'Man is a mere breath… a man heaps up wealth and does not know who will gather' stands behind 'you are a vapor that appears for a little time and then vanishes,' the breath-brevity figure applied to acquisitive boasting.

Behold, you have made my days hand breadths. My lifetime is as nothing before you. Surely every man stands as a breath.” Selah. “Surely every man walks like a shadow. Surely they busy themselves in vain. He heaps up, and doesn’t know who shall gather.


Ben Sira's rich man who says 'I have found rest, now I shall feast on my goods' yet does not know that death is near is the wisdom prototype of James's presumptuous merchant.

There is that waxes rich by his wariness and pinching, And this is the portion of his reward: When he says, I have found rest, And now will I eat of my goods; Yet he knows not what time will pass, And he will leave them to others, and die.


'Remember that my life is a breath' contributes to the mist-and-vapor brevity-of-life motif.

Oh remember that my life is a breath. My eye shall no more see good.


'Come now, you rich, weep and howl' opens with the prophetic woe-cry, 'Wail, for the day of the LORD is near.' The same howling-summons announces eschatological judgment on the complacent.

Wail; for the day of Yahweh is at hand! It will come as destruction from the Almighty.


Amos's woe on those 'at ease… who lie on beds of ivory and eat lambs from the flock' and 'are not grieved over the ruin of Joseph' is the prophetic template for James's denunciation of the luxurious rich who have 'lived delicately on the earth.' The coherence of theme and the day-of-slaughter motif are strong.

Woe to those who are at ease in Zion, and to those who are secure on the mountain of Samaria, the notable men of the chief of the nations, to whom the house of Israel come! Go to Calneh, and see; and from there go to Hamath the great; then go down to Gath of the Philistines. are they better than these kingdoms? or is their border greater than your border? Those who put far away the evil day, and cause the seat of violence to come near; Who lie on beds of […]


'You shall give him his wages… lest he cry against you to the LORD' is the law James indicts the rich for breaking: 'the wages of the laborers you kept back by fraud cry out.' The crying-out-to-God of withheld wages is verbally and legally precise.

You shall not oppress a hired servant who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers, or one of the foreigners who are in your land within your gates. In his day you shall give him his hire, neither shall the sun go down on it; for he is poor, and sets his heart on it; lest he cry against you to Yahweh, and it be sin to you.


'The wages of a hired worker shall not remain with you all night until the morning' is the Holiness-Code companion to Deuteronomy 24, prohibiting exactly the withholding James condemns.

“‘You shall not oppress your neighbor, nor rob him. “‘The wages of a hired servant shall not remain with you all night until the morning.


The LORD comes in judgment 'against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages,' a prophetic restatement of the offense and the cry that reaches God.

I will come near to you to judgment; and I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, and against the adulterers, and against the perjurers, and against those who oppress the hireling in his wages, the widow, and the fatherless, and who deprive the foreigner of justice, and don’t fear me,” says Yahweh of Armies.


'The voice of your brother's blood is crying to me from the ground' is the archetype of injustice that cries out to God, behind 'the cries… have entered the ears of the Lord of Hosts.'

Yahweh said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries to me from the ground.


'Man wastes away like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten' contributes the corrosion-and-moth imagery of decaying wealth (cf. Isaiah 50:9; 51:8).

though I am decaying like a rotten thing, like a garment that is moth-eaten.


The wicked who 'oppress the righteous poor man' and resolve to 'condemn him to a shameful death' is the Second-Temple righteous-sufferer scene behind 'you have condemned, you have murdered the righteous one. He does not resist you.'

Let us oppress the righteous poor; Let us not spare the widow, Nor reverence the hairs of the old man gray for length of years. But let our strength be to us a law of righteousness; For that which is weak is found to be of no service. But let us lie in wait for the righteous man, Because he is of disservice to us, And is contrary to our works, And upbraids us with sins against the law, And lays to our charge sins against our discipline. He professes to […]


'I will give the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the later rain' is the covenant promise James invokes for the patient farmer who waits 'until it receives the early and late rain.' The early/late-rain pair is distinctive.

that I will give the rain of your land in its season, the former rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil.


'He has given the early rain… the early and the latter rain' restates the same agricultural promise as a sign of restoration, reinforcing the patient-farmer figure.

“Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in Yahweh, your God; for he gives you the former rain in just measure, and he causes the rain to come down for you, the former rain and the latter rain, as before.


'Let us fear the LORD… who gives the rain in its season, the autumn and the spring rains' supplies a further early/late-rain antecedent.

Neither do they say in their heart, ‘Let us now fear Yahweh our God, who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season; who preserves to us the appointed weeks of the harvest.’


'You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and seen the outcome of the Lord' depends on the Job narrative — his endurance under loss without sin, and the restored 'outcome' of Job 42. James makes Job the type of patient endurance.

He said, “Naked I came out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return there. Yahweh gave, and Yahweh has taken away. Blessed be Yahweh’s name.” In all this, Job did not sin, nor charge God with wrongdoing.


'How the Lord is full of compassion and mercy' reproduces the LORD's self-revelation, 'merciful and gracious, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love' — the formula echoed across the Psalter (103:8; 111:4).

Yahweh passed by before him, and proclaimed, “Yahweh! Yahweh, a merciful and gracious God, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness and truth,


'Do not swear… let your yes be yes' rests on 'you shall not swear by my name falsely,' the Holiness-Code regulation of oaths that James radicalizes into avoiding oaths altogether.

“‘You shall not swear by my name falsely, and profane the name of your God. I am Yahweh.


The law on vows — that one must perform what is sworn and that refraining from vowing is no sin — is the legal background to James's counsel against swearing.

When you vow a vow to Yahweh your God, you shall not be slack to pay it; for Yahweh your God will surely require it of you; and it would be sin in you. But if you refrain from making a vow, it shall be no sin in you. You shall observe and do that which has gone out of your lips. Whatever you have vowed to Yahweh your God as a freewill offering, which you have promised with your mouth, you must do.


'Do not accustom your mouth to oaths… a man who swears many oaths is full of iniquity' is the wisdom counsel against swearing that most closely parallels James.

Accustom not your mouth to an oath; And be not accustomed to the naming of the Holy One. For as a servant that is continually scourged will not lack a bruise, So he also that swears and names God continually will not be cleansed from sin. A man of many oaths will be filled with iniquity; And the scourge will not depart from his house: If he shall offend, his sin will be upon him; And if he disregard it, he has sinned doubly; And if he has sworn in vain, […]


'Heaven is my throne and the earth is my footstool' grounds the prohibition of swearing 'by heaven or by earth,' since both belong to God.

Thus says Yahweh, “Heaven is my throne, and the earth is my footstool: what kind of house will you build to me? and what place shall be my rest?


'Elijah… prayed earnestly that it might not rain, and it did not rain' draws directly on Elijah's word that 'there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.' James reads the drought as answered prayer.

Elijah the Tishbite, who was of the foreigners of Gilead, said to Ahab, “As Yahweh, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall not be dew nor rain these years, but according to my word.”


'He prayed again, and the sky gave rain' depends on Elijah on Carmel bowing to the ground in prayer until the rain came. The two-part drought-and-rain narrative is the backbone of James's example of the righteous person's prayer.

Elijah said to Ahab, “Get up, eat and drink; for there is the sound of abundance of rain.” So Ahab went up to eat and to drink. Elijah went up to the top of Carmel; and he bowed himself down on the earth, and put his face between his knees. He said to his servant, “Go up now, look toward the sea.” He went up, and looked, and said, “There is nothing.” He said, “Go again” seven times. On the seventh time, he said, “Behold, a small cloud, like a man’s hand, […]


'The eyes of the LORD are toward the righteous, and his ears toward their cry' grounds 'the insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective.'

Yahweh’s eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry.


'The prayer of the upright is acceptable to him' (cf. 15:29, 'he hears the prayer of the righteous') is the proverbial basis for the efficacy of the righteous person's prayer.

The sacrifice made by the wicked is an abomination to Yahweh, but the prayer of the upright is his delight.


Ben Sira's praise of Elijah, who 'shut up the heavens' and 'brought down fire,' is the Second-Temple reception of the drought-prayer that James presupposes.

Also there arose Elijah the prophet as fire, And his word burned like a torch: Who brought a famine upon them, And by his zeal made them few in number. By the word of the Lord he shut up the heaven: Thrice did he thus bring down fire.


'Love covers all offenses' stands behind 'he who turns a sinner… will cover a multitude of sins,' the proverb of love covering sin applied to restoring the wanderer.

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all wrongs.


The watchman who warns the wicked to turn 'will have saved his life' is the prophetic logic behind saving a soul from death by turning the sinner back (cf. Ezekiel 3:18-21).

When I tell the wicked, O wicked man, you shall surely die, and you don’t speak to warn the wicked from his way; that wicked man shall die in his iniquity, but his blood will I require at your hand. Nevertheless, if you warn the wicked of his way to turn from it, and he doesn’t turn from his way; he shall die in his iniquity, but you have delivered your soul.


'Those who turn many to righteousness' shine like the stars — a faint echo behind turning a sinner from the error of his way.

Those who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the expanse; and those who turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.


'Dispersion' (diaspora) is the LXX term for Israel scattered among the nations as covenant curse; Peter recasts the addressees' geographic scatter across Asia Minor as the eschatological diaspora of God's people. High thematic coherence; recurrence of diaspora language across the Deuteronomic curses.

Yahweh will cause you to be struck before your enemies. You will go out one way against them, and will flee seven ways before them. You will be tossed back and forth among all the kingdoms of the earth.


The gathering of the 'dispersed of Judah from the four corners' supplies the restoration backdrop to which 'elect exiles of the dispersion' alludes; faint verbal contact via diaspora, strong thematic coherence with Isaian return-from-exile.

He will set up a banner for the nations, and will assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.


Prayer to 'gather together our dispersion' shows Second Temple use of diaspora as a theological-not-merely-geographic category, the same move Peter makes; Second Temple recurrence supports the reading though no verbal borrowing beyond the term.

