Bible Strands
Joel 3:6
You sold the people of Judah and Jerusalem to the Greeks, to send them far from their homeland.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — The prophet delivers God’s indictment to Judah and Jerusalem, condemning their commercial betrayal of their own people immediately before announcing God’s counter-action.
The words — The Hebrew verb מְכַרְתֶּ֖ם (me.khar.Tem) literally means "you sold," and the phrase לִ/בְנֵ֣י הַ/יְּוָנִ֑ים (li/v.Nei hai./ye.va.Nim) specifies the purchasers as "the people of the Greeks."
The thread — This transaction mirrors Joel 3:3, where Israel is bartered for silver and wine, and aligns with Ezekiel 27:13, which names Javan as a merchant trading slaves.
Why it lands — The text establishes that human trafficking of kinship provokes divine accounting, requiring the reader to accept that God will reverse the sale and exact recompense.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Hebrew words
King James Version
The children also of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the Grecians, that ye might remove them far from their border.
Cross-references
- Ezekiel 27:13 Javan, Tubal, and Meshech were your merchants. They exchanged slaves and bronze utensils for your merchandise.
- Joel 3:3 They cast lots for My people; they bartered a boy for a prostitute and sold a girl for wine to drink.
- Deuteronomy 28:68 The LORD will return you to Egypt in ships by a route that I said you should never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.”
- Joel 3:8 I will sell your sons and daughters into the hands of the people of Judah, and they will sell them to the Sabeans—to a distant nation.” Indeed, the LORD has spoken.
- Deuteronomy 28:32 Your sons and daughters will be given to another nation, while your eyes grow weary looking for them day after day, with no power in your hand.