Joel 3:10

"Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruning-hooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong.

This passage was once cited by President Truman when a group of five preachers called upon him during the Korean war and were received in the White House office. Some of the area preachers in Washington, D.C. had been preaching from the contrasting passage in Isaiah 2:4 about beating swords into plowshares, etc.; and the President, asked, "Why don't you preachers preach all the Bible?" He then turned to this passage and read from the Bible (which had just been presented to him), from this very verse, adding, "I don't think these are minor prophets at all; some of the most important things in the Bible are found in these short books." It was this writer's privilege to share in that visit and the President's words regarding the minor prophets have always been remembered as solemn truth.

Here again, one encounters the notion that the origin of this verse was in Isaiah, and that Joel was merely giving a "parody of what that prophet wrote";[18] and such an idea fits in nicely with opinions of a late post-exilic date; but the student should see again the comments under Joel 2:32, above, for a discussion of the true origin of prophetic statements. There is absolutely no evidence whatever that either Isaiah or Joel quoted the other in these passages; as a matter of fact, if either of them had done so, he would have said so. "For Jehovah hath spoken it" (Joel 3:8) is a frequently recurring note in this prophecy.

Rather than being a command upon the part of the Lord that the nations of earth should arm for war, it would appear to be a prophecy of what they will, through their wickedness, actually do, converting the total economy of their societies to the making of instruments of destruction, even the humblest implements of agriculture being also involved in the perversion. Is not this a perfect picture of what is going on in the world at this very time? Conditions symbolized by this are a prelude to the great and final judgment itself. The language would appear to be similar to that which is said in Revelation 22:11:

"He that is unrighteousness, let him do unrighteousness still:

And he that is filthy, let him be made filthy still:

And he that is righteous, let him do righteousness still:

And he that is holy, let him be made holy still ...

BEHOLD I COME QUICKLY!"

What is indicated by such words as our verse (Joel 3:10), and also by this N.T. quotation, is that the time of the Final Judgment has almost arrived; and there is no need whatever for nations of the earth, which have hardly ever done anything else except prepare for war, to make any significant change; it is too late for that. The immediate reference in this very short paragraph in Joel 3:12 and Joel 3:13 to the "sickle" of judgment, and the "winepress" of God's wrath strongly supports this impression. The time indicated by Joel's words here is near the close of the era when, denying the benign teachings of the Saviour's kingdom, men shall beat plowshares into swords, etc.: it comes at a time when the final and irrevocable rebellion of all mankind shall be approaching its climax.

Myers gave a spiritual interpretation of this verse, reading it as equal to, "What Amos said to Israel, `Prepare to meet your God (Amos 4:12).' The military terms employed to accentuate the seriousness of the conflict must not be allowed to obscure the real meaning."[19] Without doubt, this is an acceptable understanding of this place; but our own preference favors the view given above.