[source text not in the World English Bible]


Abraham's self-description as a 'stranger and sojourner' (paroikos) is the patriarchal template for the resident-alien identity Peter assigns his readers; the same paroikos/parepidemos word-pair recurs in 1 Peter 2:11. Volume modest, recurrence within the letter high.

“I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”


'You are strangers and sojourners with me' grounds Israel's tenancy on God's land; Peter universalizes the sojourner status. Faint verbal echo through the sojourner vocabulary, coherent with the letter's pilgrim ecclesiology.

“‘The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine; for you are strangers and live as foreigners with me.


David's 'we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were' is a near-formulaic sojourner confession standing behind 1:1 and 1:17; low volume, supports recurrence.

For we are strangers before you, and foreigners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are as a shadow, and there is no remaining.


Election theology—the Most High apportioning peoples and taking Jacob as his allotted portion—underlies 'chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father'; figural/thematic rather than verbal.

When the Most High gave to the nations their inheritance, when he separated the children of men, he set the bounds of the peoples according to the number of the children of Israel. For Yahweh’s portion is his people. Jacob is the lot of his inheritance.


'Sanctification... that you may obey... and be sprinkled with his blood' fuses the two halves of Sinai covenant ratification: Israel's pledge 'all that the LORD has spoken we will do and obey' (24:7) and Moses sprinkling the blood of the covenant on the people (24:8). High volume via the obey+blood-sprinkling sequence; thematic coherence with covenant inauguration.

He took the book of the covenant and read it in the hearing of the people, and they said, “All that Yahweh has spoken will we do, and be obedient.” Moses took the blood, and sprinkled it on the people, and said, “Look, this is the blood of the covenant, which Yahweh has made with you concerning all these words.”


The sprinkling that purifies the unclean (water of the red-heifer ash) is a secondary purification background for 'sprinkled with his blood'; lower volume than Exodus 24, contested as the primary referent.

A clean person shall take hyssop, dip it in the water, and sprinkle it on the tent, on all the vessels, on the persons who were there, and on him who touched the bone, or the slain, or the dead, or the grave. The clean person shall sprinkle on the unclean on the third day, and on the seventh day. On the seventh day, he shall purify him. He shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water, and shall be clean at evening. But the man who shall be unclean, […]


'I will sprinkle clean water on you... and put my Spirit within you' joins sprinkling with the gift of the Spirit—exactly Peter's pairing of 'sanctification of the Spirit' and 'sprinkled with his blood.' Strong thematic coherence; sprinkling+Spirit recurrence.

I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean: from all your filthiness, and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. I will also give you a new heart, and I will put a new spirit within you; and I will take away the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you a heart of flesh. I will put my Spirit within you, and cause you to walk in my statutes, and you shall keep my ordinances, and do them.


Moses sprinkling blood to consecrate the priests supports the priestly-consecration overtone of 'sanctification... sprinkled with his blood,' anticipating the royal priesthood of 2:9. Faint, figural.

Moses took some of the anointing oil, and some of the blood which was on the altar, and sprinkled it on Aaron, on his garments, and on his sons, and on his sons’ garments with him, and sanctified Aaron, his garments, and his sons, and his sons’ garments with him.


'Peace be multiplied to you' (also Daniel 4:1) is the verbatim Aramaic-letter greeting Peter expands to 'grace and peace be multiplied.' Distinctive verbal borrowing of the 'be multiplied' epistolary formula.

Then king Darius wrote to all the peoples, nations, and languages, who dwell in all the earth: Peace be multiplied to you.


'Blessed be the LORD, the God of Israel' is the berakah doxology Peter Christianizes as 'Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.' Distinctive opening-blessing form recurring across the Psalter's book-seams.

Blessed be Yahweh, the God of Israel, from everlasting and to everlasting! Amen and amen.


David's 'Blessed are you, O LORD, the God of Israel our father' supplies both the eulogy form and the Father-language behind 1:3; coherent with the inheritance theme that follows (29:11-16).

Therefore David blessed Yahweh before all the assembly; and David said, “You are blessed, Yahweh, the God of Israel our father, forever and ever.


'According to your great mercy' echoes the Psalter's 'according to the abundance of your mercy'; low volume but a fixed liturgical collocation.

Have mercy on me, God, according to your loving kindness. According to the multitude of your tender mercies, blot out my transgressions.


'The LORD is my portion and my inheritance... a goodly heritage' reframes inheritance from land to God himself, the move behind an 'inheritance kept in heaven.' Thematic coherence high; the imperishable heavenly inheritance transposes the Levitical land-allotment.

Yahweh assigned my portion and my cup. You made my lot secure. The lines have fallen to me in pleasant places. Yes, I have a good inheritance.


The priests have no land-inheritance because 'I am your portion and inheritance'; Peter's heavenly, unfading inheritance figurally fulfills this priestly pattern (cf. royal priesthood, 2:9). Figural, low verbal volume.

Yahweh said to Aaron, “You shall have no inheritance in their land, neither shall you have any portion among them. I am your portion and your inheritance among the children of Israel.


'The righteous live forever... they will receive a glorious crown... from the Lord's hand' parallels the imperishable, heaven-reserved inheritance and the 'praise, glory, and honor' of 1:7; Second Temple thematic coherence.

But the righteous live forever, And in the Lord is their reward, And the care for them with the Most High. Therefore will they receive the crown of royal dignity And the diadem of beauty from the Lord’s hand; Because with his right hand will he cover them, And with his arm will he shield them.


'The crucible is for silver and the furnace for gold, but the LORD tests hearts' is the proverbial matrix for faith 'tested by fire... more precious than gold.' High thematic coherence; gold-tested-by-fire is a stock wisdom topos Peter applies to faith.

The refining pot is for silver, and the furnace for gold, but Yahweh tests the hearts.


'I will refine them as one refines silver and test them as gold is tested,' set in an eschatological remnant-purification, supplies the trial-as-refinement frame of 1:6-7; verbal contact (refine/test, gold) plus eschatological coherence.

I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is my people;’ and they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God.’”


'When he has tested me, I shall come forth as gold' is the closest first-person analogue: testing through suffering yielding vindicated, gold-like faith. Strong thematic coherence, moderate volume.

But he knows the way that I take. When he has tried me, I shall come out like gold.


'My child, when you come to serve the Lord, prepare yourself for testing... for gold is tested in the fire, and those found acceptable in the furnace of humiliation.' The fullest pre-Christian template: discipleship + fiery testing + gold + acceptance, mirroring 1:6-7. Second Temple recurrence and high thematic coherence.

[source text not in the World English Bible]


'Having been disciplined a little... like gold in the furnace he tried them' joins brief affliction ('a little while', cf. 1:6) with gold-furnace testing of the righteous souls; strong thematic coherence with 1:6-9.

And having borne a little chastening, they will receive great good; Because God made trial of them, and found them worthy of himself. As gold in the furnace he proved them, And as a whole burnt offering he accepted them.


Daniel 'heard but did not understand' and sought the meaning, told the words were 'sealed until the time of the end'—the paradigm for prophets who 'searched diligently... what time the Spirit pointed to' (1:10-11). Distinctive prophet-seeks-yet-defers motif.

I heard, but I didn’t understand: then I said, my lord, what shall be the issue of these things? He said, Go your way, Daniel; for the words are shut up and sealed until the time of the end.


'The Lord GOD does nothing without revealing his secret to his servants the prophets' undergirds 'to them it was revealed' that they served a later generation (1:12); thematic, low verbal volume.

Surely the Lord Yahweh will do nothing, unless he reveals his secret to his servants the prophets.


'The sufferings of Christ and the glories that follow' (1:11) tracks the Servant's affliction-then-vindication arc (Isaiah 52:13-53:12); Peter's signature suffering/glory pattern, faint here but recurrent in the letter.

After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities.


'Gird up the loins of your mind' literalizes the Passover posture—'your loins girded, your sandals on, in haste'—readiness for imminent deliverance, fitting the redemption-by-the-lamb imagery of 1:18-19. High volume on the distinctive idiom plus contextual Passover coherence.

This is how you shall eat it: with your belt on your waist, your shoes on your feet, and your staff in your hand; and you shall eat it in haste: it is Yahweh’s Passover.


'Gird up your loins like a man' (also 40:7) is the summons to brace for an encounter with God; supplies the metaphorical (mental readiness) sense Peter intends. Moderate verbal volume; the idiom recurs as a call to resolve.

Brace yourself like a man, for I will question you, then you answer me!


'Gird up your loins; stand and speak' commissions the prophet to fearless action; reinforces the gird-loins call but is a secondary witness to the idiom. Low distinctiveness.

“You therefore put your belt on your waist, arise, and speak to them all that I command you. Don’t be dismayed at them, lest I dismay you before them.


Formula-marked citation ('because it is written, You shall be holy, for I am holy'). Leviticus 11:44-45 supplies the holiness ground anchored in the exodus ('I am the LORD who brought you up out of Egypt to be your God'), matching Peter's redemption framing. Highest volume—explicit quotation.

For I am Yahweh your God. Sanctify yourselves therefore, and be holy; for I am holy: neither shall you defile yourselves with any kind of creeping thing that moves on the earth. For I am Yahweh who brought you up out of the land of Egypt, to be your God. You shall therefore be holy, for I am holy.


'You shall be holy, for I the LORD your God am holy' is the most verbally exact source of 1:16 and heads the Holiness Code chapter Peter draws on repeatedly (love of neighbor, impartiality). Co-primary with Leviticus 11:44-45.

“Speak to all the congregation of the children of Israel, and tell them, ‘You shall be holy; for I, Yahweh your God, am holy.


'The God of gods... who is not partial and takes no bribe' is the locus classicus for 'judges impartially, without respect of persons' (1:17). Distinctive 'shows no partiality' formula; high thematic coherence.

For Yahweh your God, he is God of gods, and Lord of lords, the great God, the mighty, and the awesome, who doesn’t respect persons, nor takes reward.


'You repay each according to his work' supplies the second half of 1:17 (judges 'according to each one's work'); a fixed retributive formula. Moderate volume, recurs widely.

Also to you, Lord, belongs loving kindness, for you reward every man according to his work.


'I the LORD... give to each according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds' parallels the judge-by-works formula; secondary witness, low distinctiveness.

