Joel 3:4

Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine?.... The Tyrians, Zidonians, and Philistines, were near neighbours of the Jews, and implacable enemies to them;

Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence?

What have ye to do with me? what just cause of quarrel have you against me? Have I done you any wrong which now you avenge upon my people? or do you begin to violate the law of neighbourhood and friendship, and think to escape? Do ye think you have to do with a poor oppressed people, my people, and I nothing concerned at it? Tyre, a great mart town, which neighbour to the Jews, and ought to be friends, either joined forces with the enemy against them, or, retaining friendship with the enemy, bought the Jews for slaves, and sold them again to strangers, to Grecians: this, in his man trade, Tyre was accustomed to, . Zidon, a famous ancient emporium, whose merchants also bought up captive Jews at cheap rates of these barbarous soldiers. All the coasts of Palestine, which lay along the midland sea, among which were towns of trade, and merchants that bought and sold these captives. Will ye render me a recompence? Do ye this by way of reprisal? Have I or my people so dealt with you or yours? Speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head; I will, since you deal so with my people, and with me, certainly and speedily avenge myself and my people on you; as you have used them they shall use you. It is probable this may refer to the Assyrian invasion, when Sennacherib took all the fenced cities of Judah, and might sell the captives, or to Shalmaneser’ s time’ , when he captured the ten tribes; or it may be a prediction of what Tyre, and Zidon, and these cities of Palestine would do in the Babylonish successes, and a threat what God would do against them for it; but to whatever particular history it refer, who sees not this in it, that God will plead the cause of his oppressed church, and avenge it as his own cause?

Joe 3:4 Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, and Zidon, and all the coasts of Palestine? will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, swiftly [and] speedily will I return your recompence upon your own head;Ver. 4. Yea, and what have ye to do with me, O Tyre, &c.] Or, what are ye to me? I value you not, but look upon you as vile persons, how great soever in the world. See Daniel 11:21. Or, what have I to do with you? What wrong have I done you that ye invade my land and molest my subjects? It is an idle misprision to sever the sense of an injury done to any of his members, from the head, and it was a malapert demand of the devil, "What have I to do with thee, O Jesus, the Son of the living God?" while he vexed a servant of his. But there is an old enmity between them and their seed, Genesis 3:15, and it will never be extinct while the world stands. Israel had given Tyre and Zidon as little cause to quarrel them, as once they had done Moab, whom they had assured that they would not meddle nor molest them. Howbeit, "Moab was distressed," or irked, fretted, vexed at them, Numbers 22:3, carried with satanical malice against God’ s people, because of a different religion, and sought their ruin. Lo, this was the case of Tyre, Zidon, and Palestine, near neighbours, but bitter enemies to the Church. Bats fly against the light. Malice breaks all bonds, and vents itself by utmost inhumanity. Mercer understandeth by those nations, Joe 3:2-3, the open and professed enemies of the Church, and by these neighbouring peoples here mentioned, those more subtle adversaries, that pretend love, and can draw a fair glove upon a foul hand, but will take the first opportunity to do the saints a mischief, and to spit their poison at them. This is an old stratagem of the devil, still practised by the renegade Jesuits among us. Will ye render me a recompence? and if ye recompense me, &c.] Num meritum mihi refertis, an etiam infertis? so some render it. While ye afflict my people, is it to be avenged on me, for an old injury I have done you? or is it rather to pick a quarrel with me, who have done you no wrong? Surely, whether it be this or the other, I shall handle you according to your deserts. Swiftly and speedily will I return your recompence] Repente e vestigio, while you will say, what is this? I will execute my fierce wrath upon you, and you shall soon feel what it is despitefully to spit in the face of Heaven, and to wrestle a fall with the Almighty: see Obadiah 1:15. God cannot bear long with sins of this high nature: he resisteth the proud persecutors.

(4) What have ye to do with me?—Rather, What are ye to me? God, identifying Himself with His people, threatens retaliation upon their enemies for the wrongs they had inflicted upon them. Tyre and Zidon had oppressed the Jews in the time of the judges, and would do so again: the Philistines also were to the last the inveterate enemies of Israel; but in the end, could they measure strength with God?

Verse 4. What have ye to do with me] Why have the Tyrians and Sidonians joined their other enemies to oppress my people? for they who touch my people touch me. Will ye render me a recompense?] Do you think by this to avenge yourselves upon the Almighty? to retaliate upon God! Proceed, and speedily will I return your recompense; I will retaliate.

4–8. The Phoenicians and Philistines are here singled out as the nations which have sinned especially against Israel: they have not only enriched their own palaces with the plunder of Judah, but have also sold Judahite captives into slavery to the Greeks; a swift and just retribution is accordingly pronounced against them.

Yea, and what have ye to do with Me? - Literally, “and also, what are ye to Me?” The words, “And also,” show that this is something additional to the deeds of those before spoken of.

4-8. The prophet turns aside for a moment to address the nations who had been especially hostile to the Jews; he points out their special wrongdoings and promises to them swift and righteous retribution for their crimes.