Joel 2:32

32. Though a day great and terrible, it will be such only to the nations (Joel 3:2); the true worshipers of Jehovah need have no fear.

Whosoever A very comprehensive word, but it is clear from the context, “for in Mount Zion and Jerusalem there shall be those that escape” (R.V.) that the prophet is concerned primarily with the Jews.

Call on the name of Jehovah Not merely with a cold ceremonial or heartless repetition of phrases, but with spiritual, heartfelt worship. To call is equivalent to to worship. The condition of escape is not membership in the Israel according to the flesh; even those within Israel need something more to assure their salvation on that day namely, a true, whole-hearted devotion to God.

For in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance Better, with R.V., “those that escape.” This limits salvation to the Jews, and, among the Jews, to only a part.

As Jehovah hath said This sounds as if Joel were referring to an earlier prophecy. The promise actually occurs in Obadiah 1:17; it is quite possible, therefore, that Joel is dependent on the latter.

The remnant Those that escape the judgment of the great day. The thought of the prophet seems to be that not only the Jews who are in Jerusalem on that day will escape, but that some true worshipers are found also among the Jews who are scattered among the nations. These Jehovah will call to his salvation. That the prophet has in mind believers among the heathen is made improbable by the threat of the utter destruction of the nations in chapter 3.

The apostle Peter quoted Joel 2:28-32 a, after the outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost, as having been fulfilled by that event. However, the fulfillment cannot be limited to that one event; the outpouring of the Spirit on the day of Pentecost was simply the beginning of the fulfillment which is being continued even now, and will continue until all flesh shall be blessed with divine illumination. Therefore the promise should be regarded “not as a prediction of the event of Pentecost, but of the new order of things of which the day of Pentecost was the first great example” (A.B. Davidson, Expositor, 1888, p. 208).