Be vigilant] Awake, and keep awake; be always watchful; never be off your guard; your enemies are alert, they are never off theirs.

Your adversary the devil - This is the reason why ye should be sober and vigilant; ye have an ever active, implacable, subtle enemy to contend with.

He walketh about - he has access to you everywhere; he knows your feelings and your propensities, and informs himself of all your circumstances; only God can know more and do more than he, therefore your care must be cast upon God.

As a roaring lion] Satan tempts under three forms: 1. The subtle serpent; to beguile our senses, pervert our judgment, and enchant our imagination.

2. As an angel of light; to deceive us with false views of spiritual things, refinements in religion, and presumption on the providence and grace of God. 3. As a roaring lion; to bear us down, and destroy us by violent opposition, persecution, and death. Thus he was acting towards the followers of God at Pontus, &c., who were now suffering a grievous persecution.

Walketh about] Traversing the earth; a plain reference to Job ii. 2, which see.

Seeking whom he may devour] tiny katapih? Whom he may gulp down.

It is not every one that he can swallow down: those who are sober and vigilant are proof against him, these he MAY NOT swallow down; those who are drunken with the cares of this world, &c., and are unwatchful, these he MAY swallow down. There is a beauty in this verse, and a striking apposition between the first and last words, which I think have not been noticed: Be sober, nhyate from nh, not, and piein to drink; do not drink, do not swallow down: and the word katapih, from kata, down, and piein, to drink. If you swallow strong drink down, the devil will swallow you down. Hear this, ye drunkards, topers, tipplers, or by whatsoever name you are known in society, or among your fellow sinners.

Strong drink is not only the way to the devil, but the devil's way into you; and YE are such as the devil particularly MAY swallow down.

John Gill's Bible Commentary

Satan is an enemy to mankind in general, but more especially to the seed of the woman, to Christ personal, and to Christ mystical, to all the elect of God: the word here used is a forensic term, and signifies a court adversary, or one that litigates a point in law, or opposes another in an action or suit at law. The Jews have adopted this word into their language, and explain it by �yd l[b , �a law adversary�, or one that has a suit of law depending against another. Satan accuses men of the breach of the law, and pleads that justice might take place, and punishment be inflicted, and which he pursues with great violence and diligence: as a roaring lion ; so called, both on account of his strength, and also because of his rage, malice, and cruelty, which he breathes out against the saints, who, though he cannot destroy them, will do all he can to terrify and affright them; so the young lions in ( <19A421> Psalm 104:21) are, by the Cabalistic Jews f104 , understood of devils; to which, for the above reasons, they may be truly compared: walketh about ; to and fro in the earth; (see Job 1:7) as a lion runs about here and there, when almost famished with hunger; and it also denotes the insidious methods, wiles, and stratagems Satan takes to surprise men, and get an advantage of them: he takes a tour, and comes round upon them, upon the back of them, at an unawares, so that they have need to be always sober, and upon their guard: seeking whom he may devour ; this is the end of his walking about: and the like is expressed in the Targum on ( Job 1:7 2:2) �and Satan answered before the Lord, and said, from going about in the earth ydbw[b qdbml , �to search into the works� of the children of men, and from walking in it;� that so he might have something to accuse them of, and they fall a prey into his hands. This is the work he is continually employed in; he is always seeking to do mischief, either to the souls, or bodies, or estates of men, especially the former; though he can do nothing in either respect without a permission, not unless he �may�; and though this, with respect to body and estate, is sometimes granted, as in the case of Job, yet never with respect to the souls of any of God's elect, which are safe in Christ's hands, and out of his reach; this hinders not but that saints should be sober and watchful.

Matthew Henry Commentary

Greek Textus Receptus

Be vigilant (grhgorhsate). Rev., be watchful. See on Mark xiii. 35; and 1 Thessalonians v. 6, where both verbs occur: watch and be sober. A reminiscence of the scene in Gethsemane: Could ye not watch with me? (Matt. xxvi. 40, 41).

Adversary (o antidikov). The article points to a well-known adversary. From ajnti, against, and dikh, a lawsuit. Strictly, an adversary in a lawsuit. Here an adversary in general. Compare Zech. iii. 1-5. Only here, in New Testament, of Satan.

The devil. See on Matt. iv. 1.

Roaring (wruomenov). Only here in New Testament. The word conveys somewhat of the sense by the sound (oruomenos). It denotes especially the howl of a beast in fierce hunger.