I, Yahweh, search the mind, I try the heart, even to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his doings.


'The Lord is judge, and with him there is no partiality' shows the impartial-judge formula in Second Temple piety, supporting the recurrence of 1:17's idea; minimal verbal borrowing.

Think not to corrupt with gifts; for he will not receive them: And set not your mind on an unrighteous sacrifice; For the Lord is judge, And with him is no respect of persons. He will not accept any person against a poor man; And he will listen to the prayer of him that is wronged.


'You were sold for nothing, and you shall be redeemed without money' stands behind 'redeemed, not with silver or gold' (1:18)—redemption explicitly not monetary. Distinctive silver/gold-vs-true-redemption contrast.

For thus says Yahweh, “You were sold for nothing; and you shall be redeemed without money.”


'I will redeem you with an outstretched arm' is the exodus redemption verb Peter applies to ransom 'from the futile ways inherited from your fathers'—a new exodus from ancestral bondage. Thematic coherence high.

Therefore tell the children of Israel, ‘I am Yahweh, and I will bring you out from under the burdens of the Egyptians, and I will rid you out of their bondage, and I will redeem you with an outstretched arm, and with great judgments:


'Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, worthless things (vanity) in which there is no profit' closely matches 'the futile ways inherited from your fathers' (1:18)—ancestral idolatry as vanity. Notable verbal contact (inherited+vain+fathers).

Yahweh, my strength, and my stronghold, and my refuge in the day of affliction, to you shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say, Our fathers have inherited nothing but lies, vanity and things in which there is no profit.


'Your lamb shall be without blemish, a male a year old' is the Passover-lamb specification behind 'a lamb without blemish or spot' (1:19), reinforcing the redemption/exodus matrix of the pericope. High volume on the without-blemish lamb.

Your lamb shall be without defect, a male a year old. You shall take it from the sheep, or from the goats:


'Like a lamb that is led to the slaughter... he opened not his mouth' supplies the suffering-Servant lamb whose blood ransoms; Peter fuses Passover lamb with Isaian Servant (cf. the dense Isaiah 53 citation in 2:22-25). High thematic coherence and recurrence in the letter.

He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so he didn’t open his mouth.


The sacrificial requirement that an offering be 'without blemish... no defect' generalizes the spotless-lamb language of 1:19 across the cult. Supports volume of the blemish-free motif.

that you may be accepted, you shall offer a male without defect, of the bulls, of the sheep, or of the goats. But whatever has a defect, that you shall not offer; for it shall not be acceptable for you.


'My servant shall be exalted and lifted up' grounds 'raised him from the dead and gave him glory' (1:21)—the Servant's vindication. Faint, figural, but coherent with Peter's suffering-then-glory pattern.

Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.


'Love one another earnestly from the heart' (1:22) draws on the Holiness Code command 'you shall love your neighbor as yourself'—the same Leviticus 19 chapter Peter quotes for holiness in 1:16. Recurrence within the source chapter supports the link though Peter rephrases.

“‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.


'Living and abiding word of God' resonates with oaths by 'him who lives forever'; faint, the enduring/living quality is better anchored in the Isaiah 40 citation that follows.

I heard the man clothed in linen, who was above the waters of the river, when he held up his right hand and his left hand to heaven, and swore by him who lives forever that it shall be for a time, times, and a half; and when they have made an end of breaking in pieces the power of the holy people, all these things shall be finished.


Verbatim, formula-introduced citation ('For, All flesh is like grass... the grass withers, the flower falls, but the word of the Lord endures forever'). Peter quotes the LXX of Isaiah 40:6-8 to ground the imperishable seed/word; highest volume. Isaiah's word-of-comfort frames the whole exile-and-restoration ecclesiology of the letter.

The voice of one saying, “Cry!” One said, “What shall I cry?” “All flesh is like grass, and all its glory is like the flower of the field. The grass withers, the flower fades, because Yahweh’s breath blows on it. Surely the people are like grass. The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God stands forever.”


'As for man, his days are like grass; he flourishes like a flower of the field; the wind passes over it and it is gone' is a parallel grass/flower-frailty topos reinforcing the Isaiah 40 quotation. Moderate volume; same withering-flower imagery.

As for man, his days are like grass. As a flower of the field, so he flourishes. For the wind passes over it, and it is gone. Its place remembers it no more.


'Why are you afraid of mortal man... who fades like grass?' is a nearby Isaian grass-frailty saying within the same comfort-of-Zion section, supporting the Isaiah 40 recurrence. Low distinctiveness on its own.

“I, even I, am he who comforts you: who are you, that you are afraid of man who shall die, and of the son of man who shall be made as grass;


Humanity 'like grass that is renewed in the morning... in the evening it fades and withers' is another grass-mortality witness underlining the perishable-vs-enduring contrast of 1:23-25. Faint, thematic.

You sweep them away as they sleep. In the morning they sprout like new grass. In the morning it sprouts and springs up. By evening, it is withered and dry.


"if indeed you have tasted that the Lord is gracious" (2:3) closely reworks Psalm 34:8 LXX (33:9), "taste and see that the Lord is good (chrēstos)." The verb 'tasted' plus the divine predicate is a strong verbal borrowing; the wordplay chrēstos/Christos prepares the turn to the living stone. Psalm 34 recurs across 1 Peter (cf. 3:10-12 quoting Ps 34:12-16), raising recurrence and volume.

Oh taste and see that Yahweh is good. Blessed is the man who takes refuge in him.


"long for the pure milk of the Word" (2:2) picks up the 'word' (logos/rhēma) by which the readers were reborn (1:23-25, where Isa 40:6-8 is just quoted); the abiding word of God is the nourishment metaphor here, an echo carried over from the immediately preceding citation.


"Behold, I lay in Zion a chief cornerstone, chosen, and precious: He who believes in him will not be disappointed" (2:6) is a formula-introduced citation ("it is contained in Scripture") of Isaiah 28:16 LXX. Verbatim: tithēmi en Siōn lithon... eklekton entimon, and the believer not being put to shame. The keywords 'chosen/precious' also reach back to v.4-5 ('chosen by God, precious').

Therefore thus says the Lord Yahweh, “Behold, I lay in Zion for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious cornerstone of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily.


"The stone which the builders rejected, has become the chief cornerstone" (2:7) is a verbatim quotation of Psalm 118:22 LXX (117:22). Part of the stacked stone-testimonia catena; the same text is a primary early-Christian Christological proof (cf. Mark 12:10; Acts 4:11). 'Rejected'/'builders' ties to the rejection theme of v.4.

The stone which the builders rejected has become the head of the corner.


"a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offense" (2:8) quotes Isaiah 8:14, lithos proskommatos kai petra skandalou. Third member of the stone catena, applied to the disobedient who stumble at the word; combined here (as in Rom 9:33) with Isa 28:16.

He will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel, he will be a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem.


"a royal priesthood... a holy nation" (2:9) draws directly on Exodus 19:6 LXX, basileion hierateuma kai ethnos hagion, the Sinai vocation of Israel now applied to the church. High volume; the priesthood theme also undergirds v.5 ('holy priesthood... spiritual sacrifices').

and you shall be to me a kingdom of priests, and a holy nation.’ These are the words which you shall speak to the children of Israel.”


"a chosen race... a people for God's own possession, that you may proclaim the excellence of him" (2:9) is woven from Isaiah 43:20-21 LXX, 'my chosen race (genos eklekton)... my people whom I preserved to declare my excellencies (aretas).' The distinctive phrase 'proclaim the excellencies/aretas' is verbatim from Isa 43:21 and not from Exod 19, marking this as a separate source fused into the title-collage.

The animals of the field shall honor me, the jackals and the ostriches; because I give water in the wilderness and rivers in the desert, to give drink to my people, my chosen, the people which I formed for myself, that they might declare my praise.


"a people for God's own possession" (2:9) renders laos eis peripoiēsin, echoing the 'peculiar treasure/possession' (laos periousios / segullah) of Exodus 19:5; reinforces the Sinai covenant frame alongside Exod 19:6, and resonant with Mal 3:17 / Isa 43:21.

Now therefore, if you will indeed obey my voice, and keep my covenant, then you shall be my own possession from among all peoples; for all the earth is mine;


"who in time past were no people, but now are God's people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy" (2:10) reworks Hosea 2:23 (LXX 2:25), 'I will say to Not-my-people, You are my people' and 'I will have mercy on Not-pitied.' The double not-people/people and not-mercy/mercy antithesis is the signature of Hosea, also taken up in Rom 9:25.

I will sow her to me in the earth; and I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; and I will tell those who were not my people, ‘You are my people;’ and they will say, ‘My God!’”


"were no people, but now are God's people" (2:10) also draws on Hosea 1:9-10, the naming of Lo-ammi ('not my people') and the reversal 'you are sons of the living God.' Companion source to Hos 2:23 supplying the 'not a people' title; high recurrence within the Hosea reversal oracle.

He said, “Call his name Lo-Ammi; for you are not my people, and I will not be yours. Yet the number of the children of Israel will be as the sand of the sea, which can’t be measured nor numbered; and it will come to pass that, in the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘sons of the living God.’


"coming to him, a living stone, rejected indeed by men, but chosen by God" (2:4) anticipates and conditions the catena: the 'rejected by men / chosen by God' contrast frames the stone testimonia of vv.6-8 and the figural identification of Christ as the temple cornerstone before any is formally cited.


"chosen by God, precious" (2:4) pre-echoes Isaiah 28:16's eklekton entimon ('chosen and precious'), the very words cited in v.6; Peter introduces the catena's keywords narratively before quoting, a deliberate framing device.


"rejected indeed by men" (2:4) anticipates 'the stone which the builders rejected' of Ps 118:22 (v.7); apodedokimasmenon shares the rejection motif, weaving the psalm into the opening description of Christ as living stone.


"as living stones, are built up as a spiritual house, to be a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices" (2:5) is a typological reading of the Zion-stone oracle: believers become the new temple founded on Christ the cornerstone, a priesthood offering spiritual (not Levitical) sacrifices. The figural new-temple/new-Israel construal organizes the whole pericope.


