SEV Biblia, Chapter 5:8
¶ Sed templados, y velad; porque vuestro adversario el diablo, cual len rugiente, anda alrededor buscando a quien devorar;
Clarke's Bible Commentary - 1 Peter 5:8
Verse 8. 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, &c., who were now suffering a grievous persecution.
Walketh about] Traversing the earth; a plain reference to Job ii. 2, which see.
Seeking whom he may devour] tiny katapih? 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, &c., 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, nhyate from nh, not, and piein to drink; do not drink, do not swallow down: and the word katapih, from kata, down, and piein, 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.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 8. Be sober, be vigilant , etc.] The apostle had exhorted to each of these before; (see 1 Peter 1:13 4:7) but thought fit to repeat them; sobriety and watchfulness being exceeding necessary and useful in the Christian life; and the one cannot well be without the other: unless a man is sober in body and mind, he will not be watchful, either over himself or others, or against the snares of sin, Satan, and the world; and if he is not on his watch and guard, he is liable to every sin and temptation. The Syriac version renders the words, watch, and be ye mindful, or remember; watch with diligence, care, and industry, keeping a good lookout, minding and observing everything that presents, and remembering the power and cunning of the enemy; and the Ethiopic version renders them thus, be ye prudent, and cause your heart to understand; referring them not to temperance of body, but sobriety of mind, and to a prudent conduct and behaviour, as having a subtle as well as a malicious enemy to deal with: because your adversary the devil ; he who is a defamer and calumniator; who accuses God to men, and men to God, and is therefore styled the accuser of the brethren; he is the saints' avowed and implacable enemy.
Satan is an enemy to mankind in general, but more especially to the seed of the woman, to Christ personal, and to Christ mystical, to all the elect of God: the word here used is a forensic term, and signifies a court adversary, or one that litigates a point in law, or opposes another in an action or suit at law. The Jews have adopted this word into their language, and explain it by yd l[b , a law adversary, or one that has a suit of law depending against another. Satan accuses men of the breach of the law, and pleads that justice might take place, and punishment be inflicted, and which he pursues with great violence and diligence: as a roaring lion ; so called, both on account of his strength, and also because of his rage, malice, and cruelty, which he breathes out against the saints, who, though he cannot destroy them, will do all he can to terrify and affright them; so the young lions in ( <19A421> Psalm 104:21) are, by the Cabalistic Jews f104 , understood of devils; to which, for the above reasons, they may be truly compared: walketh about ; to and fro in the earth; (see Job 1:7) as a lion runs about here and there, when almost famished with hunger; and it also denotes the insidious methods, wiles, and stratagems Satan takes to surprise men, and get an advantage of them: he takes a tour, and comes round upon them, upon the back of them, at an unawares, so that they have need to be always sober, and upon their guard: seeking whom he may devour ; this is the end of his walking about: and the like is expressed in the Targum on ( Job 1:7 2:2) and Satan answered before the Lord, and said, from going about in the earth ydbw[b qdbml , to search into the works of the children of men, and from walking in it; that so he might have something to accuse them of, and they fall a prey into his hands. This is the work he is continually employed in; he is always seeking to do mischief, either to the souls, or bodies, or estates of men, especially the former; though he can do nothing in either respect without a permission, not unless he may; and though this, with respect to body and estate, is sometimes granted, as in the case of Job, yet never with respect to the souls of any of God's elect, which are safe in Christ's hands, and out of his reach; this hinders not but that saints should be sober and watchful.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 5-9 - Humility preserves peace and order in all Christian churches an societies; pride disturbs them. Where God gives grace to be humble, he will give wisdom, faith, and holiness. To be humble, and subject to ou reconciled God, will bring greater comfort to the soul than the gratification of pride and ambition. But it is to be in due time; no in thy fancied time, but God's own wisely appointed time. Does he wait and wilt not thou? What difficulties will not the firm belief of his wisdom, power, and goodness get over! Then be humble under his hand Cast "all you care;" personal cares, family cares, cares for the present, and cares for the future, for yourselves, for others, for the church, on God. These are burdensome, and often very sinful, when the arise from unbelief and distrust, when they torture and distract the mind, unfit us for duties, and hinder our delight in the service of God. The remedy is, to cast our care upon God, and leave every event to his wise and gracious disposal. Firm belief that the Divine will an counsels are right, calms the spirit of a man. Truly the godly to often forget this, and fret themselves to no purpose. Refer all to God's disposal. The golden mines of all spiritual comfort and good ar wholly his, and the Spirit itself. Then, will he not furnish what is fit for us, if we humbly attend on him, and lay the care of providin for us, upon his wisdom and love? The whole design of Satan is to devour and destroy souls. He always is contriving whom he may insnar to eternal ruin. Our duty plainly is, to be sober; to govern both the outward and the inward man by the rules of temperance. To be vigilant suspicious of constant danger from this spiritual enemy, watchful an diligent to prevent his designs. Be stedfast, or solid, by faith. A ma cannot fight upon a quagmire, there is no standing without firm groun to tread upon; this faith alone furnishes. It lifts the soul to the firm advanced ground of the promises, and fixes it there. The consideration of what others suffer, is proper to encourage us to bea our share in any affliction; and in whatever form Satan assaults us, or by whatever means, we may know that our brethren experience the same.
Greek Textus Receptus
νηψατε 3525 5657 γρηγορησατε 1127 5657 οτι 3754 ο 3588 αντιδικος 476 υμων 5216 διαβολος 1228 ως 5613 λεων 3023 ωρυομενος 5612 5740 περιπατει 4043 5719 ζητων 2212 5723 τινα 5101 καταπιη 2666 5632
Vincent's NT Word Studies
8. Be sober (nhyate). See on ch. iv. 7.Be vigilant (grhgorhsate). Rev., be watchful. See on Mark xiii. 35; and 1 Thessalonians v. 6, where both verbs occur: watch and be sober. A reminiscence of the scene in Gethsemane: Could ye not watch with me? (Matt. xxvi. 40, 41).
Adversary (o antidikov). The article points to a well-known adversary. From ajnti, against, and dikh, a lawsuit. Strictly, an adversary in a lawsuit. Here an adversary in general. Compare Zech. iii. 1-5. Only here, in New Testament, of Satan.
The devil. See on Matt. iv. 1.
Roaring (wruomenov). Only here in New Testament. The word conveys somewhat of the sense by the sound (oruomenos). It denotes especially the howl of a beast in fierce hunger.
Lion. Augustine says, "Christ is called 'a lion' (Apoc. v. 5) because of his courage: the devil, because of his ferocity. The one lion comes to conquer, the other to hurt." Seven Hebrew words are used for this animal; six to describe his movements and four to describe his roar. He is mentioned in the Bible about one hundred and thirty times. In Job iv. 10, 11, give different words are used for him. In Judg. xiv. 5; Ps. xxi. 13; ciii. 21 (Sept.), the same word as here is used for the roaring of the lion as a translation of the Hebrew word for the thunder in Job xxxvii. 4. Walketh about (peripatei). Compare Job i. 7; ii. 2. This word gave name to that sect of Greek philosophers known as Peripatetics, because they walked about while teaching or disputing. "St. Peter calls Satan the Peripatetic" (Cox, on Job). The Arabs call him the Busy One. It was to Peter that Christ said, "Satan hath desired to have you," etc. (Luke xxii. 31). Devour (katapih). Lit., swallow down. See on Matt. xxiii. 24.
