They will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
Parallel translations
- WEB who will give account to him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
- KJV Who shall give account to him that is ready to judge the quick and the dead.
- BSB But they will have to give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
- NASB but they will give an account to Him who is ready to judge the living and the dead.
- NLT But remember that they will have to face God, who stands ready to judge everyone, both the living and the dead.
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
Those who slander believers will answer to God, the judge of the living and the dead. It assures the persecuted that final justice belongs to God, not to them.
Overview
Peter answers the slander of verse 4 by pointing to coming judgment. Every person, living or dead, will give account to God, who is 'ready to judge,' a role here closely tied to Christ. This frees believers from the need to retaliate, entrusting vindication to the righteous Judge.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 16
- Jas 5:9Don’t grumble, brothers, against one another, so that you won’t be judged. Behold, the judge stands at the door.
- Acts 10:42He commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that this is he who is appointed by God as the Judge of the living and the dead.
- 2 Tim 4:1I command you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom:
- Rom 14:10–12But you, why do you judge your brother? Or you again, why do you despise your brother? For we will all stand before the judgment seat of Christ.
- John 5:22–23For the Father judges no one, but he has given all judgment to the Son,
- Matt 12:36I tell you that every idle word that men speak, they will give account of it in the day of judgment.
- Acts 17:31because he has appointed a day in which he will judge the world in righteousness by the man whom he has ordained; of which he has given assurance to all men, in that he has raised him from the dead.”
- Jude 1:14–15About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones,
- 1 Cor 15:51–52Behold, I tell you a mystery. We will not all sleep, but we will all be changed,
- Ps 1:6For Yahweh knows the way of the righteous, but the way of the wicked shall perish.
- John 5:28–29Don’t marvel at this, for the hour comes, in which all that are in the tombs will hear his voice,
- Mal 3:13–15“Your words have been stout against me,” says Yahweh. “Yet you say, ‘What have we spoken against you?’
- Luke 16:2He called him, and said to him, ‘What is this that I hear about you? Give an accounting of your management, for you can no longer be manager.’
- Matt 25:31–46“But when the Son of Man comes in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then he will sit on the throne of his glory.
- Ezek 18:30“Therefore I will judge you, house of Israel, everyone according to his ways,” says the Lord Yahweh. “Return, and turn yourselves from all your transgressions; so iniquity shall not be your ruin.
- Eccl 12:14For God will bring every work into judgment, with every hidden thing, whether it is good, or whether it is evil.
Themes, concepts, people & topics
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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 4:5 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
Each word below is tagged with its Strong’s number — tap one to see the underlying Greek word, its meaning, and every verse that uses it.