Acts 2:14-16 - Exposition

Spake forth for said, A.V.; give ear unto for hearken to, A.V.; hath been spoken for was spoken, A.V. But Peter , etc. Peter stands up before the eleven as their primate, foremost in the authority of action as in precedence of place; and the apostles stand up before the multitude of believers, as those to whom Christ committed the government of his Church (see Acts 1:15 ). Spake forth ( ἀπεφθέγξατο , the same word as in Acts 2:4 , "utterance ") ; implying the utterance of a loud and grave oration. In 1 Chronicles 26:1-32 . it is the phrase of the LXX . for those who prophesied with harps. From it is derived the word apophthegm, "a remarkable saying" (Johnson's Dictionary). Ye that dwell at Jerusalem ; the same as those described in 1 Chronicles 26:5 . They were foreign Jews who, either for the feast or for other causes, had taken up their abode at Jerusalem, and are distinguished from the men of Judea, the Jews who were natives of Judaea. Give ear ( ἐνωτίζεσθε ); found only here in the New Testament, but frequent in the LXX . as the rendering of the Hebrew ניזִאֶהֶ ( Genesis 4:23 ; Job 33:1 ; Isaiah 1:2 ). It is not classical Greek, and seems to have been coined by the LXX ., as the equivalent of the above-named Hebrew word. It seems to be a rhetorical phrase. The thing to be known unto them was that they saw the fulfillment of Joel's prophecy in what had happened; for it was quite a mistake to attribute it to drunkenness. By the prophet ( διὰ , not ὑπὸ ); spoken by God through the prophet. The full phrase occurs in Matthew 1:22 ; Matthew 2:5 , Matthew 2:15 . And so it is added in Matthew 2:17 , "saith God."