1-peter 5:8
Translations
King James Version (KJV)
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour:
American King James Version (AKJV)
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour:
American Standard Version (ASV)
Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour,
Basic English Translation (BBE)
Be serious and keep watch; the Evil One, who is against you, goes about like a lion with open mouth in search of food;
Webster's Revision
Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
World English Bible
Be sober and self-controlled. Be watchful. Your adversary, the devil, walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.
English Revised Version (ERV)
Be sober, be watchful: your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour:
Definitions for 1-peter 5:8
Clarke's 1-peter 5:8 Bible Commentary
Be sober - Avoid drunkenness of your senses, and drunkenness in your souls; be not overcharged with the concerns of the world.
Be vigilant - Awake, and keep awake; be always watchful; never be off your guard; your enemies are alert, they are never off theirs.
Your adversary the devil - This is the reason why ye should be sober and vigilant; ye have an ever active, implacable, subtle enemy to contend with. He walketh about - he has access to you everywhere; he knows your feelings and your propensities, and informs himself of all your circumstances; only God can know more and do more than he, therefore your care must be cast upon God.
As a roaring lion - Satan tempts under three forms:
1. The subtle serpent; to beguile our senses, pervert our judgment, and enchant our imagination.
2. As an angel of light; to deceive us with false views of spiritual things, refinements in religion, and presumption on the providence and grace of God.
3. As a roaring lion; to bear us down, and destroy us by violent opposition, persecution, and death. Thus he was acting towards the followers of God at Pontus, etc., who were now suffering a grievous persecution.
Walketh about - Traversing the earth; a plain reference to Job 2:2, which see.
Seeking whom he may devour - Τινα καταπιῃ· Whom he may gulp down. It is not every one that he can swallow down: those who are sober and vigilant are proof against him, these he May Not swallow down; those who are drunken with the cares of this world, etc., and are unwatchful, these he May swallow down. There is a beauty in this verse, and a striking apposition between the first and last words, which I think have not been noticed: Be sober, νηψατε from νη, not, and πιειν to drink; do not drink, do not swallow down: and the word καταπιῃ, from κατα, down, and πιειν, to drink. If you swallow strong drink down, the devil will swallow you down. Hear this, ye drunkards, topers, tipplers, or by whatsoever name you are known in society, or among your fellow sinners. Strong drink is not only the way to the devil, but the devil's way into you; and Ye are such as the devil particularly May swallow down.
Barnes's 1-peter 5:8 Bible Commentary
Be sober - While you cast your cares Upon God, and have no anxiety on that score, let your solicitude be directed to another point. Do not doubt that he is able and willing to support and befriend you, but be watchful against your foes. See the word used here fully explained in the notes at 1 Thessalonians 5:6.
Be vigilant - This word (γρηγορέω grēgoreō) is everywhere else in the New Testament rendered "watch." See Matthew 24:42-43; Matthew 25:13; Matthew 26:38, Matthew 26:40-41. It means that we should exercise careful circumspection, as one does when he is in danger. In reference to the matter here referred to, it means that we are to be on our guard against the wiles and the power of the evil one.
Your adversary the devil - Your enemy; he who is opposed to you. Satan opposes man in his best interests. He resists his efforts to do good; his purposes to return to God; his attempts to secure his own salvation. There is no more appropriate appellation that can be given to him than to say that he resists all our efforts to obey God and to secure the salvation of our own souls.
As a roaring lion - Compare Revelation 12:12. Sometimes Satan is represented as transforming himself into an angel of light, (see the notes at 2 Corinthians 11:14); and sometimes, as here, as a roaring lion: denoting the efforts which he makes to alarm and overpower us. The lion here is not the crouching lion - the lion stealthfully creeping toward his foe - but it is the raging monarch of the woods, who by his terrible roar would intimidate all so that they might become an easy prey. The particular thing referred to here, doubtless, is persecution, resembling in its terrors a roaring lion. When error comes in; when seductive arts abound; when the world allures and charms the representation of the character of the foe is not of the roaring lion, but of the silent influence of an enemy that has clothed himself in the garb of an angel of light, 2 Corinthians 11:14.
Walketh about, seeking whom he may devour - "Naturalists have observed that a lion roars when he is roused with hunger, for then he is most fierce, and most eagerly seeks his prey. See Judges 14:5; Psalm 22:13; Jeremiah 2:15; Ezekiel 22:25; Hosea 11:10; Zephaniah 3:3; Zechariah 11:3" - Benson.
Wesley's 1-peter 5:8 Bible Commentary
5:8 But in the mean time watch. There is a close connexion between this, and the duly casting our care upon him. How deeply had St. Peter himself suffered for want of watching! Be vigilant - As if he had said, Awake, and keep awake. Sleep no more: be this your care. As a roaring lion - Full of rage. Seeking - With all subtilty likewise. Whom hemay devour or swallow up - Both soul and body.