Joel 3:3–6

3:3 and they cast lots for my people.

They traded8 a boy for a prostitute;

they sold a little girl for wine so they could drink.9

3:4 Why are you doing these things to me, Tyre and Sidon?10

Are you trying to get even with me, land of Philistia?11

I will very quickly repay you for what you have done!12

3:5 For you took my silver and my gold

and brought my precious valuables to your own palaces.13

3:6 You sold Judeans and Jerusalemites to the Greeks,

removing them far from their own country.14

8	tn Heb “gave.”
9	sn Heb “and they drank.” Joel vividly refers to a situation where innocent human life has little value; its only worth is its use in somehow satisfying selfish appetites of wicked people who have control over others (cf. Amos 2:6 and 8:6).
10	tn Heb “What [are] you [doing] to me, O Tyre and Sidon?”
11	tn Or “districts.”
12	tn Heb “quickly, speedily, I will return your recompense on your head.” This is an idiom for retributive justice and an equitable reversal of situation.
13	tn Or perhaps, “temples.”
14	tn Heb “border.”