Acts 2:18. And on my servants and on my handmaidens I will pour out in those days of my Spirit. This has been understood as a reference to the number of slaves and persons of the lowest rank who became Christians, and suffered and endured such great things for the sake of Jesus during the first age of the Church. Upon even these poor suffering outcasts of society would He pour His Spirit and confer His wondrous gifts.

The Hebrew original, taken by itself, would bear out this interpretation; but the LXX., from which St. Peter quotes, shows the real meaning of the passage when it inserts μου(my) before the words servants and handmaidens. It is no mere slave class which is spoken of here; it is but a solemn repetition of Acts 2:17. The Spirit was indeed to be poured on men and women, but on men and women who were true servants and handmaidens of the great Master.

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Old Testament