Call

Call (usually קָרָא, kara', καλέω, both which words evidently contain the same root as their Engl. equivalent) signifies (besides its use in giving a name),

I. To cry to another for help, and hence to pray. he first passage in which we meet with this phrase is in Ge 4:26, "Then began men to call upon the name of the Lord" (אָז הוּחִל לִקרא בִּשֵׁם יהוָֹה, Sept. and Vulg. understand the first word as a pronoun referring to Enos, ο῏υτος ἤλπισεν ἐπικαλεῖσθαι τὸ ὄνομα τοῦ Θεοῦ, iste coepit invocare nomen Domini), a phrase that has been understood by some as meaning thatJehovah's worshippers were then called by His name, but erroneously (comp. Ge 12:8; Ps 79:6; Ps 105:1; Isa 64:6; Jer 10:25; Zep 3:9). In both the Old and New Test., to call upon the name of the Lord imports invoking the true God in prayer, with a confession that He is Jehovah; that is, with an acknowledgment of his essential and incommunicable attributes. In this view the phrase is applied to the worship of Christ (Ac 2:21; Ac 7:59; Ac 9:14; Ro 10:12; 1Co 1:2). See WORSHIP.

II. DIVINE CALL.