Wherefore also. — The mention of Jesus Christ brings the writer back again to his theme, viz., that the whole system to which his readers belong has undergone a radical change, and is based on Jesus and His fulfilment of the sufferings and glories of the Messiah. The right reading here is not “wherefore also,” but because — i.e., the quotations are introduced in the same way as in 1 Peter 1:16; 1 Peter 1:24, as justifying the foregoing expressions.
It is contained in the scripture. — In the original the phrase is a curious one. “The scripture” never means the Old Testament as a whole, which would be called “the Scriptures,” but is always the particular book or passage of the Old Testament. Literally, then, our present phrase runs, because it encloses or contains in that passage. Thus attention is drawn to the context of the quotation, and in this context we shall again find what made St. Peter quote the text.
Behold, I lay. — The sentence is taken from Isaiah 28:16, and, like the last, is adapted to the occasion out of both Hebrew and LXX. Gesenius on that passage gives evidence to show that the early Jewish explanation, current in our Lord’s time, referred it to the Messiah; the later Rabbinical expositors, probably by way of opposition to the Christians, explained it to mean Hezekiah. In order to gain a clear conception of St. Peter’s aim in the quotation, it is necessary to glance over the whole section contained in the 28th and 29th Chapter s of Isaiah. “The prophecy here cited,” says Archbishop Leighton, “if we look upon it in its own place, we shall find inserted in the middle of a very sad denunciation of judgment against the Jews.” Besides our present text, which is quoted also in Romans 9:33, our Lord’s prophecy of the destruction of Jerusalem is an amplification of Isaiah 29:3-4; His sharp censure of the corrupt traditions which had superseded the law of God (Matthew 15:7-9) is taken from Isaiah 29:13; St. Paul’s image of the potter changing his purpose with the lump of clay (Romans 9:21), comes from Isaiah 29:16. Like one bright spot in the sad picture appears our verse, but only as serving to heighten the general gloom. St. Peter’s quotation here, therefore, calling attention as it does to the context, is at least as much intended to show his Hebrew readers the sweeping away of the carnal Israel as to encourage them in their Christian allegiance. In the original passage the sure foundation is contrasted with the refuge of lies which the Jewish rulers had constructed for themselves against Assyria, “scorning” this sure foundation as a piece of antiquated and unpractical religionism. Nägelsbach (in his new commentary on Isaiah) seems to be right in interpreting the “refuge of lies” to mean the diplomatic skill with which Ahaz and the Jewish authorities flattered themselves their treaty with Egypt was drawn up, and the “sure foundation” opposed to it is primarily God’s plighted promise to the house of David, in which all who trusted would have no cause for flight. In the Messianic fulfilment, those promises are all summed up in the one person of Jesus Christ (Acts 13:33; 2 Corinthians 1:20); and the “refuge of lies” in which the Jewish rulers had trusted was the wicked policy by which they had tried to secure their “place and nation” against the Romans (John 11:48).
In Sion. — In Isaiah it means that the people have not to look for any distant external aid, such as that of Pharaoh: all that they need is to be found in the city of David itself. Here, it seems to impress upon the Hebrew Christians that they are not abandoning their position as Hebrews by attaching themselves to Jesus Christ. It is they who are really clinging to Sion when the other Jews are abandoning her.
Shall not be confounded (or, ashamed). — Our version of Isaiah translates the Hebrew original by the unintelligible “shall not make haste.” It really means, shall not flee. While all the Jewish rulers, who had turned faithless and trusted in their finesse with Egypt, would have to flee from the face of the Assyrians, those who preserved their faith in God would be able to stand their ground. This, of course, did not come literally true in the first instance, where a common temporal overthrow came upon faithful and faithless alike, from Babylon, though not from Assyria. In the Messianic fulfilment, however, the faith or unbelief of the individual makes all the difference to him: the overthrow of the many does not affect the few. St. Peter adds to “believe” the words “on Him” or “on it.” which are found in neither the Hebrew nor the Greek of Isaiah, such an addition being quite in keeping with the Rabbinic method of quotation, which frequently alters words (comp. Matthew 2:6) to bring out the concealed intention more fully. The general quality of “faith” of which the prophet spoke, i.e., reliance on the promises of God, becomes faith in Him in whom the promises are fulfilled. For a like cause St. Peter prefers the LXX. “be ashamed” to the Hebrew “flee away,” there being (except at the Fall of Jerusalem) no opportunity for actual flight. It comes to the same thing in the end: “shall not find his confidence misplaced.”