Joel 3:5 - Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible

Bible Comments

Ye have taken My silver and My gold - Not the silver and gold of the temple, (as some have thought.) At least, up to the prophet’s time, they had not done this. For the inroad of the Philistines in the reign of Jehoram was, apparently, a mere marauding expedition, in which they killed and plundered, but are not said to have besieged or taken any city, much less Jerusalem. God calls “the silver and gold” which He, through His Providence, had bestowed on Judah, “My” gold and silver; as He said by Hosea Hosea 2:8.

“She knew not that I multiplied her silver and gold, whereof she made Baal;” and by Haggai, “The silver is Mine, and the gold is Mine, saith the Lord of Hosts” Haggai 2:8. For they were His people, and what they had, they held of Him; and the Philistines too so accounted it, and dedicated a part of it to their idols, as they had the ark formerly, accounting the victory over God’s people to be the triumph of their idols over God.

Joel 3:5

5 Because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my goodly pleasant things: