John Trapp on Joel 3:8

Verſe 8. And I will ſell your ſonnes and your daughters,] And ſo the ſcene ſhall be ſoon altered, and a ſtrange viciſſitude eaſily obſerved. But when was this done? or was it ever done? Ego putarim factum, etſi ſcriptura non dicat quando, ſaith Tarnovius: I ſuppoſe it was done, though the Scripture ſay not when. Others flie to Allegories, and underſtand the Text of the converſion of the Gentiles. I like their way beſt, that ſay. That which God did for the Churces ſake, the Church it ſelf is ſaid to do it. For their cruelties to the Jewes, God delivered theſe Nations up into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar firſt, (who had a hard tug of it, and had therefore Egypt given him for his wages) and afterwards by Alexander the Great, who took Tyre, and raſed it. And this was that great ſervice ſpoken of, Ezek. 29.18. wherein every head wasmade bald, and every ſhoulder bare, in filling up that ſtrait of the Sea, which ſeparated it from the Continent, before it could be taken. But taken it was, together with Sidon, and Philiſtia; and their children ſold as far as Sabaea, which was then counted the utmoſt part of the known earth, Mat. 12.42. Luke 11.31. being part of Arabia the Happy, or, (as ſome will) the Deſert. All this was done for the Jews ſake, though the world little conſidereth it. It was enough for them, that they knew it to be ſo, according to this Prophecy: and that God did hereby ſhew his high eſteem of them, by avenging them of their enemies, and by thus giving men for them, and people for their life, Eſay 43.4.

for the Lord hath ſpoken it.] And will therefore ſurely do it: neither could their Apollo deliver them out of Gods hands; though, to prevent his forſaking of them, when beſieged by Alexander, the Tyrians chained and nailed that Idoll of theirs to a poſt, that they might be ſure of it. But all would not do.