"For you who believe therefore is the honor" (2:7) plays on Isa 28:16's 'precious/honor' (entimon/timē) as the antithesis to the builders' rejection of Ps 118:22, binding the two quotations into a single believe/disbelieve contrast.


"I beg you as foreigners and pilgrims" (2:11) echoes the sojourner self-designation paroikos kai parepidēmos of Genesis 23:4 LXX (Abraham), also Psalm 39:12 (LXX 38:13). Reinforces the letter's elect-exile theme (1:1, 1:17); the patriarchal alien status is figurally applied to the diaspora church.

“I am a stranger and a foreigner living with you. Give me a possession of a burying-place with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.”


"foreigners and pilgrims" (2:11) also recalls Psalm 39:12 (LXX 38:13), 'I am a sojourner (paroikos) with you and a pilgrim (parepidēmos), as all my fathers were' — the precise LXX pairing of both nouns, supplying the alien-on-earth posture.

“Hear my prayer, Yahweh, and give ear to my cry. Don’t be silent at my tears. For I am a stranger with you, a foreigner, as all my fathers were.


"they may by your good works... glorify God in the day of visitation" (2:12) uses 'day of visitation' (hēmera episkopēs), the LXX phrase of Isaiah 10:3 ('what will you do in the day of visitation?'); the Gentiles' eventual glorifying of God when God visits frames the eschatological reckoning behind honorable conduct.

What will you do in the day of visitation, and in the desolation which will come from afar? To whom will you flee for help? Where will you leave your wealth?


"having good behavior among the nations, so in that of which they speak against you" (2:12) inverts Isaiah 52:5 LXX, 'my name is continually blasphemed among the nations (ethnesin)' — where Israel's conduct caused God's name to be reviled, the church's good works among the nations cause it to be glorified.

“Now therefore, what do I do here,” says Yahweh, “seeing that my people are taken away for nothing? Those who rule over them mock,” says Yahweh, “and my name continually all the day is blasphemed.


"glorify God" through the witness of conduct 'among the nations' (2:12) resonates with Ezekiel 36:23, God sanctifying his name profaned among the nations so that the nations know him; a faint thematic parallel to the vindication-of-the-name motif.

I will sanctify my great name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst; and the nations shall know that I am Yahweh, says the Lord Yahweh, when I shall be sanctified in you before their eyes.


"Fear God. Honor the king" (2:17) closely mirrors Proverbs 24:21 LXX, 'Fear God, my son, and the king (phobou ton theon... kai basilea)' — the paired imperatives toward God and king are a near-verbatim wisdom borrowing structuring the closing quatrain.

My son, fear Yahweh and the king. Don’t join those who are rebellious:


Submission 'to the king as supreme' and to governors (2:13-14) reflects the wisdom counsel to keep the king's command (Eccl 8:2-5); a faint thematic backdrop to honoring civil authority.

I say, “Keep the king’s command!” because of the oath to God. Don’t be hasty to go out of his presence. Don’t persist in an evil thing, for he does whatever pleases him, for the king’s word is supreme. Who can say to him, “What are you doing?” Whoever keeps the commandment shall not come to harm, and his wise heart will know the time and procedure.


"who did not sin, 'neither was deceit found in his mouth'" (2:22) quotes Isaiah 53:9 LXX, 'he did no lawlessness, nor was deceit (dolos) found in his mouth.' Verbatim citation of the Servant; anchors the Christ-as-suffering-Servant exemplum.

They made his grave with the wicked, and with a rich man in his death; although he had done no violence, neither was any deceit in his mouth.


"when he was cursed, didn't curse back. When he suffered, didn't threaten" (2:23) interprets Isaiah 53:7, 'he was afflicted yet opened not his mouth; like a lamb led to slaughter... he opens not his mouth.' The Servant's silent non-retaliation is the model for unjustly suffering servants.

He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t open his mouth. As a lamb that is led to the slaughter, and as a sheep that before its shearers is mute, so he didn’t open his mouth.


"who his own self bore our sins in his body on the tree" (2:24) draws on Isaiah 53:4 LXX, 'he bears our sins (houtos tas hamartias hēmōn pherei),' fused with 53:12. The vicarious sin-bearing is the theological core of the Servant application.

Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted.


"bore our sins in his body" (2:24) also reflects Isaiah 53:12, 'he bore the sins of many (autos hamartias pollōn anēnegken)' — the verb anapherō ('bore/bore up') matches 53:12 LXX, making this a distinct source-clause alongside 53:4.

Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.


"by whose stripes you were healed" (2:24) is a near-verbatim citation of Isaiah 53:5 LXX, 'by his bruise (tō mōlōpi autou) we were healed.' Distinctive rare word mōlōps marks high volume.

But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed.


"For you were going astray like sheep; but now have returned" (2:25) reworks Isaiah 53:6 LXX, 'all we like sheep have gone astray (planēthēmen).' The verb 'gone astray' + 'sheep' is verbatim from the Servant song; the 'returned' supplies the gospel reversal.

All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all.


"returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls" (2:25) draws on the divine-shepherd oracle of Ezekiel 34, where God himself seeks and gathers the scattered sheep; the straying-sheep/returning-to-shepherd movement of Isa 53:6 is completed with Ezekiel's restoring shepherd imagery.

For thus says the Lord Yahweh: Behold, I myself, even I, will search for my sheep, and will seek them out. As a shepherd seeks out his flock in the day that he is among his sheep that are scattered abroad, so will I seek out my sheep; and I will deliver them out of all places where they have been scattered in the cloudy and dark day. I will bring them out from the peoples, and gather them from the countries, and will bring them into their own land; and I […]


"the Shepherd... of your souls" (2:25) faintly recalls the Lord-as-shepherd of Psalm 23:1; a thematic resonance of God's pastoral care behind the title applied to Christ.

Yahweh is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing.


"that we, having died to sins, might live to righteousness" (2:24) resonates with Isaiah 53:11, the Servant who 'makes many righteous (dikaiōsai dikaion)'; the righteousness outcome of sin-bearing parallels the Servant's justifying work.

After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities.


The pattern of patient unjust suffering held up as example (2:19-21) reflects the despised-and-rejected Servant of Isaiah 53:3, conditioning the whole exemplum before the formal citations begin.

He was despised, and rejected by men; a man of suffering, and acquainted with disease. He was despised as one from whom men hide their face; and we didn’t respect him.


Sarah's submission and her calling Abraham 'lord' (kyrios in LXX) is the explicit verbal anchor for 3:6 'as Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.' In Genesis 18:12 Sarah laughs and says 'after I am grown old shall I have pleasure, my lord (kyrios) being old also.' Peter borrows the LXX address-title 'kyrios' as the proof-text for the submissive yet honored wife.

Sarah laughed within herself, saying, “After I have grown old will I have pleasure, my lord being old also?”


'Whose children you now are' (3:6) extends the Abrahamic-promise logic: Gentile believing wives become daughters of Sarah/children of the Abrahamic covenant, echoing the promise that Abraham would father a people. Faint and dependent on the Sarah link.

Now Yahweh said to Abram, “Get out of your country, and from your relatives, and from your father’s house, to the land that I will show you. I will make of you a great nation. I will bless you and make your name great. You will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. All of the families of the earth will be blessed in you.”


Sarah as the matriarch who 'hoped in God' and bore Isaac in old age informs the portrait of 'the holy women before who hoped in God' (3:5). Thematic, not verbal.

Sarah said, “God has made me laugh. Everyone who hears will laugh with me.” She said, “Who would have said to Abraham, that Sarah would nurse children? For I have borne him a son in his old age.”


'Charm is deceitful and beauty is vain, but a woman who fears the LORD is to be praised' undergirds the contrast in 3:3-4 between outward adornment (braided hair, gold, fine clothing) and the inner adornment of 'a gentle and quiet spirit' fearing God. Strong thematic coherence with the Proverbs ideal of the praiseworthy woman.

Charm is deceitful, and beauty is vain; but a woman who fears Yahweh, she shall be praised.


Isaiah's catalogue of women's outward finery — braided/ornamental hair, jewelry, fine garments — that God will strip away may color Peter's list of external adornments in 3:3. Faint, list-of-finery parallel.

In that day the Lord will take away the beauty of their anklets, the headbands, the crescent necklaces, the earrings, the bracelets, the veils, the headdresses, the ankle chains, the sashes, the perfume bottles, the charms, the signet rings, the nose rings, the fine robes, the capes, the cloaks, the purses, the hand mirrors, the fine linen garments, the tiaras, and the shawls. It shall happen that instead of sweet spices, there shall be rottenness; […]


'Joint heirs of the grace of life' (3:7), with husband and wife as co-heirs, faintly echoes the equal-dignity creation of male and female in the image of God. Disputed and thematic only.

God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.


The longest OT quotation in 1 Peter (3:10-12) reproduces Psalm 34:12-16 (LXX 33:13-17) nearly verbatim: 'He who would love life and see good days, let him keep his tongue from evil... let him turn away from evil and do good, let him seek peace and pursue it. For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears open to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.' Psalm 34 saturates 1 Peter (cf. 2:3 'you have tasted that the Lord is good' = Ps 34:8); Peter mines it as a charter for the righteous-suffering community. Formal quotation, no introductory formula but verbatim citation.

Who is someone who desires life, and loves many days, that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking lies. Depart from evil, and do good. seek peace, and pursue it. Yahweh’s eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry. Yahweh’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory from the earth.


'Whoever returns evil for good, evil will not depart from his house' lies behind 3:9 'not rendering evil for evil.' The non-retaliation ethic of repaying evil with blessing draws on the wisdom prohibition of returning evil.

Whoever rewards evil for good, evil shall not depart from his house.


'Do not say, I will repay evil; wait for the LORD and he will deliver you' directly grounds the non-retaliation command of 3:9 ('not rendering evil for evil... but instead blessing'), entrusting vindication to God rather than self.

Don’t say, “I will pay back evil.” Wait for Yahweh, and he will save you.


'You shall not take vengeance or bear a grudge... but love your neighbor as yourself' underlies the cluster of 3:8-9 — brotherly love, tender-heartedness, and refusal to retaliate. The love-command tradition stands behind the communal virtue list.

“‘You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the children of your people; but you shall love your neighbor as yourself. I am Yahweh.


