¹ Having therefore left all malice and all guile and hypocrisies and envies and all murmurings,

² as newborn babes, desire the rational milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby in health;

³ if so be ye have tasted that the Lord [is] benevolent;

⁴ coming unto whom (is the living Stone, disallowed indeed of men, but chosen of God, [and] precious),

⁵ ye also, as living stones, [are] built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, well pleasing to God by Jesus, the Christ.

⁶ Therefore, also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion the chief corner stone, chosen, precious; and he that believes on him shall not be confounded.

⁷ Unto you, therefore, who believe [he is] precious; but unto those who are disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,

⁸ and a stone of stumbling and a rock of offense, [even to those] who stumble at the word, not obeying in that for which they were ordained.

⁹ But ye are the chosen generation, [a] royal priesthood, [a] holy nation, [an] acquired people, that ye should show forth the virtues of him who has called you out of darkness into his marvellous light.

¹⁰ Ye who in the time past [were] not a people, but [are] now the people of God, who in the time past had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

¹¹ Dearly beloved, I beseech [you] as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from the carnal desires which war against the soul

¹² and have your honest conversation among the Gentiles, so that, in that which they murmur about you as of evildoers, having witnessed [your] good works, they may glorify God in the day of visitation.

¹³ Therefore, be subject to every human ordinance [that is] of the Lord, whether it be to a king or to a superior,

¹⁴ and unto governors as unto those that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers and for the praise of those that do well.

¹⁵ For this is the will of God, that [in] well doing ye may silence the ignorance of vain men,

¹⁶ as being free, yet not using [your] liberty to cover maliciousness, but as servants of God.

¹⁷ Honour all [men]. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.

¹⁸ Servants, [be] subject to [your] masters with all fear, not only to the good and humane, but also to the unjust.

¹⁹ For this [is] due to grace, if a man for conscience toward God endures grief, suffering wrongfully.

²⁰ For what glory [is it] if, when ye are buffeted for your faults, ye shall take it patiently? but if, when ye do well and suffer [for it], ye take it patiently, this [is] due to grace from God.

²¹ Because for this were ye called: for the Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that ye should follow his steps

²² who did no sin neither was guile found in his mouth,

²³ who, when he was cursed, did not return the curse; when he suffered, he did not threaten, but committed [himself] to him that judges righteously;

²⁴ he himself bore our sins in his own body on the tree, that we, being dead to sins, should live unto righteousness; by whose wound ye were healed.

²⁵ For ye were as sheep that had gone astray, but are now converted unto the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls.: