The Future Felicity of Judah Contrasted with the Desolation of her Oppressors. In that golden age when Yahweh shall dwell in Zion miraculous fertility shall transform the land, covering it with vineyards and pastures. The watercourses, now treacherous because in the heat they become dry beds of sand, shall then be brimming with perennial streams. From the Temple shall issue a spring which shall pass through the Wady of the Acacias. Egypt the oldest of Judah's oppressors and Edom most bitterly hated of her later foes shall be destroyed and become desert; but Judah shall be inhabited for ever, and Yahweh shall dwell eternally (so render dwelleth) in Zion.
Joel 3:18. valley of Shittim: rather, Wady of the Acacias. Probably not the name of a definite gorge, but typical; the place-names of this chapter are of the same kind as those used by Bunyan. Acacias grow in arid regions. Cf. for the whole conception, Ezekiel 47:1-12, upon which it is based.
Joel 3:19. because. land: a gloss.
Joel 3:21. Possibly we should read, And I will avenge their blood (which) I have not avenged, but the clause seems to be a gloss.