'That you may inherit a blessing' (3:9) sounds the Abrahamic blessing-inheritance theme — those who bless rather than curse inherit the promised blessing. Faint, thematic.

I will bless those who bless you, and I will curse him who curses you. All of the families of the earth will be blessed in you.”


'Speak the truth to one another... do not devise evil in your hearts... love no false oath' parallels the call to keep the tongue from evil and lips from deceit (3:10) and to seek peace (3:11). Faint, may be mediated through Psalm 34.

These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates, and let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath: for all these are things that I hate,” says Yahweh.


1 Peter 3:14-15 quotes Isaiah 8:12-13: 'Do not fear what they fear, neither be troubled (Isa 8:12), but sanctify the LORD of hosts (Isa 8:13)' — Peter christologizes it to 'sanctify the Lord [Christ] God in your hearts.' The Isaianic 'do not fear, do not be in dread, but the LORD of hosts him you shall regard as holy' becomes the charter for fearless witness under hostility. Formal quotation woven into the exhortation.

“Don’t say, ‘A conspiracy!’ concerning all about which this people say, ‘A conspiracy!’ neither fear their threats, nor be terrorized. Yahweh of Armies is who you must respect as holy. He is the one you must fear. He is the one you must dread.


The immediately following Isaianic 'stone of stumbling and rock of offense' (echoed in 1 Pet 2:8) suggests Peter has the whole Isaiah 8 context in view; the suffering-righteous who fear God not man inhabit that sanctuary-vs-stumbling frame. Contextual echo.

He will be a sanctuary, but for both houses of Israel, he will be a trap and a snare for the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Many will stumble over it, fall, be broken, be snared, and be captured.”


'Be zealous for / imitators of that which is good' and 'suffer for righteousness' sake' (3:13-14) continue the Psalm 34 program just quoted ('depart from evil and do good'); the do-good ethic flows directly out of the citation, a recurrence binding the pericopes.

Depart from evil, and do good. seek peace, and pursue it.


The Servant's confident 'the Lord GOD helps me... who will declare me guilty?' parallels 3:13 'who is he who will harm you, if you become imitators of that which is good?' — vindication of the righteous sufferer. Faint, thematic.

For the Lord Yahweh will help me; therefore I have not been confounded: therefore have I set my face like a flint, and I know that I shall not be disappointed. He is near who justifies me; who will bring charges against me? Let us stand up together: who is my adversary? Let him come near to me. Behold, the Lord Yahweh will help me; who is he who shall condemn me? Behold, all they shall wax old as a garment, the moth shall eat them up.


The flood narrative is invoked typologically: 'the days of Noah while the ship was being built' (3:20). Peter reads the wickedness and judgment of the antediluvian world (Gen 6) as the backdrop against which the ark/baptism deliverance is the antitype (antitypos, 3:21). The flood's saving-through-water becomes the type fulfilled in baptism — explicitly figural.

When men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them, God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took any that they wanted for themselves as wives. Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred twenty years.” The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters and had children […]


'Few, that is, eight souls, were saved through water' (3:20) cites the ark deliverance of Genesis 7 (Noah, his wife, three sons and their wives = eight). The salvation 'through water' is the explicit antitype of baptism in 3:21 — the flood-water that destroyed the disobedient world saves the elect remnant in the ark. Typological/figural reading of the flood as baptism.

Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation. You shall take seven pairs of every clean animal with you, the male and his female. Of the animals that are not clean, take two, the male and his female. Also of the birds of the sky, seven and seven, male and female, to keep seed alive on the surface of all the earth. In seven days, I will cause it to rain on the earth for […]


God's 'waiting patiently in the days of Noah' (3:20) reflects the long patience while the ark was built and the flood receded (Gen 8); the divine forbearance toward the disobedient generation undergirds the patience motif. Recurrence within the Noah cycle.

God remembered Noah, all the animals, and all the livestock that were with him in the ship; and God made a wind to pass over the earth. The waters subsided. The deep’s fountains and the sky’s windows were also stopped, and the rain from the sky was restrained. The waters continually receded from the earth. After the end of one hundred fifty days the waters decreased. The ship rested in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on Ararat’s […]


'My Spirit shall not abide in man forever... his days shall be 120 years' — the limited span of divine patience before the flood — directly informs '(God) waited patiently in the days of Noah' (3:20), the period of forbearance before judgment.

Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred twenty years.”


The 'disobedient' spirits/generation 'who before were disobedient in the days of Noah' (3:19-20) echo the corruption and violence that filled the earth (Gen 6:11-13). Faint, depends on identifying the 'spirits in prison' with the Noahic generation.

The earth was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. God saw the earth, and saw that it was corrupt, for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth. God said to Noah, “I will bring an end to all flesh, for the earth is filled with violence through them. Behold, I will destroy them and the earth.


The 'sons of God' who transgressed before the flood (Gen 6:1-4) feed the Second-Temple Watchers tradition (1 Enoch) widely thought to lie behind 'the spirits in prison' to whom Christ preached (3:19). Contested: whether the spirits are fallen angels (Watchers) or the human dead of Noah's generation.


'Christ also suffered for sins once, the righteous for the unrighteous' (3:18) draws on the Servant who 'bore the sin of many' and 'the righteous one, my servant, shall make many to be accounted righteous.' The vicarious righteous-for-unrighteous formula extends 1 Peter's sustained use of Isaiah 53 (cf. 2:22-25).

After the suffering of his soul, he will see the light and be satisfied. My righteous servant will justify many by the knowledge of himself; and he will bear their iniquities. Therefore will I divide him a portion with the great, and he shall divide the plunder with the strong; because he poured out his soul to death, and was numbered with the transgressors; yet he bore the sin of many, and made intercession for the transgressors.


The Servant who is 'exalted and lifted up' parallels the exaltation of the suffering-then-glorified Christ 'at the right hand of God, having gone into heaven' (3:22). Faint, part of the Isaiah 52-53 Servant arc.

Behold, my servant shall deal wisely, he shall be exalted and lifted up, and shall be very high.


'Who is at the right hand of God' (3:22) cites the enthronement formula of Psalm 110:1 'Sit at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.' The subjection of 'angels and authorities and powers' to the exalted Christ realizes the footstool-of-enemies motif. The most-cited royal psalm for Christ's exaltation.

Yahweh says to my Lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I make your enemies your footstool for your feet.”


'Put to death in the flesh, but made alive in the spirit' (3:18) and Christ's descent/proclamation faintly echo the Psalm of resurrection hope ('you will not abandon my soul to Sheol'), a text early Christians applied to Christ's vindication from death. Faint, thematic.

For you will not leave my soul in Sheol, neither will you allow your holy one to see corruption.


The exaltation of the suffering one to heavenly dominion over 'angels and authorities and powers' (3:22) recalls the Son of Man given everlasting dominion and all powers subjected to him. Faint, thematic cosmic-subjection parallel.

I saw in the night visions, and behold, there came with the clouds of the sky one like a son of man, and he came even to the ancient of days, and they brought him near before him. There was given him dominion, and glory, and a kingdom, that all the peoples, nations, and languages should serve him: his dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shall not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.


"Christ suffered for us in the flesh" (4:1) reprises the Suffering Servant who suffered/bore in his body, the controlling christological frame of 1 Peter (cf. 2:21-25). Sets up the believer's call to share that mindset.

Surely he has borne our sickness, and carried our suffering; yet we considered him plagued, struck by God, and afflicted. But he was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The punishment that brought our peace was on him; and by his wounds we are healed. All we like sheep have gone astray. Everyone has turned to his own way; and Yahweh has laid on him the iniquity of us all. He was oppressed, yet when he was afflicted he didn’t […]


"Arm yourselves" (hoplisasthe, 4:1) may echo the divine warrior who puts on righteousness/salvation as armor; the military arming metaphor recurs in early Christian paraenesis. Faint and disputed.

He put on righteousness as a breastplate, and a helmet of salvation on his head; and he put on garments of vengeance for clothing, and was clad with zeal as a mantle.


The vice catalog of 4:3 (lewdness, drunken binges, orgies, "abominable idolatries") follows the Hellenistic-Jewish topos that Gentile idolatry breeds sexual and social corruption, classically developed in Wisdom's indictment of idol-worship. Deuterocanonical.

[source text not in the World English Bible]


"Abominable idolatries" (4:3) and the catalog of "desire of the Gentiles" recall the Holiness Code's warning against the abominations of the nations that defile the land; shared abomination-of-the-Gentiles framing. Thematic, contested.

“‘Don’t defile yourselves in any of these things: for in all these the nations which I am casting out before you were defiled. The land was defiled: therefore I punished its iniquity, and the land vomited out her inhabitants. You therefore shall keep my statutes and my ordinances, and shall not do any of these abominations; neither the native-born, nor the stranger who lives as a foreigner among you; (for all these abominations have the men of the land […]


Drunkenness, whoredom, and idolatry chained together as the religion of the nations parallels the moral logic of the 4:3 vice list. Faint.

Prostitution, wine, and new wine take away understanding. My people consult with their wooden idol, and answer to a stick of wood. Indeed the spirit of prostitution has led them astray, and they have been unfaithful to their God. They sacrifice on the tops of the mountains, and burn incense on the hills, under oaks and poplars and terebinths, because its shade is good. Therefore your daughters play the prostitute, and your brides commit adultery. I will […]


God "ready to judge the living and the dead" (4:5) draws on the OT confession that the LORD comes to judge the earth/the peoples; cf. Psalm 98:9. Generic judgment-theophany echo.

before Yahweh; for he comes, for he comes to judge the earth. He will judge the world with righteousness, the peoples with his truth.


"Him who is ready to judge" (4:5) reflects the standing title of God as Judge of all the earth who renders account. Faint topical echo.

Be it far from you to do things like that, to kill the righteous with the wicked, so that the righteous should be like the wicked. May that be far from you. Shouldn’t the Judge of all the earth do right?”


"The end of all things is near" (4:7) strongly recalls Ezekiel's emphatic oracle, "An end! The end has come... the end is upon you," the prophetic announcement of imminent eschatological judgment. Shared end (telos) language and nearness.

