Attributed commentary excerpt
Barnes' Notes on Joel 3:21
A historical reference excerpt for this verse. Read it alongside the biblical text and other available sources.
Notes on the Whole Bible
Albert Barnes (1798–1870) · 19th-century historical commentary
Source: BibleWord.ai's local reference edition of this named work.
For I will cleanse her blood that I have not cleansed - The word rendered “cleansed” is not used of natural cleansing, nor is the image taken from the cleansing of the body. The word signifies only to pronounce innocent, or to free from guilt. Nor is “blood” used of sinfulness generally, but only of the actual guilt of shedding blood. The whole then cannot be an image taken from the cleansing of physical defilement, like the words in the prophet Ezekiel, “then washed I thee with water; yea, I thoroughly washed away thy blood from thee” Ezekiel 16:9. Nor again can it mean the forgiveness of sins generally, but only the pronouncing innocent the blood which had been shed. This, the only meaning of the words, fall in with the mention of the “innocent blood,” for shedding which, Egypt and Edom had been condemned. The words are the same. There it was said, “because they have shed innocent blood; dam naki;” here, “I will pronounce innocent their blood, nikkethi damam.” “How,” it is not said. But the sentence on Egypt and Edom explains how God would do it, by punishing those who shed it. For in that He punishes the shedding of it, He declared the “blood” innocent, whose shedding He punished. So in the Revelation it is said, “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held, and they cried with a loud voice, saying, How long, O Lord, holy and true, dost Thou not judge and avenge our blood on them that dwell on the earth?” Revelation 6:10-11. : “Then, at the last judgment, when the truth in all things shall be made manifest, He shall “declare the blood” of His people, who clave to Him and His truth, which blood their enemies thought they had shed justly and deservedly as the blood of guilty persons, to have indeed been innocent, by absorbing them from eternal destruction to which He shall then adjudge their enemies for shedding of it.” For - (literally and) the Lord dwelleth in Zion He closes with the promise of God’s abiding dwelling. He speaks, not simply of a future, but of an ever-abiding present. He who is, the unchangeable God , “the Lord, infinite in power and of eternal Being, who gives necessary being to all His purposes and promises,” dwelleth now in “Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem” (Hebrews 12:22; add Galatians 4:26; Revelation 3:12; Revelation 14:1; Revelation 21:2, Revelation 21:10), now by grace and the presence of His Holy Spirit, hereafter in glory. Both of the Church militant on earth and that triumphant in heaven, it is truly to be said, that the Lord dwelleth in them, and that, perpetually. Of the Church on earth will be verified what our Saviour Christ saith, “lo I am with you always, even unto the end of the world” Matthew 28:20; and of its members Paul saith, that “they” are “of the household of God, an holy temple in the Lord, in whom they are builded together for an habitation of God through the Spirit” Ephesians 2:19, Ephesians 2:21-22. Of the Church triumphant, there is no doubt, that “He” doth and will there dwell, and manifest His glorious presence forever, “in” whose “presence is the fullness of joy, and at His Right Hand” there are “pleasures for evermore” Psa 16:1-11 :12. It is an eternal dwelling of the Eternal, varied as to the way and degree of His presence by our condition, now imperfect, there perfected in Him; but He Himself dwelleth on for ever. He, the Unchangeable, dwelleth unchangeably; the Eternal, eternal…
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