Joel 3:18

Verse 18. In that day] After their return from their captivities.

The mountains shall drop down new wine] A poetic expression for great fertility. Happy times: peace and plenty. The vines shall grow luxuriantly on the sides of the mountains; and the hills shall produce such rich pastures that the flocks shall yield abundance of milk.

And all the rivers of Judah] Far from being generally dry in the summer, shall have their channels always full of water.

And a fountain shall come forth of the house of the Lord] See the account of the typical waters in Ezekiel, Ezekiel 47:1, to which this seems to have a reference; at least the subject is the same, and seems to point out the grace of the Gospel, the waters of salvation, that shall flow from Jerusalem, and water the valley of Shittim. Shittim was in the plains of Moab beyond Jordan; Numbers 33:49; Joshua 3:1; but as no stream of water could flow from the temple, pass across Jordan, or reach this plain, the valley of Shittim must be considered symbolical, as the valley of Jehoshaphat. But as Shittim may signify thorns, it may figuratively represent the most uncultivated and ferocious inhabitants of the earth receiving the Gospel of Christ, and being civilized and saved by it. We know that briers and thorns are emblems of bad men; see Ezekiel 2:6. Thus all the figures in this verse will point out the happy times of the Gospel: the mountains shall drop down new wine; the hills flow with milk; the thorny valleys become fertile, c. Similar to those almost parallel words of the prince of poets: -

Mistaque ridenti colocasia fundet acantho.--

Ipsae lacte domum referent destenta capellae

Ubera: nec magnos metuent armenta leones.--

Molli paullatim flavescet campus arista,

Incultisque rubens pendebit sentibus uva:

Et durae quercus sudabunt roscida mella.

VIRG Ecl. iv. 20.

Unbidden earth shall wreathing ivy bring,

And fragrant herbs the promises of spring.

The goats with streaming dugs shall homeward speed

And lowing herds, secure from lions, feed.

Unlabour'd harvests shall the fields adorn,

And cluster'd grapes shall grow on every thorn:

The knotted oaks shall showers of honey weep.

DRYDEN.