You, son of man, thus says the Lord Yahweh to the land of Israel, An end: the end has come on the four corners of the land. Now is the end on you, and I will send my anger on you, and will judge you according to your ways; and I will bring on you all your abominations. My eye shall not spare you, neither will I have pity; but I will bring your ways on you, and your abominations shall be in your midst: and you shall know that I am Yahweh. Thus says the […]


"Love covers a multitude of sins" (4:8) verbatim-quotes Proverbs 10:12 ("love covers all transgressions"), closer to the Hebrew/proverbial sense than LXX. Foundational maxim of the pericope; cf. James 5:20.

Hatred stirs up strife, but love covers all wrongs.


The call to hospitality (4:9) and stewardship of gifts toward one another resonates with the prophetic ideal of sharing bread and shelter with the needy. Thematic, faint.

Isn’t it to distribute your bread to the hungry, and that you bring the poor who are cast out to your house? When you see the naked, that you cover him; and that you not hide yourself from your own flesh?


"He who covers a transgression seeks love" offers a near-parallel proverb to 4:8, reinforcing the love-covers-sin tradition; possible secondary source alongside Proverbs 10:12.

He who covers an offense promotes love; but he who repeats a matter separates best friends.


The "fiery trial... to test you" (4:12) draws on the wisdom/prophetic metaphor of the crucible refining metal as God tests his people; cf. the smelting imagery the verse shares with Proverbs 17:3.

The crucible is for silver, and the furnace for gold; but man is refined by his praise.


The refining fire that purifies (4:12) echoes the Lord's coming as a refiner's fire who purges the sons of Levi; this same Malachi context (judgment beginning at the temple) also feeds 4:17.

“But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderer’s soap; and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and refine them as gold and silver; and they shall offer to Yahweh offerings in righteousness.


"I will bring the third part through the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and try them as gold" closely parallels the testing-by-fire of God's remnant in 4:12. Strong thematic and verbal coherence.

I will bring the third part into the fire, and will refine them as silver is refined, and will test them like gold is tested. They will call on my name, and I will hear them. I will say, ‘It is my people;’ and they will say, ‘Yahweh is my God.’”


"You, God, have tested us; you have refined us as silver is refined" supplies the same trial-as-refining figure behind 4:12. Faint, one of several refining texts.

For you, God, have tested us. You have refined us, as silver is refined.


"The Spirit of glory and of God rests on you" (4:14) reworks "the Spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him" (the messianic endowment), transferring the resting Spirit from the Messiah to the reproached believer. Verbal "rests/Spirit" link.

The Spirit of Yahweh will rest on him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of Yahweh.


Being "insulted for the name of Christ" (4:14) evokes the psalmist bearing the reproach of God's servants and of the LORD's anointed; shared reproach-for-the-name motif. Cf. Psalm 69:9.

Remember, Lord, the reproach of your servants, how I bear in my heart the taunts of all the mighty peoples, With which your enemies have mocked, Yahweh, with which they have mocked the footsteps of your anointed one.


"Judgment to begin with the household of God" (4:17) draws directly on the command to begin the slaughter "at my sanctuary," i.e., judgment commencing with God's own house before the wider world. Core source for the verse's logic.

kill utterly the old man, the young man and the virgin, and little children and women; but don’t come near any man on whom is the mark: and begin at my sanctuary. Then they began at the old men that were before the house.


"I begin to bring evil on the city which is called by my name, and should you go utterly unpunished?" supplies the a fortiori structure of 4:17 (if it begins with us, what of the disobedient?). Strong conceptual parallel.

For, behold, I begin to work evil at the city which is called by my name; and should you be utterly unpunished? You shall not be unpunished; for I will call for a sword on all the inhabitants of the earth, says Yahweh of Armies.


The Lord suddenly coming to his temple to judge begins purifying judgment at the house of God (4:17), reinforcing Ezekiel 9; the same passage's refining fire underlies 4:12.

“Behold, I send my messenger, and he will prepare the way before me; and the Lord, whom you seek, will suddenly come to his temple; and the messenger of the covenant, whom you desire, behold, he comes!” says Yahweh of Armies. “But who can endure the day of his coming? And who will stand when he appears? For he is like a refiner’s fire, and like launderer’s soap; and he will sit as a refiner and purifier of silver, and he will purify the sons of Levi, and […]


"You only have I known... therefore I will punish you" expresses the same principle that election intensifies rather than exempts from judgment, undergirding 4:17. Thematic.

“You only have I chosen of all the families of the earth. Therefore I will punish you for all of your sins.”


"If it is hard for the righteous to be saved, what will happen to the ungodly and the sinner?" (4:18) cites Proverbs 11:31 in its LXX form verbatim (the LXX renders the Hebrew as a saved/scarcely-saved a fortiori). Formula-cited proverb.

Behold, the righteous shall be repaid in the earth; how much more the wicked and the sinner!

If the righteous scarcely be saved, where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear?


"Entrust their souls to him" (4:19) echoes "Into your hand I commit my spirit," the psalm of committing oneself to God amid suffering (also on Christ's lips, Luke 23:46). Verbal commit-to-God parallel.

Into your hand I commend my spirit. You redeem me, Yahweh, God of truth.


"A faithful Creator" (4:19) draws on the prophetic confession of God as the faithful Creator and Redeemer of his people who can be trusted in trial. Faint, supports the entrusting-to-Creator theme.

But now thus says Yahweh who created you, Jacob, and he who formed you, Israel: “Don’t be afraid, for I have redeemed you. I have called you by your name. You are mine.


The command to 'shepherd the flock of God,' with the rebuke of leaders who lord it over and feed themselves rather than the sheep, draws directly on Ezekiel 34's oracle against the shepherds of Israel who fed themselves and ruled harshly, and on God's promise to shepherd his flock himself. The motifs of oversight, not domineering, and the contrast of true vs. self-serving shepherds are densely shared.

Yahweh’s word came to me, saying, Son of man, prophesy against the shepherds of Israel, prophesy, and tell them, even to the shepherds, Thus says the Lord Yahweh: Woe to the shepherds of Israel who feed themselves! Shouldn’t the shepherds feed the sheep? You eat the fat, and you clothe yourself with the wool, you kill the fatlings; but you don’t feed the sheep. You haven’t strengthened the diseased, neither have you healed that which was sick, neither […]


Jeremiah's woe against shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep, and God's promise to set faithful shepherds over the flock who will tend them, supplies the same prophetic shepherd critique standing behind the charge to elders to tend God's flock rightly.

Woe to the shepherds who destroy and scatter the sheep of my pasture! says Yahweh. Therefore thus says Yahweh, the God of Israel, against the shepherds who feed my people: You have scattered my flock, and driven them away, and have not visited them; behold, I will visit on you the evil of your doings, says Yahweh. I will gather the remnant of my flock out of all the countries where I have driven them, and will bring them again to their folds; and they […]


The Lord-as-shepherd image and the flock's care undergird the 'chief Shepherd' designation; the underlying Davidic shepherd theology resonates even if not verbally borrowed.

Yahweh is my shepherd: I shall lack nothing.


'He will feed his flock like a shepherd, gathering the lambs in his arms' colors the tender-shepherd ideal that the elders are to embody and that the chief Shepherd fulfills.

He will feed his flock like a shepherd. He will gather the lambs in his arm, and carry them in his bosom. He will gently lead those who have their young.


The worthless shepherd who does not care for the flock furnishes another prophetic backdrop for the warning against shepherding for dishonest gain rather than the sheep's good.

Thus says Yahweh my God: “Feed the flock of slaughter. Their buyers slaughter them, and go unpunished. Those who sell them say, ‘Blessed be Yahweh, for I am rich;’ and their own shepherds don’t pity them. For I will no more pity the inhabitants of the land,” says Yahweh; “but, behold, I will deliver the men everyone into his neighbor’s hand, and into the hand of his king. They will strike the land, and out of their hand I will not deliver them.” So I fed […]


The prayer for a leader so the congregation 'be not as sheep without a shepherd' lies behind the biblical pattern of appointed shepherds over God's people that the elders here continue.

“Let Yahweh, the God of the spirits of all flesh, appoint a man over the congregation, who may go out before them, and who may come in before them, and who may lead them out, and who may bring them in; that the congregation of Yahweh not be as sheep which have no shepherd.”


The promise that the wise 'shall shine... like the stars forever' parallels the imperishable 'crown of glory' awarded the faithful shepherds at the chief Shepherd's revealing.

Those who are wise shall shine as the brightness of the expanse; and those who turn many to righteousness as the stars forever and ever.


The righteous receiving 'a glorious crown' and 'beautiful diadem' from the Lord's hand parallels the unfading crown of glory, a Second Temple development of the reward motif.

[source text not in the World English Bible]


'God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble' is a near-verbatim citation of Proverbs 3:34 LXX (which reads 'God' for MT 'he'/'the Lord'), introduced with proverbial authority; the same LXX form is quoted at James 4:6.

Surely he mocks the mockers, but he gives grace to the humble.

The Lord resists the proud; but he gives grace to the humble.


'When they are cast down... the humble person he saves' (LXX: God 'will save the one of lowly eyes') feeds the humility-then-exaltation logic of 'humble yourselves... that he may exalt you.'

When they cast down, you shall say, ‘be lifted up.’ He will save the humble person.


'The mighty hand of God' is the fixed exodus idiom for God's powerful, delivering action (the 'mighty hand' that brought Israel out of Egypt); here it frames the suffering exiles' submission under and rescue by that same hand.

I know that the king of Egypt won’t give you permission to go, no, not by a mighty hand. I will reach out my hand and strike Egypt with all my wonders which I will do in its midst, and after that he will let you go.


The recurrent Deuteronomic formula of God acting 'by a mighty hand and an outstretched arm' establishes 'the mighty hand of God' as a deliverance idiom underlying 5:6.

Or has God tried to go and take a nation for himself from the midst of another nation, by trials, by signs, by wonders, by war, by a mighty hand, by an outstretched arm, and by great terrors, according to all that Yahweh your God did for you in Egypt before your eyes?


