Joel 3:10 (DRB)

Passage

Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades into spears. Let the weak say: I am strong.

Nearby Context

Joel 3:8 And I will sell your sons, and your daughters, by the hands of the children of Juda, and they shall sell them to the Sabeans, a nation far off, for the Lord hath spoken it.

Joel 3:9 Proclaim ye this among the nations: Prepare war, raise up the strong: let them come, let all the men of war come up.

Joel 3:10 Cut your ploughshares into swords, and your spades into spears. Let the weak say: I am strong.

Joel 3:11 Break forth, and come, all ye nations from round about, and gather yourselves together: there will the Lord cause all thy strong ones to fall down.

Joel 3:12 Let them arise, and let the nations come up into the valley of Josaphat: for there I will sit to judge all nations round about.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "ploughshares", "swords", "spades", "spears", "weak", and "strong". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "ploughshares" and "swords", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 9's "Proclaim ye this among the nations Prepare..." into verse 11's "Break forth and come all ye nations...", so "ploughshares" and "swords" 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 "ploughshares" and "swords" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.