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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
24. διότι is used again to introduce a quotation in 1Pe 1:16 and 1Pe 2:6.
The quotation is taken from Isa 40:6-8, and agrees with the LXX. in omitting the words “because the breath of the Lord bloweth upon it.” But it differs from the LXX. (1) by inserting ὡς, (2) by substituting αὐτῆς for ἀνθρώπου, (3) by substituting Κυρίου for τοῦ θεοῦ ἡμῶν. Possibly, however, all of these changes already existed in the LXX. text used by St Peter. In the T.R. the first two have been altered here to agree with the usual text of the LXX. The words originally referred to the message of hope to the exiles in Babylon. Human help is weak and perishable, but God’s promise of restoration can never fail. Parts of the same passage are quoted in Jam 1:10-11 to shew the transitoriness of riches (see Intro. p. lvii.).
ἄνθος χόρτου means bright flowers such as the scarlet anemones which were characteristic of Palestine.
ἐξηράνθη … ἐξέπεσεν, the aorists are the LXX. rendering of the Hebrew perfect, which describes what has constantly been observed to happen. Accidentally this agrees with the classical idiom known as the “gnomic aorist,” used in proverbial sayings, but the only instance of such a “gnomic aorist” in the N.T. is Jam 1:11, where the same passage of Isaiah is quoted in the context, and possibly in Jam 1:24.
St Peter is contrasting the transitory character of heathen life, despite its many attractions, with the new life offered by God.
τὸ ῥῆμα τὸ εὐαγγελισθὲν εἰς ὑμᾶς. ῥῆμα is the spoken (or written) utterance of the λόγος or meaning which the speaker desires to convey. The Christian message, like that to the exiles in Babylon, is one of good tidings (εὐαγγελισθέν) of deliverance, εἰς ὑμᾶς, extended to, the Gentiles.