Passage

Joel 2.32

"And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD will be delivered; for on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as the LORD has said, even among the survivors whom the LORD calls." (Joel 2:32, NASB95)

Joel 2:32 is one of the Old Testament's most-cited divine-name texts in the apostolic preaching, quoted by Peter at Pentecost (Acts 2.21) and by Paul in Romans 10.13. The original Hebrew names YHWH as the one on whom believers call for salvation, the New Testament citations identify that "LORD" with Jesus. The transfer of the divine-name promise from YHWH to the risen Christ is one of the clearest implicit Christological moves in Scripture.

Immediate context (±2 verses)

ASV (ASV)

"30. And I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 31. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Jehovah cometh."

"32. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of Jehovah shall be delivered; for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem there shall be those that escape, as Jehovah hath said, and among the remnant those whom Jehovah doth call." (Joel 2:30-32, ASV)

WEB (WEB)

"30. I will show wonders in the heavens and in the earth: blood, fire, and pillars of smoke. 31. The sun will be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and terrible day of Yahweh comes."

"32. It will happen that whoever will call on Yahweh’s name shall be saved; for in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem there will be those who escape, as Yahweh has said, and among the remnant, those whom Yahweh calls." (Joel 2:30-32, WEB)

KJV (KJV)

"30. And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke. 31. The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come."

"32. And it shall come to pass, that whosoever shall call on the name of the LORD shall be delivered: for in mount Zion and in Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the LORD hath said, and in the remnant whom the LORD shall call." (Joel 2:30-32, KJV)

YLT (YLT)

"30. And I have given wonders in the heavens, and in the earth, Blood and fire, and columns of smoke. 31. The sun is turned to darkness, and the moon to blood, Before the coming of the day of Jehovah, The great and the fearful."

"32. And it hath come to pass, Every one who calleth in the name of Jehovah is delivered, For in mount Zion and in Jerusalem there is an escape, As Jehovah hath said, And among the remnants whom Jehovah is calling!" (Joel 2:30-32, YLT)

Setting

Speaker: the prophet Joel, son of Pethuel, delivering the LORD's oracle
Audience: Judah, in the wake of a devastating locust plague taken as a sign of the Day of the LORD
Location: the kingdom of Judah, centered on Jerusalem
Time period: uncertain (proposals range from c. 835 BC pre-exilic to c. 450 BC post-exilic), most commonly placed in the ninth or fifth century BC

Theological reading

The verse closes Joel's central oracle. After judgment imagery (the locust as army, the Day of the LORD as cosmic darkness), the LORD promises an outpouring of His Spirit on all flesh (Joel 2:28 to 29) and signs in the heavens (verses 30 to 31). Verse 32 is the gospel clause inside the prophetic oracle, salvation hinges on calling on the name of YHWH. The Hebrew phrase yiqra' beshem YHWH uses shem (name) and qara (to call), the same construction Genesis 4:26 uses for the beginning of religious worship and Psalm 116 uses for the worshipper's response to deliverance.

Peter's Pentecost sermon (Acts 2.17-21) quotes Joel 2:28 to 32 in full to interpret the Spirit-outpouring on the apostles. Peter then preaches Jesus as Lord and Christ, baptizes those who call on His name, and the prophetic promise is fulfilled. Paul intensifies the move in Romans 10.13, "for whoever will call on the name of the Lord will be saved," where the immediate antecedent of "Lord" (kyrios) in verse 9 is "Jesus is Lord." The Septuagint of Joel 2:32 uses kyrios (Lord) to translate YHWH, and Paul retains the kyrios while shifting the referent to Jesus.

The apologetic significance is exact. Joel writes that calling on YHWH saves. Paul, citing Joel verbatim, applies the promise to Jesus. Either Paul has committed catastrophic blasphemy by redirecting divine prerogative to a creature, or Paul recognizes Jesus as the one whose name is YHWH-the-Lord. The New Testament authors take the second route consistently, and the divine-name argument from Joel 2:32 has anchored Christian deity-of-Christ apologetics from the apostolic preaching forward.

Key words

H3068 - YHWH, the Tetragrammaton, the personal name of God, on whom believers call.
H8034 - shem, shem, name, the divine name as bearer of identity and presence.
H3467 - yasha, yasha, to save or deliver, the verb the LXX renders with sozo.

Theological themes

Divine-name salvation. Joel grounds deliverance in calling on YHWH's name, the New Testament transfer to Jesus is the load-bearing deity-of-Christ move.
Universal scope of "whoever." The promise is open, "kol asher" (everyone who), a universalizing clause read by Acts and Romans as the gospel's reach to Jew and Gentile alike.
Day of the LORD context. The promise sits inside a cosmic-judgment oracle, salvation is for those who call before the great and terrible Day.
Remnant theology. The closing clause names the saved as a remnant the LORD Himself calls, divine sovereignty and human calling are placed side by side without resolution.
Pentecost fulfillment. Acts 2 reads the verse as fulfilled in the Spirit-outpouring and the proclamation of Jesus as Lord and Christ.

Cross-references

Acts 2.21, Peter's Pentecost quotation of this verse.
Acts 2.17-21, the wider Pentecost block citing Joel 2:28 to 32 in full.
Romans 10.13, Paul's application of the verse to Jesus.
Joel 2.28-32, the full prophetic block from which this verse comes.
Genesis 4.26, the original biblical institution of "calling on the name of the LORD."

Quoted in

Why these four translations

ris3n chose ASV, WEB, KJV, and YLT for two reasons together. They are the most literal English translations available (formal-equivalence: word-for-word renderings that preserve the Hebrew and Greek grammar rather than smoothing it into modern dynamic-equivalence idiom). And they are in the public domain in the United States, which means fair-use quotation at any length requires no publisher license. Modern licensed translations (NASB95, ESV, NIV) restrict volume of quotation under their copyright terms, so they are not used at stub-level coverage here. NASB95 appears only on hand-curated rich passage hubs under Lockman Foundation's fair-use allowance.

The four:

ASV (American Standard Version, 1901). The basis of the modern critical-text English tradition.
WEB (World English Bible, contemporary). Public-domain revision in the ASV line, in current English.
KJV (King James Version, 1611). Reformation-era, Textus Receptus base.
YLT (Young's Literal Translation, Robert Young, 1862). Hyper-literal preservation of Hebrew and Greek grammar; useful for word-study work even where English reads stiff.

See Bibles for the full per-translation history, translators, textual basis, strengths, and weaknesses.