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.”
⛓ Read Isaiah 40 forward — the whole chapter and its afterlife →Where this passage surfaces again, sorted by the strength of the link. Each kind of reuse — formal quotation, deliberate allusion, faint echo, figural pattern — carries its own mark. Follow any reference to read it in place.
Quotation2
A formal citation — high verbal volume, often introduced by a saying-formula.
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.
High confidence'All flesh is grass... the grass withers, the flower fades.' James's portrait of the rich passing away 'like the flower in the grass,' withered by the scorching sun, is a near-quotation of Isaiah's oracle on the transience of mortal glory before the abiding word of God.
High confidenceAllusion3
A deliberate verbal borrowing without a citation formula.
"All flesh is grass... the grass withers, the flower fades... but the word of our God will stand forever" closely matches the world passing away with its lusts while the one who does God's will remains forever. The contrast of transient flesh and abiding word/will of God is the same.
High confidence'All flesh is grass... the grass withers, the flower fades' is the template for the grass which today exists and tomorrow is cast into the oven. The transience-of-grass imagery is verbally close and thematically apt to the 'little faith' contrast, giving high Volume.
High confidencePaul's claim that 'the present form of this world is passing away' stands in the prophetic tradition of Isa 40:6-8, where 'all flesh is grass' and the world's glory withers while God's word stands—the contrast of transient world and enduring divine order that grounds Paul's eschatological detachment. Coherence and availability are high. Volume conceptual; medium confidence.
Medium confidenceEcho2
A fainter, low-volume reuse, carried by recurrence or thematic coherence.
"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.
Medium confidence'All flesh is grass... the grass withers' — the transience of grass that today is and tomorrow is burned (v.30) draws on Isaiah's grass-and-flower imagery of human frailty.
Medium confidence