What Does Joel 3:18 Mean in the King James?
And it shall come to pass in that day, that the mountains shall drop down new wine, and the hills shall flow with milk, and all the rivers of Judah shall flow with waters, and a fountain shall come forth of the house of the LORD, and shall water the valley of Shittim.
The analysis reads the King James wording.
King James Version The King James Version, first published in 1611. Selah Verse shows the standard text.
THE KEY
The Hebrew calls the hills and rivers to “go,” so abundance is not stored in the land but moves outward from its source.
THE MEANING
The LORD’s house is a living source whose provision moves outward through the land: nourishment travels over the hills, through Judah’s waters, and into the valley of Shittim, the acacia valley. The verse speaks now of abundance as movement that reaches its destination. The valley is included in the watering.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
It undoes the belief that the valley is too far from the source to receive its life.
THE ROOT
תֵּלַכְנָה
telakhnah
GROWS FROM
הלך
halakh
to go, to walk
The hills’ תֵּלַכְנָה (telakhnah, “shall go”) and the rivers’ יֵלְכוּ (yelchu, “shall go”) share the root הלך (halakh, “go, walk”). The KJV’s “flow” conveys their motion; the Hebrew also lets the same verb carry both the hills’ milk and Judah’s waters onward.
ALSO GROWS
holekh: going, walking
הוֹלֵךְ
This form keeps the verse’s movement close to the ordinary sense of going: the land’s provision is pictured as traveling onward.
halikhah: walking, going
הֲלִיכָה
The noun preserves the root’s sense of movement, making the hills and rivers part of an ongoing passage rather than a static store.
יֵצֵא
yetse
GROWS FROM
יצא
yatsa
to go out, come forth, emerge
The fountain’s יֵצֵא (yetse, “shall come forth”) describes its movement out from the LORD’s house. The spring is shown as a source whose life reaches beyond itself, all the way to the valley.
ALSO GROWS
motsa: outlet, origin, or going out
מוֹצָא
This related noun holds source and exit together, echoing the fountain’s emergence from the LORD’s house.
yetzi’ah: exit, departure, going out
יְצִיאָה
This branch keeps the outward movement audible in the verse: the water’s reach begins with its going out.
THE PATTERN
Life-giving provision moves outward from its source and reaches the places it flows through.
There is a river, the streams whereof shall make glad the city of God, the holy place of the tabernacles of the most High.He that believeth on me, as the scripture hath said, out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb.THE THREAD
And it shall be in that day, that living waters shall go out from Jerusalem; half of them toward the former sea, and half of them toward the hinder sea: in summer and in winter shall it be.Joel’s fountain יֵצֵא (yetse, “shall come forth”) and Zechariah’s waters “shall go out” share the root יצא (yatsa, “go out”). In both verses, the source is known by its movement: water leaves the holy place and reaches outward.
Read the SDV Bible.
Every verse has a Deep Dive in the app.
The iPhone Bible app with the Selah Decoded Version.
Does something in this reading look wrong? Tell us