Joel 2:28

And it shall come to pass afterward,.... After the teacher of righteousness has been sent, and a plentiful rain of the Gospel has been let down in the land of Judea, in the ministry of John the

And it shall come to pass afterward, that I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:

It shall come to pass, most certainly this shall be done, afterward; in the latter days, after the return out of Babylonish captivity, after the various troubles and salvations by which they may know that I am the Lord, their God in the midst of them, when those wondrous works shall be seconded by the most wonderful of all, the sending the Messiah, in his day and under his kingdom. I will pour out my Spirit; in large abundant measures will I give my Holy Spirit, which the Messiah exalted shall send, ; in extraordinary power and gifts in the apostles and first preachers of the gospel, and in ordinary measure and graces to all believers, . Upon all flesh; before these gifts were confined to a few people, to one particular nation, to a very small people; but now they shall be enlarged to all nations, 10:45, to all that believe, all that are regenerate. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy: this was in part fulfilled according to the letter in the first days of the gospel; but this promise is rather of a comparative meaning, thus, By pouring out of the Holy Spirit on your sons and your daughters, they shall have as clear and full knowledge of the deep mysteries of God’ s law as prophets beforetime had. The law and prophets were till John, and during this time the gifts of the Spirit were given in lesser measures, and of all men the prophets had greatest measures of the Spirit; but in these days, the least in the kingdom of God is greater than John. Your old men shall dream dreams; no difference of age, to old men who had been long blind in the things of God the mysteries of grace shall be revealed, and these shall know as certainly and clearly as if God had extraordinarily revealed himself to them by dreams sent of God upon them. Your young men shall see visions; many young men shall be as eminent in knowledge as if the things known were communicated by vision. In a word, all knowledge of God and his will shall abound among all ranks, sexes, and ages in the Messiah’ s days, and not only equal, but surpass, all that formerly was by prophecy dreams, or visions.

Joe 2:28 And it shall come to pass afterward, [that] I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh; and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions:Ver. 28. And it shall come to pass afterwards] sc. In the days of the Messiah, which is called the "world to come," Hebrews 2:5, but especially after his ascension, see John 7:37 Acts 2:17-21, where this prophecy was fulfilled, and this place taken for the first text preached on by the apostles, Joe 2:17, to the conversion of three thousand souls at one sermon. For together with the word there went forth a power, even that "spirit of power, of love, and of a sound mind," Luke 7:21 2 Timothy 1:7, here promised to be poured out, not distilled only, and that upon all flesh. Spirit upon flesh, the best thing upon the basest; yea, upon all flesh, without respect of persons or difference made of sex, age, or condition, provided that they know and acknowledge themselves to be but flesh, Genesis 6:3, corrupt and carnal ( animas etiam incarnavimus, as St Bernard complaineth), and that whatsoever is of "the flesh is flesh," John 3:6 (for who can bring a clean thing out of an unclean?) that whole man is in evil, and whole evil in man; neither can it be gotten out in any measure, till the heart be mollified and made tender as flesh, Ezekiel 11:19; Ezekiel 36:26-27, which cannot be done till men be taught of God, and drawn out of darkness into his marvellous light; till they be spiritualized and "transformed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of the Lord," 2 Corinthians 3:18. And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy] This was fulfilled Acts 2:17-21, as St Peter showeth. For the New Testament is but the Old unfolded and fulfilled, as was also typified in the two cherubims of the sanctuary, looking intently into the propitiatory, but with their faces turned one towards another: Exodus 25:20 Acts 26:22. It was fulfilled, I say, in that visible descension of the Holy Ghost upon the apostles and the rest, Acts 2:8; Acts 2:15; Acts 2:17; Acts 10:44. So that this makes nothing at all for the enthusiasts’ raptures and dotages. The true offspring they are of those ancient Euchites or Messalanii, who, leaving their trades, gave themselves to much sleep, and called their dreams and phantasies prophecies (Funcc. Chronol., A.D. 371). Your old men shall dream, &c., your young men shall see visions] i.e. God will no less open his will unto them than he did of old to the propbets by dreams and visions; for by the conduct of the Spirit they shall be led into all truth and holiness they shall be all a royal priesthood, 1 Peter 2:5 Revelation 1:6, "full of all goodness, filled with all knowledge, able also to admonish one another," Romans 15:14.

(28) I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.—Holy Scripture is itself the interpreter of this most weighty promise. St. Peter’s quotation and application of it in the Acts is its commentary. “Afterward “—LXX., after these things becomes in the apostle’s mouth—“in the last days”—i.e., in the Christian dispensation, when, after the punishment of the Jews by the heathen, their king came—“my Spirit”—St. Peter renders “of my spirit,” after the LXX., indicating the gifts and influences of the Holy Ghost—“upon all flesh”—i.e., without distinction of race or person—“they of the circumcision were astonished because that on the Gentiles also was poured out the gift of the Holy Ghost.” The outward manifestation of these gifts, as shown on the Day of Pentecost, in accordance with this prediction, was gradually withdrawn from the Church; the reality remains.

