Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God: which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
Parallel translations
- WEB who in time past were no people, but now are God’s people, who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
- BSB Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
- NKJV who once were not a people but are now the people of God, who had not obtained mercy but now have obtained mercy.
- NASB for you once were not a people, but now you are the people of God; you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.
- NLT “Once you had no identity as a people; now you are God’s people. Once you received no mercy; now you have received God’s mercy.”
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
Once they were not a people and had not received mercy, but now they are God's people who have received mercy. Believers' whole identity is the result of God's mercy.
Overview
Echoing Hosea, Peter describes the dramatic change God's mercy has made: outsiders have become his people, and the unpitied have obtained mercy. This is especially fitting for Gentile believers but applies to all who were once estranged from God. Everything they now are—God's people, recipients of mercy—they owe to God's gracious initiative in Christ.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 9
- Hos 2:23And I will sow her unto me in the earth; and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say to them which were not my people, Thou art my people; and they shall say, Thou art my God.
- Hos 1:9–10Then said God, Call his name Loammi: for ye are not my people, and I will not be your God.
- Rom 9:25–26As he saith also in Osee, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved.
- Heb 4:16Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
- Rom 11:6–7And if by grace, then is it no more of works: otherwise grace is no more grace. But if it be of works, then is it no more grace: otherwise work is no more work.
- Rom 10:19But I say, Did not Israel know? First Moses saith, I will provoke you to jealousy by them that are no people, and by a foolish nation I will anger you.
- 1 Tim 1:13Who was before a blasphemer, and a persecutor, and injurious: but I obtained mercy, because I did it ignorantly in unbelief.
- Rom 11:30For as ye in times past have not believed God, yet have now obtained mercy through their unbelief:
- 1 Cor 7:25Now concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of the Lord to be faithful.
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Christ at the center
The lamb without blemish foreknown before the world, who bore our sins in his body on the tree, by whose wounds we are healed — the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls.
How 1 Peter 2:10 points to him is part of the one story that runs through all Scripture — meet Jesus at the heart of the web, or follow a trail that traces him from Genesis to Revelation.
Original language
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