Acts 2:17 (ASV)

Passage

And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams:

Nearby Context

Acts 2:15 For these are not drunken, as ye suppose; seeing it is [but] the third hour of the day.

Acts 2:16 but this is that which hath been spoken through the prophet Joel:

Acts 2:17 And it shall be in the last days, saith God, I will pour forth of my Spirit upon all flesh: And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, And your young men shall see visions, And your old men shall dream dreams:

Acts 2:18 Yea and on my servants and on my handmaidens in those days Will I pour forth of my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.

Acts 2:19 And I will show wonders in the heaven above, And signs on the earth beneath; Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke:

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "Spirit", "shall", "last", "days", "saith", "pour", "forth", and "upon". It is saying that the verse draws attention to "Spirit" and "shall", so its meaning should be read from those terms before moving to application.

The nearby context moves from verse 16's "but this is that which hath been..." into verse 18's "Yea and on my servants and on...", so "Spirit" and "shall" belong inside that flow. In Acts context, the local focus is Christ, faith, and discipleship.

A plain takeaway is to answer the verse's own emphasis on "Spirit" and "shall" with trust shaped by these words, not by a vague optimism outside the passage.