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Acts 2:18-29

King James Version (KJV)

“In our prayers we talk to God, in our Bible study God talks to us, and we had better let God do most of the talking.”
— D.L. Moody

Scripture focus

18. And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy: 19. And I will shew wonders in heaven above, and signs in the earth beneath; blood, and fire, and vapour of smoke: 20. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before that great and notable day of the Lord come: 21. And it shall come to pass, [that] whosoever shall call on the name of the Lord shall be saved. 22. Ye men of Israel, hear these words; Jesus of Nazareth, a man approved of God among you by miracles and wonders and signs, which God did by him in the midst of you, as ye yourselves also know: 23. Him, being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God, ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified and slain: 24. Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that he should be holden of it. 25. For David speaketh concerning him, I foresaw the Lord always before my face, for he is on my right hand, that I should not be moved: 26. Therefore did my heart rejoice, and my tongue was glad; moreover also my flesh shall rest in hope: 27. Because thou wilt not leave my soul in hell, neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption. 28. Thou hast made known to me the ways of life; thou shalt make me full of joy with thy countenance. 29. Men [and] brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his sepulchre is with us unto this day.

Acts 2:18-29 — KJV

Commentary

Commentary on Acts 2:18

Theological / Devotional

My servants. The passage from which this is quoted (Joel 2:29) says simply “servants” or “slaves,” both in the Hebrew and the LXX. It gives assurance that God’s Spirit is not reserved for the high and the mighty, but is to be received also by men and women on the lowest levels of society (see on Joel 2:28). But in the present context, Peter seems to make an extended application of these words. In v. 17 he speaks of “your sons,” “your daughters,” “your young men,” “your old men.” Then at the beginning of v. 18 he makes a subtle change from OT. His declaration, translated literally, is, “and indeed upon my servants and upon my handmaidens.” This addition of the words “indeed” and “my” to the OT text would seem to imply that Peter considers “servants” and “handmaidens” not as a further category of those who would receive the Spirit, but rather as a summary of all those who already had been mentioned. Your sons, daughters, young men, and old men, indeed all of Israel (see on v. 17), were to be My servants and handmaidens, true servants of God.

In those days. That is, “in the last days” (v. 17).

Of my Spirit. See on ch. 3:19.

Shall prophesy. See on v. 17. The words here do not appear in the corresponding passage in Joel 2:29.

By SdaBc