John Trapp on Joel 3:7

Verſe 7. Behold I will raiſe them out of the place, &c.] Seem it never ſo improbable, or impoſſible, Ile do it, ſaith God, and you ſhall ſee it. Behold, Ile fetch home my baniſhed, though they may ſeem to be as water ſpilt on the ground. Ile make thoſe dead bones live: and raiſe my ſelf a name and a praiſe, by out-bidding their hopes, and marring your deſigne of utter extermination. Ribera underſtands the words concerning the reſurrection of the dead at the laſt day: becauſe the Hebrew word properly ſignifieth, to raiſe one out of ſleep. Some think it is meant of the Apoſtles and Martyrs, fetcht out of baniſhment; as was John out of Pathmos, Athanaſius, Eraſm. in vita Chryſoſt. Chryſoſtom, (who yet in his laſt baniſhment, by reaſon of the barbarous uſage of the fouldiers that led him along, hired for that purpoſe, ſweetly and bleſſedly breathed out his laſt) the Engliſh Exiles in Queen Maries time, whereof many returned and did excellent ſervice here.Calv. in loc. But I doubt not, ſaith judicious Calvin, but God intends here a ſpiritual gathering together of his people into one body, by the bond of faith: and this was principally fulfilled after the death of Chriſt, who died for that Nation: And not for that Nation onely, bus that alſo hee ſhould gather together into one the children of God, that were ſcattered abroad, Joh. 11.51, 52. ſo that thoſe whom God hath gathered together and cauſed to return (non pedibus vel navigio, for that needs not, to Hieruſalem which is above, which is the mother of us all) from the lands of the Eaſt, of the Weſt, of the North, and of the South,Pſal. 107.2, 3. ſhall praiſe the Lord together, as the Pſalmiſt hath it.

and will return your recompenſe upon your own head,] God delights to retaliate, to bloody and decitufull men eſpecially; as were eaſie to inſtance in the Egyptians, Adonibezek, Polybius. Agag, Attilius Regulus, the Roman Generall, who dealt moſt cruelly with the Carthaginians, and was ſhortly after as cruelly dealt with by them, when fallen into their hands. Here at home in K. Edw. the ſixths time, the remembrance of Somerſet much moved the people to fall from Northumberland (who had wrought his death) in his greateſt attempts, and to leave him to his fatall fall: whereat alſo they openly rejoyced, and preſented to him handkerchiefs dipt in the blood of Somerſet, Life of Edw. 6. by Sir I. H. for whom they thought he ſuffered rather late, then undeſerved puniſhment. So certain it is (ſaith the Hiſtarian) that the debts both of cruelty and mercy go never unpaid.