Bible Strands
1 Peter 5:6
Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, so that in due time He may exalt you.
Berean Standard Bible
Follow its threads on the canvas →
Study note
Setting — Peter addresses the scattered believers of Asia Minor, moving from mutual submission (5:5) to casting anxiety (5:7). The οὖν ("therefore") ties the exhortation directly to the Proverbs citation in the preceding verse.
The words — ταπεινὼθητε is an aorist passive imperative: "be humbled," not "humble yourselves." The voice shifts the work from the reader's effort to God's action, which the promise of exaltation confirms.
The thread — The humbling/exalting pair recurs in James 4:10, Luke 14:11, and Proverbs 29:23, always with the same structure: self-humbling precedes divine exaltation.
Why it lands — It demands that a reader stop managing their own standing and wait on a specific future act of God ("in due time"). The command is to receive, not to perform.
Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.
The Greek words
King James Version
Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time:
Cross-references
- James 4:10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and He will exalt you.
- Luke 14:11 For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
- Proverbs 29:23 A man’s pride will bring him low, but a humble spirit will obtain honor.
- Matthew 23:12 For whoever exalts himself will be humbled, and whoever humbles himself will be exalted.
- Luke 18:14 I tell you, this man, rather than the Pharisee, went home justified. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, but the one who humbles himself will be exalted.”
- 2 Chronicles 32:26 Then Hezekiah humbled the pride of his heart—he and the people of Jerusalem—so that the wrath of the LORD did not come upon them during the days of Hezekiah.
- Luke 1:52 He has brought down rulers from their thrones, but has exalted the humble.
- 2 Chronicles 12:12 Because Rehoboam humbled himself, the anger of the LORD turned away from him, and He did not destroy him completely. Indeed, conditions were good in Judah.
- 2 Chronicles 33:12 And in his distress, Manasseh sought the favor of the LORD his God and earnestly humbled himself before the God of his fathers.
- Isaiah 40:4 Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill made low; the uneven ground will become smooth, and the rugged land a plain.