John Trapp on Joel 3:3

Verſe 3. And they have caſt lots for my people] Impiouſly and imperiouſly domineering over them: as thoſe rude ſouldiers that caſt the dice upon our Saviours Coat, at his paſſion. It was ordinary to divide by lot the enemies they had taken in fight Nah. 3.10. Obad 11. Lam. 3.53. Judg. 5.30. but at baſe rates thus to ſell Gods people ignominiouſly, and that to ſatisfie their lewd luſts, this was unſufferable.

and have given a boy for an harlot,] Heb. that boy, as afterwards, that girl, with an emphaſis; a ſon and daughter of Iſrael, thoſe earthly angels, Angli quaſi Angeli, as Gregory the Great once ſaid of the Engliſh-boyes preſented to him. Thou haſt ſlain my children and delivered them, to cauſe them to paſſe thorow the fire, ſaid God, not without very great indignation, to their idolatrous parents, Ezech. 16.21. His they were more then theirs: by vertue of the covenant he had made with that people. Hence Deut. 14.1. Ye are the children of the Lord your God: and can he bear with your miſuſages? Should he deal with our ſiſter as an harlot? ſaid they with a courage (as the great Zaijn in Zonah importeth) Gen. 34.31. So here, ſhould they give a boy, (ſuch a boy) for an harlot? that is, for the hire of an harlot, and to gratifie ſuch abhorred filths? In the reigne of Henry 2. of France, Anno 1554 many precious ſonnes of Zion were burned there for religion, not without the indignation of honeſt men,Hiſt. of Counc. of Trent. fol. 387. who knew that the diligence uſed againſt thoſe poor people was not for any piety or religion, butto ſatiate the covetouſneſs of Diana Valentina the Kings Miſtreſſe, to whom he had given all the confiſcations of goods, made in the kingdom, for cauſe of Hereſie.

and ſold a girl for wine, Prov. 4.17. that they might drink.] the wine of violence: drink, and be drunken, and ſpue, and fall, and riſe no more, Ier. 25.27. Worthy therefore to be ſerved as that drunken Turk was by that ſevere Baſhaw, who cauſed a ladlefull of boyling lead to be poured down his throat. God will turn a worſe cup down their wide gullets one day,Pſal. 11: Quorum vivere eſt bibere, and whoſe profane proverb it is, Bibere & ſudare, eſt vita Cardiaci: But what an heatheniſh baſeneſſe is that of the Papiſts (beſides an horrible abuſe of Gods holy ordinance) that at Rome, a Jewiſh maid may not be admitted into the ſtews of whoredome, unleſſe ſhe will firſt be baptized.De contin. lib. 3. cap. 4. Eſpenſaeus (a modeſt Papiſt) writeth it, not without deteſtation.