'I will bring you out... with a mighty hand' applies the exodus 'mighty hand' to a restoration-from-exile context, fitting 1 Peter's address to elect exiles under God's hand.

and I will bring you out from the peoples, and will gather you out of the countries in which you are scattered, with a mighty hand, and with an outstretched arm, and with wrath poured out;


'Casting all your worries on him, because he cares for you' closely renders 'Cast your burden on the Lord, and he will sustain you' (LXX Ps 54:23), the clearest scriptural source for the anxiety-casting exhortation.

Cast your burden on Yahweh, and he will sustain you. He will never allow the righteous to be moved.


'Commit your way to the Lord; trust in him, and he will act' offers a parallel trust-and-cast-upon-God motif reinforcing Psalm 55:22 behind 5:7.

Commit your way to Yahweh. Trust also in him, and he will do this:


The enemies 'open wide their mouths at me, like a ravening and roaring lion' supplies the 'roaring lion seeking to devour' image for the devil; the suffering-righteous-one context of Psalm 22 fits the persecuted readers.

They open their mouths wide against me, lions tearing prey and roaring.


'The satan' as the accusing adversary who roams the earth (Job 1:7; 2:2) and tests the righteous stands behind 'your adversary, the devil, walks around... seeking whom he may devour,' and behind the call to withstand him steadfast in faith.

There was a man in the land of Uz, whose name was Job. That man was blameless and upright, and one who feared God, and turned away from evil. There were born to him seven sons and three daughters. His possessions also were seven thousand sheep, three thousand camels, five hundred yoke of oxen, five hundred female donkeys, and a very great household; so that this man was the greatest of all the children of the east. His sons went and held a feast in the […]


'Like a roaring lion or a charging bear is a wicked ruler over a poor people' contributes the roaring-lion image of a predatory oppressor, apt for the persecuting power the devil energizes.

As a roaring lion or a charging bear, so is a wicked ruler over helpless people.


'Lest like a lion they tear my soul apart' adds to the stock of lament psalms portraying the enemy as a devouring lion behind 5:8.

lest they tear apart my soul like a lion, ripping it in pieces, while there is no one to deliver.


Satan standing to accuse the high priest, and the Lord rebuking him, reinforces the adversary/accuser background to the devil whom believers are to resist.

He showed me Joshua the high priest standing before Yahweh’s angel, and Satan standing at his right hand to be his adversary. Yahweh said to Satan, “Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?”


Daniel's faithful endurance in the lions' den, delivered by God, is a possible typological resonance for steadfastly withstanding the roaring lion amid suffering.

Then the king commanded, and they brought Daniel, and cast him into the den of lions. The king spoke and said to Daniel, Your God whom you serve continually, he will deliver you. A stone was brought, and laid on the mouth of the den; and the king sealed it with his own signet, and with the signet of his lords; that nothing might be changed concerning Daniel. Then the king went to his palace, and passed the night fasting; neither were instruments of music […]


'She who is in Babylon' uses Babylon as a cryptonym for Rome, the imperial power; Jeremiah's oracles against Babylon as the place of exile and judgment supply the typology by which the church in Rome is figured as God's people in 'Babylon.'

Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and save every man his life; don’t be cut off in her iniquity: for it is the time of Yahweh’s vengeance; he will render to her a recompense. Babylon has been a golden cup in Yahweh’s hand, who made all the earth drunken: the nations have drunk of her wine; therefore the nations are mad. Babylon is suddenly fallen and destroyed: wail for her; take balm for her pain, if so be she may be healed.


Daniel's depiction of faithful exiles living under Babylon's empire establishes 'Babylon' as the type of the dominating pagan power among whom the elect sojourn, supporting the Babylon=Rome cryptonym.

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim king of Judah came Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon to Jerusalem, and besieged it. The Lord gave Jehoiakim king of Judah into his hand, with part of the vessels of the house of God; and he carried them into the land of Shinar to the house of his god: and he brought the vessels into the treasure house of his god. The king spoke to Ashpenaz the master of his eunuchs, that he should bring in some of the children of […]


'By the rivers of Babylon... we wept' crystallizes Babylon as the archetypal land of exile, resonating with 1 Peter's framing of its readers as elect exiles greeted from 'Babylon.'

By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down. Yes, we wept, when we remembered Zion.


Isaiah's burden against Babylon contributes to the prophetic Babylon-as-doomed-imperial-power tradition that makes Babylon an apt cryptonym for Rome.

The burden of Babylon, which Isaiah the son of Amoz saw: Set up a banner on the bare mountain! Lift up your voice to them! Wave your hand, that they may go into the gates of the nobles. I have commanded my consecrated ones; yes, I have called my mighty men for my anger, even my proudly exulting ones. The noise of a multitude is in the mountains, as of a great people; the noise of an uproar of the kingdoms of the nations gathered together! Yahweh of Armies […]


Becoming 'partakers of the divine nature' having escaped corruption draws on the creation of humanity in God's image and likeness — the restoration of the image is the goal of the divine promises.

God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” God created man in his own image. In God’s image he created him; male and female he created them.


'I said, you are gods, sons of the Most High' is the scriptural datum behind the deifying participation language of v.4.

I said, “You are gods, all of you are sons of the Most High.


Wisdom's sorites, ascending from desire of instruction to love and incorruption that 'brings one near to God,' is the closest Second-Temple model for Peter's chain of virtues beginning here and listed in vv.5-7.

For her true beginning is desire of discipline; And the care for discipline is love of her; And love of her is observance of her laws; And to give heed to her laws confirmeth incorruption; And incorruption brings near to God; So then desire of wisdom promoteth to a kingdom.


The graded virtue-chain ('in faith supply moral excellence; and in moral excellence, knowledge…') follows the sapiential sorites-form most fully developed in Wisdom 6, where one virtue leads to the next and finally to nearness to God.


The contrast of being 'not idle nor unfruitful' versus barrenness recalls the prophetic vineyard expected to bear fruit; a faint coherence with the fruitfulness theme.

Let me sing for my well beloved a song of my beloved about his vineyard. My beloved had a vineyard on a very fruitful hill. He dug it up, gathered out its stones, planted it with the choicest vine, built a tower in its midst, and also cut out a wine press therein. He looked for it to yield grapes, but it yielded wild grapes. “Now, inhabitants of Jerusalem and men of Judah, please judge between me and my vineyard. What could have been done more to my […]


'Make your calling and election sure' presupposes Israel's election as a chosen people, the covenant language Peter applies to the church's assurance.

For you are a holy people to Yahweh your God. Yahweh your God has chosen you to be a people for his own possession, above all peoples who are on the face of the earth.


'As long as I am in this tent… the putting off of my tent comes swiftly' uses the body-as-tent figure of Hezekiah's lament, 'my dwelling is plucked up and removed from me like a shepherd's tent.'

My dwelling is removed, and is carried away from me like a shepherd’s tent. I have rolled up, like a weaver, my life. He will cut me off from the loom. From day even to night you will make an end of me.


'The perishable body weighs down the soul, and this earthy tent burdens the mind' is the Hellenistic-Jewish source of the tent-of-the-body image Peter uses for his approaching death.

For a corruptible body weighs down the soul, And the earthy frame lies heavy on a mind that is full of cares.


The Transfiguration voice 'This is my beloved Son' fuses the royal-enthronement decree 'You are my Son' with the beloved-son language; Peter cites it as eyewitness confirmation of Christ's majesty.

I will tell of the decree. Yahweh said to me, “You are my son. Today I have become your father.


'In whom I am well pleased' reflects the Servant call, 'my chosen, in whom my soul delights,' the second strand woven into the heavenly voice.

“Behold, my servant, whom I uphold; my chosen, in whom my soul delights— I have put my Spirit on him. He will bring justice to the nations.


'Your son, your only son… whom you love' supplies the 'beloved Son' resonance, with the Aqedah lurking behind the Father's word over Jesus.

He said, “Now take your son, your only son, whom you love, even Isaac, and go into the land of Moriah. Offer him there for a burnt offering on one of the mountains which I will tell you of.”


'The holy mountain' and the voice from 'the Majestic Glory' recall Sinai, where the glory of the LORD settled on the mountain and God spoke from the cloud.

Moses went up on the mountain, and the cloud covered the mountain. Yahweh’s glory settled on Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six days. The seventh day he called to Moses out of the midst of the cloud. The appearance of Yahweh’s glory was like devouring fire on the top of the mountain in the eyes of the children of Israel.


'A lamp shining in a dark place' applies the psalm's 'your word is a lamp to my feet' to the prophetic word the readers do well to heed until the day dawns.

Your word is a lamp to my feet, and a light for my path.


'The morning star arises in your hearts' draws on Balaam's oracle, 'a star shall come out of Jacob,' the messianic star of dawn (cf. Malachi 4:2, the sun of righteousness).

I see him, but not now. I see him, but not near. A star will come out of Jacob. A scepter will rise out of Israel, and shall strike through the corners of Moab, and break down all the sons of Sheth.


'No prophecy ever came by the will of man, but holy men spoke being moved by the Holy Spirit' rests on David's claim, 'The Spirit of the LORD speaks by me; his word is on my tongue' — the model of Spirit-carried prophecy.

“The Spirit of Yahweh spoke by me. His word was on my tongue.


Balaam, on whom 'the Spirit of God came,' uttering the oracle of 'one who hears the words of God,' is a further instance of prophecy that comes not by human will but by the Spirit.

Balaam lifted up his eyes, and he saw Israel dwelling according to their tribes; and the Spirit of God came on him. He took up his parable, and said, “Balaam the son of Beor says, the man whose eyes are open says; he says, who hears the words of God, who sees the vision of the Almighty, falling down, and having his eyes open:


'False prophets arose among the people, as false teachers will be among you' presupposes the Mosaic law on the prophet who entices Israel after other gods and must be purged — the Deuteronomic category of the false prophet.

If a prophet or a dreamer of dreams arises in your midst you, and he gives you a sign or a wonder, and the sign or the wonder comes to pass, of which he spoke to you, saying, “Let us go after other gods” (which you have not known) “and let us serve them”; you shall not listen to the words of that prophet, or to that dreamer of dreams; for Yahweh your God is testing you, to know whether you love Yahweh your God with all your heart and with all your soul. […]


Jeremiah's false prophets who 'speak visions of their own minds' and lead the people astray supply the prophetic backdrop to the destructive teachers with their 'deceptive words.'