Verse 28. Shall come to pass afterward] אחרי כן acharey ken, "after this;" the same, says Kimchi, as in the latter days, which always refers to the days of the Messiah; and thus this prophecy is to be interpreted: and we have the testimony of St. Peter, Acts 2:17, that this prophecy relates to that mighty effusion of the Holy Spirit which took place after the day of pentecost. Nor is there any evidence that such an effusion took place, nor such effects were produced, from the days of this prophet till the day of pentecost. And the Spirit was poured out then upon all flesh, that is, on people of different countries, speaking the languages of almost all the people of the earth; which intimated that these were the first-fruits of the conversion of all the nations of the world. For there was scarcely a tongue in the universe that was not to be found among the Parthians, Medes, Elamites, Mesopotamians, Jews, Cappadocians, people of Pontus, of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, Libya, Cyrene, Rome, Crete, and Arabia, who were residents at Jerusalem at that time; and on whom this mighty gift was poured out, each hearing and apprehending the truths of the Gospel, in his own language wherein he was born. Thus we have Divine authority for saying, that was the fulfilment of this prophecy by Joel. And the mighty and rapid spread of the Gospel of Christ in the present day, by means of the translation of the Scriptures into almost all the regular languages of the world, and the sending missionaries to all nations, who preach the Gospel in those tongues, are farther proofs that the great promise is in the fullest progress to be speedily fulfilled, even in the utmost sense of the words. Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy] Shall preach-exhort, pray, and instruct, so as to benefit the Church. Your old men shall dream dreams] Have my will represented to them in this way, as the others by direct inspiration. Your young men shall see visions] Have true representations of Divine things made upon their imaginations by the power of God; that they shall have as full an evidence of them as they could have of any thing that came to the mind through the medium of the senses.

28. afterward] After the bestowal of the material prosperity promised in Joe 2:23-26. pour out] i.e. send forth, not in scant measure, but abundantly: the measure of spiritual illumination, which was normally restricted to prophets or other favoured individuals, will be extended to all. The prophets regularly, in their visions of the future, look forward to an age when Israel will both enjoy the undisturbed possession of material benefits, and also be morally and spiritually regenerate: see e.g. Isaiah 29:18-24; Isaiah 30:23-25; Isaiah 32:1-8 (the change of character, which is to mark the ideal Israel of the future), Isaiah 32:15-18, Isaiah 33:5-6; Isaiah 33:24, Isa. 55:13, 14; Jeremiah 31:12-14; Jeremiah 31:33-34. For the gift of the spirit in particular, comp. Isaiah 32:15; Isaiah 44:3; Isaiah 59:21; Ezekiel 36:27; Ezekiel 39:29; Zechariah 12:10. my spirit] The ‘spirit’ in man is the principle of life, upon which consciousness and intelligence depend, and which imparts activity to the inert ‘flesh’ (see e.g. Genesis 2:7; Isaiah 31:3; Isaiah 42:5; Ezekiel 37:5; Ezekiel 37:9-14; Psalms 146:4): and the ‘spirit’ of God is analogously (in the O.T.) the conscious vital force peculiar to God, which, as proceeding from Him, is the power which creates and sustains the life of created beings (Genesis 1:2; Job 33:4; Psalms 104:30), and to the operation of which are attributed extraordinary faculties and activities of man, as well as supernatural spiritual gifts (see e.g. Genesis 41:38; Exodus 31:3; Numbers 11:17; Judges 11:29; 1 Samuel 11:6; 1 Samuel 16:13; Micah 3:8; Isaiah 11:2; Isaiah 63:11; Psalms 51:11; Haggai 2:5; Nehemiah 9:20; and compare the passages quoted at the end of the last note). The spirit of God is mentioned, as the source, in particular, of prophetic power (whether in its lower or higher forms) in Numbers 11:25-26; Numbers 11:29; 1 Samuel 10:6; 1 Samuel 10:10; 2 Samuel 23:2; Hosea 9:7; Isaiah 42:1; Isaiah 59:21; Isaiah 61:1; Zechariah 7:12; Nehemiah 9:30. Similarly here: Joel anticipates a time when the aspiration of Moses (Numbers 11:29) will be realized. all flesh] The expression is used (a) sometimes in a wider sense to denote all living beings, including both mankind and animals, as Genesis 6:17; Genesis 6:19; (b) sometimes in a narrower sense, of mankind alone, as Isaiah 40:5; Isaiah 49:26. Here it is used in the second sense: but the prophet, as the context shews, has in reality only Israel in his mind; other nations are pictured by him as destroyed (Joe 3:2; Joe 3:9 ff.). Comp. the surprise expressed in Acts 10:45 at the Spirit being poured out upon the Gentiles. and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, &c.] Joel poetically specializes the operation of the spirit, in such a manner that it manifests itself differently in different classes of the people. The distinction is not to be understood with prosaic literalness any more than it is to be inferred from Isaiah 11:12 (see the Heb.) that Isaiah expected only the men of Israel, and the women of Judah, to return from exile. prophesy] i.e.

And it shall come to pass afterward - After the punishment of the Jews through the Pagan, and their deliverance; after the Coming of the Teacher of righteousness, was to follow the outpouring of the Spirit of God.

28. Afterward — After the realization of the temporal prosperity. Not the expression used by other prophets (Isaiah 2:2; Micah 4:1).