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 And sell your sons and your daughters into the hand of Javan, and they sell them to the Sabaeans, to a people far off; for Jehovah has spoken it.” By vegam the Philistines and Phoenicians are added to the gōyim already mentioned, as being no less culpable than they; not, however, in the sense of, “and also if one would inquire more thoroughly into the fact” (Ewald), or, “and even so far as ye are concerned, who, in the place of the friendship and help which ye were bound to render as neighbours, have oppressed my people” (Rosenmüller), for such additions as these are foreign to the context; but rather in this sense, “and yea also ... do not imagine that ye can do wrong with impunity, as though he had a right so to do.” מה־אתּם לי does not mean, “What have I to do with you?” for this would be expressed differently (compare Jos 22:24; Jdg 11:12); but, “What would ye with me?” The question is unfinished, because of its emotional character, and is resumed and completed immediately afterwards in a disjunctive form (Hitzig). Tyre and Sidon, the two chief cities of the Phoenicians (see at Jos 19:29 and Jos 11:8), represent all the Phoenicians. כל גּלילות פל, “all the circles or districts of the Philistines,” are the five small princedoms of Philistia (see at Jos 13:2). גּמוּל, the doing, or inflicting (sc., of evil), from gâmal, to accomplish, to do (see at Isa 3:9). The disjunctive question, “Will ye perhaps repay to me a deed, i.e., a wrong, that I have done to you, or of your own accord attempt anything against me?” has a negative meaning: “Ye have neither cause to avenge yourselves upon me, i.e., upon my people Israel, nor any occasion to do it harm. But if repayment is the thing in hand, I will, and that very speedily (qal mehērâh, see Isa 5:26), bring back your doing upon your own head” (cf. Psa 7:17). To explain what is here said, an account is given in Joe 3:5, Joe 3:6 of what they have done to the Lord and His people, - namely, taken away their gold and silver, and brought their costly treasures into their palaces or temples. These words are not to be restricted to the plundering of the temple and its treasury, but embrace the plundering of palaces and of the houses of the rich, which always followed the conquest of towns (cf. 1Ki 14:26; 2Ki 14:14). היכליכם also are not temples only, but palaces as well (cf. Isa 13:22; Amo 8:3; Pro 30:28). Joel had no doubt the plundering