What Does 1 Peter 2:22 Mean?
Who never missed the mark, nor was bait found in his mouth;
Key words are shown with the Hebrew or Greek and what each word meant.
Selah Decoded Version The Selah Decoded Version renders what the Hebrew and Greek words meant to the people who first heard them.
King James wording
King James Version
Who did no sin, neither was guile found in his mouth:THE KEY
The verse joins the absence of missing with the absence of bait: nothing in his life falls short, and nothing in his mouth lures another through deceit.
THE MEANING
The reader meets a life with no missing and speech without a hidden hook. Its wholeness holds action and words together in the present.
WHAT THIS UNDOES
A person can be whole while hiding intent in speech; this verse places integrity of action beside integrity of speech.
THE ROOT
ἁμαρτίαν
hamartian
GROWS FROM
ἁμαρτ-
hamart-
Missing, falling short of a mark
“never missed the mark” in this verse is hamartian. The word belongs to the ἁμαρτάνω (hamartanō, to miss) family, so “no sin” carries the image of no missing, no strike that falls short. Paired with the mouth’s freedom from δόλος (dolos, bait or deceit), it describes wholeness across action and speech.
ALSO GROWS
hamartanō: To miss, go wrong
ἁμαρτάνω
The verb gives “missing” the shape of an act; the verse says no such miss occurs.
hamartōlos: Sinner, one characterized by missing
ἁμαρτωλός
This related word names a person through the miss, while this verse describes a life with no missing.
δόλος
dolos
GROWS FROM
δολ-
dol-
Bait, lure; deceit that conceals its intent
δόλος (dolos, baited deceit) pictures false speech as a lure with a hidden hook. “Found in his mouth” makes speech the place where that bait is absent, joining truthful words to the absence of missing named by ἁμαρτία (hamartia, missing).
ALSO GROWS
dolios: Deceitful, treacherous
δόλιος
The adjective carries the same hidden intent, showing how the bait in speech can characterize a person or act.
dolioō: To deceive, beguile
δολιόω
This verb makes the root’s lure active: speech can draw someone in by concealing what it intends.
THE PATTERN
Wholeness shows in speech where no hidden bait sits behind the words.
Guard your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit.Jesus perceived Nathanael coming toward him, and said of him, Look, truly an Israelite, in whom there is no snare!And no lie is found in their mouth, for they are without blemish before the throne of God.THE THREAD
He set his grave among the wicked, and with the rich in his death, because he had done no violence, and no deceit was in his mouth.The Greek wording echoes Isaiah with the same noun, δόλος (dolos, deceit or bait), while the KJV renders it “deceit” here and “guile” in 1 Peter. The echo places a mouth without hidden intent alongside a life marked by no violence.
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