Thus says Yahweh of Armies, Don’t listen to the words of the prophets who prophesy to you: they teach you vanity; they speak a vision of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of Yahweh. They say continually to those who despise me, Yahweh has said, You shall have peace; and to everyone who walks in the stubbornness of his own heart they say, No evil shall come on you.


Ezekiel's foolish prophets who follow their own spirit and whitewash the wall add to the false-prophet portrait.

Thus says the Lord Yahweh, Woe to the foolish prophets, who follow their own spirit, and have seen nothing! Israel, your prophets have been like foxes in the waste places. You have not gone up into the gaps, neither built up the wall for the house of Israel, to stand in the battle in the day of Yahweh. They have seen falsehood and lying divination, who say, Yahweh says; but Yahweh has not sent them: and they have made men to hope that the word would be […]


'God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus' draws on the sons of God who took human wives before the flood, read in Second-Temple tradition as the rebellion of the Watchers.

When men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them, God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were beautiful, and they took any that they wanted for themselves as wives. Yahweh said, “My Spirit will not strive with man forever, because he also is flesh; so his days will be one hundred twenty years.” The Nephilim were in the earth in those days, and also after that, when God’s sons came in to men’s daughters and had children […]


The binding of the sinful angels in 'pits of darkness, reserved for judgment' follows the Enochic account of the Watchers chained in the valleys of the earth until the day of judgment — the explicit source of the imprisonment imagery (pseudepigraphal; cf. Jude 6).

[source text not in the World English Bible]


'He did not spare the ancient world but preserved Noah with seven others… when he brought a flood' rests on the flood narrative and the eight souls saved in the ark.

Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation.


'Turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them… an example' draws directly on the destruction of the cities by fire and sulfur as a paradigm of judgment.

Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky. He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the inhabitants of the cities, and that which grew on the ground.


'Delivered righteous Lot, distressed by the lustful life of the wicked' depends on Lot's rescue from Sodom; Peter reads him as the righteous man tormented among the lawless.

He said, “Please, my brothers, don’t act so wickedly. See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you may do to them what seems good to you. Only don’t do anything to these men, because they have come under the shadow of my roof.” They said, “Stand back!” Then they said, “This one fellow came in to live as a foreigner, and he appoints himself a judge. Now will we deal worse with you, than with them!” They pressed hard on […]


Wisdom's account that she 'rescued a righteous man when the ungodly were perishing' as fire fell on Pentapolis is the Second-Temple reading of Lot as the rescued righteous one.

While the ungodly were perishing, wisdom delivered a righteous man, When he fled from the fire that descended out of heaven on Pentapolis.


'The LORD knows how to deliver the godly… and to keep the unrighteous under punishment' restates the psalm's confidence that the LORD delivers the righteous out of all their afflictions.

The righteous cry, and Yahweh hears, and delivers them out of all their troubles. Yahweh is near to those who have a broken heart, and saves those who have a crushed spirit. Many are the afflictions of the righteous, but Yahweh delivers him out of them all.


That even angels 'do not bring a railing judgment' against the dignitaries before the Lord parallels the rebuke 'The LORD rebuke you, O Satan' — the restraint of the angel before God that Jude 9 makes explicit.

Yahweh said to Satan, “Yahweh rebuke you, Satan! Yes, Yahweh who has chosen Jerusalem rebuke you! Isn’t this a burning stick plucked out of the fire?”


'Like unreasoning animals, born natural creatures to be taken and destroyed' echoes the psalm's 'man… is like the beasts that perish,' the bestial-and-doomed figure for those without understanding.

But man, despite his riches, doesn’t endure. He is like the animals that perish.


'They followed the way of Balaam… who loved the wages of wrongdoing, but was rebuked… a mute donkey spoke with a man's voice and stopped the madness of the prophet' depends directly on Balaam and the speaking donkey of Numbers 22.

Balaam rose up in the morning, and saddled his donkey, and went with the princes of Moab. God’s anger was kindled because he went; and Yahweh’s angel placed himself in the way for an adversary against him. Now he was riding on his donkey, and his two servants were with him. The donkey saw Yahweh’s angel standing in the way, with his sword drawn in his hand; and the donkey turned aside out of the way, and went into the field. Balaam struck the donkey, to […]


Balaam's later role in enticing Israel to sin at Peor ('loved the wages of wrongdoing') deepens the indictment of the false teachers' greed (cf. Deuteronomy 23:4-5).

Behold, these caused the children of Israel, through the counsel of Balaam, to commit trespass against Yahweh in the matter of Peor, and so the plague was among the congregation of Yahweh.


'Wells without water' inverts the prophetic image of the LORD as 'the fountain of living waters' whom the people forsook for 'broken cisterns that can hold no water' — the false teachers promise water and give none.

“For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the spring of living waters, and cut them out cisterns, broken cisterns, that can hold no water.


Peter cites it as a 'true proverb': 'The dog turns to his own vomit again' reproduces Proverbs 26:11, 'like a dog that returns to his vomit is a fool who repeats his folly.' The washed-sow saying is paired with it as a popular proverb.

As a dog that returns to his vomit, so is a fool who repeats his folly.


The broader proverbial portrait of the fool incorrigible in folly stands behind the double proverb of the dog and the sow.

A whip is for the horse, a bridle for the donkey, and a rod for the back of fools!


The mockers' taunt 'Where is the promise of his coming?' echoes the scoffers of Jeremiah, 'Where is the word of the LORD? Let it come!' — the derision of a delayed divine word.

Behold, they tell me, Where is Yahweh’s word? let it come now.


'Let him be quick… that we may know it' — the mockers who dare God's purpose to hurry — is the prophetic prototype of those who scoff at the deferred day of the Lord.

Who say, “Let him make speed, let him hasten his work, that we may see it; and let the counsel of the Holy One of Israel draw near and come, that we may know it!”


'The days grow long, and every vision comes to nothing' is the proverb of delay Ezekiel must refute, parallel to 'all things continue as they were from the beginning of creation.'

Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision fails?


'By the word of God… an earth formed out of water and amid water' draws on the creation, where God's word separated the waters and gathered them so dry land appeared.

God said, “Let there be an expanse in the middle of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.” God made the expanse, and divided the waters which were under the expanse from the waters which were above the expanse; and it was so. God called the expanse “sky”. There was evening and there was morning, a second day. God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear”; and it was so.


'By the word of the LORD the heavens were made' grounds Peter's insistence that the heavens existed 'by the word of God,' the same creative word that now reserves them for fire.

By Yahweh’s word, the heavens were made; all their army by the breath of his mouth.


'The world that then was, being overflowed with water, perished' depends on the flood that destroyed the ancient world — the precedent for a coming judgment, now by fire.

In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, on the seventeenth day of the month, on the same day all the fountains of the great deep were burst open, and the sky’s windows were opened. It rained on the earth forty days and forty nights. In the same day Noah, and Shem, Ham, and Japheth—the sons of Noah—and Noah’s wife and the three wives of his sons with them, entered into the ship— they, and every animal after its kind, all the […]


'One day is with the Lord as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day' restates the psalm's 'a thousand years in your sight are but as yesterday when it is past' — God's time is not man's, answering the charge of delay.

For a thousand years in your sight are just like yesterday when it is past, like a watch in the night.


'Not wishing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance' reflects the LORD's declaration, 'Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked… and not rather that he should turn from his way and live?'

Have I any pleasure in the death of the wicked? says the Lord Yahweh; and not rather that he should return from his way, and live?


'The Lord is not slow concerning his promise' answers the vision that 'awaits its appointed time… if it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come.'

For the vision is yet for the appointed time, and it hurries toward the end, and won’t prove false. Though it takes time, wait for it; because it will surely come. It won’t delay.

For the vision is yet for a time, and it shall shoot forth at the end, and not in vain: though he should tarry, wait for him; for he will surely come, and will not tarry.


God 'gracious and merciful, slow to anger… and relents over disaster' grounds the patience that defers judgment for repentance (cf. Jonah 4:2).

Tear your heart, and not your garments, and turn to Yahweh, your God; for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and abundant in loving kindness, and relents from sending calamity.


'The heavens will pass away… the host of heaven shall rot away, and the skies roll up like a scroll' is the prophetic dissolution of the heavens behind 'the heavens will pass away with a great noise, and the elements will be dissolved.'

All of the army of the sky will be dissolved. The sky will be rolled up like a scroll, and all its armies will fade away, as a leaf fades from off a vine or a fig tree.


'The mountains will melt… like wax before the fire' supplies the melting-by-fire imagery of the day of the Lord.

The mountains melt under him, and the valleys split apart, like wax before the fire, like waters that are poured down a steep place.


'New heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness dwells' draws directly on 'I create new heavens and a new earth,' the prophetic promise of a renewed creation.

“For, behold, I create new heavens and a new earth; and the former things shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.


'The new heavens and the new earth that I make shall remain before me' is the companion promise behind Peter's hope of the abiding new creation where righteousness is at home.

“For as the new heavens and the new earth, which I will make, shall remain before me,” says Yahweh, “so your seed and your name shall remain.


'The heavens vanish like smoke, the earth will wear out like a garment… but my salvation will be forever' frames the dissolution-and-enduring-righteousness contrast Peter draws.

Lift up your eyes to the heavens, and look on the earth beneath; for the heavens shall vanish away like smoke, and the earth shall wax old like a garment; and those who dwell therein shall die in the same way: but my salvation shall be forever, and my righteousness shall not be abolished.


'In the fire of his jealousy all the earth shall be consumed' is a further day-of-the-LORD-by-fire antecedent for the burning heavens and melting elements.

Neither their silver nor their gold will be able to deliver them in the day of Yahweh’s wrath, but the whole land will be devoured by the fire of his jealousy; for he will make an end, yes, a terrible end, of all those who dwell in the land.


Being found 'without defect and blameless' uses the cultic language of the unblemished offering applied to the readers' moral state at the coming.

Whoever offers a sacrifice of peace offerings to Yahweh to accomplish a vow, or for a freewill offering, of the herd or of the flock, it shall be perfect to be accepted. It shall have no defect.