Joel 3:5 (DBY)

Passage

because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my beautiful pleasant things,

Nearby Context

Joel 3:3 and they have cast lots for my people, and have given a boy for a harlot, and sold a girl for wine, and have drunk [it].

Joel 3:4 Yea also, what have ye to do with me, O Tyre and Zidon, and all the districts of Philistia? Will ye render me a recompence? But if ye recompense me, swiftly [and] speedily will I bring your recompence upon your own head;

Joel 3:5 because ye have taken my silver and my gold, and have carried into your temples my beautiful pleasant things,

Joel 3:6 and the children of Judah and the children of Jerusalem have ye sold unto the children of the Greeks, that ye might remove them far from their border.

Joel 3:7 Behold, I will raise them up out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will bring your recompence upon your own head.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "taken", "silver", "gold", "carried", "temples", "beautiful", "pleasant", and "things". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "taken" and "silver", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 4's "Yea also what have ye to do..." into verse 6's "and the children of Judah and the...", so "taken" and "silver" belong inside that flow. In Joel context, the local focus is covenant, worship, and faithfulness.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "taken" and "silver" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.