Joel 2:32

Those however who have responded to the grace given to them (Joel 2:28 f.), and are the true servants of Jehovah, will be secure, even in the midst of such alarming manifestations (cf. Joel 3:16 b).

call on this is the conventional rendering of the Hebrew phrase employed; but it means properly to call with, i.e. to make use of the name in calling; and it may denote (according to the context) either to proclaim(Exodus 33:19), or to announce publicly, celebrate(Isaiah 12:4; Psalms 105:1), or as here, to invoke(so Genesis 4:26; Genesis 12:8, and most frequently). The meaning is of course not an invocation rendered merely by the lips (the "Lord, Lord" of Matthew 7:21), but one which is also the expression of the genuine feelings of the heart. In the context, it is evident that the prophet is speaking only of the Jews; but the terms used by him are perfectly general ("whosoever"); the conditions of salvation are not membership in Israel, but trust in God: hence implicitlyothers besides Israel are included in the expression; and in this wider sense the words are quoted by S. Paul (Romans 10:13) to shew that the Greek not less than the Jew is entitled to share in the salvation of the Gospel.

shall be deliverance there shall be those that escape (R.V.), viz. from the impending judgment (comp. in the Hebr. Isaiah 4:2; Isaiah 37:32). The same words in Obadiah 1:17 "But in Mount Zion there shall be those that escape," whence indeed the clause following, "as Jehovah hath said," makes it probable that Joel quotes them.

and among the fugitives (shall be) those whom Jehovah calleth] i.e. among the fugitives who in various places escape the disaster there will be some whom Jehovah will also callto His salvation. The reference is probably to the Jews dispersed among the heathen: amongst these also there will be some worthy to participate in the deliverance more abundantly shared in by their brethren of Judah and Jerusalem.

The word rendered fugitivesis the one which regularly denotes those who succeed in escaping after an engagement, the capture of a city, &c., as Joshua 10:20 ("the fugitiveswhich took flightof them"), 28, 37, 39 (R.V. none remaining;but the root, as Arabic shews, means to run away in fright): comp. Joshua 8:22 "left them no fugitive, and none escaping"; similarly Jeremiah 42:17.

The words from Joel 2:28 to Joel 2:32 (delivered) are quoted in Acts 2:17-21 [46] by St Peter, with reference to the outpouring of the Spirit upon the Apostles on the day of Pentecost. It would be incorrect, however, to regard a particular occasion as exhausting the fulfilment of the prophecy. Joel's words like Jeremiah 31:33 f., for instance, look rather to that fuller illumination to be enjoyed in generalby God's people in the future, which is to be a characteristic of the Christian Church throughout the ages; they are "not a prediction of the eventof Pentecost, but of the new order of things of which Pentecost was the first great example" (A. B. Davidson, Expositor, March, 1888, p. 208).

[46] In the main (though there are slight deviations) from the LXX. -Notable" (ἐπιφανὴς) in Joel 2:20 as here in LXX. Joel 2:31: ἐπιφανὴς is a rend. of נורא (as though = נִרְאֶה) elsewhere; see Joel 2:11; Judges 13:6; Habakkuk 1:7; Malachi 1:14; Malachi 4:5. The phrasing of Acts 2:39, "For to you is the promise and to your children, and to all that are afar off, even to as many as the Lord our God may call," is evidently based upon Joel 2:32 b.