Acts 2:17 (LSB)

Passage

‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; 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 men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is the third hour of the day;

Acts 2:16 but this is what was spoken through the prophet Joel:

Acts 2:17 ‘And it shall be in the last days,’ God says, ‘That I will pour out My Spirit on all mankind; 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 Even on My male slaves and female slaves, I will in those days pour out My Spirit And they shall prophesy.

Acts 2:19 And I will put wonders in the sky above And signs on the earth below, Blood, and fire, and vapor of smoke.

Study Lenses

The verse centers on "Spirit", "shall", "last", "days", "says", "pour", "mankind", and "sons". 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 what was spoken through..." into verse 18's "Even on My male slaves and female...", 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.