent blood in
their land.
(m) The malicious enemies will have no part of these graces.
3:21 For I will n cleanse their blood [that] I have not
cleansed: for the LORD dwelleth in Zion.
(n) He had allowed his Church before this to lie in their
filthiness, but now he promises to cleanse them and to
make them pure unto himself.
