1 Peter 2:23

1 Peter 2:23. who, when reviled, reviled not again; when suffering, threatened not. Peter continues to speak partly under the influence of Isaiah's description (Isaiah 53:7 seems clearly in his mind, although he no longer reproduces the very words), and partly under that of personal recollection of what he had seen in Christ. The tenses change now from the simple historical past to imperfects expressive of sustained action. Most interpreters notice the climax from the reviling, or injury by word, to the more positive suffering, and from the abstinence from returning reviling in kind (the verb ‘reviled not again' is another word peculiar to Peter) to abstinence even from threats of retaliation where actual retaliation was impossible. The sentence, therefore, exhibits Christ's example in suffering in its quality of silence and patience, as the former verse dealt with the quality of innocence.

but left it to him that judgeth righteously. The Rhemish Version, following the singular reading of the Vulgate, renders ‘to him that judgeth him unjustly,' as if Pilate were the judge in view. Here, as in 1 Peter 1:17, God the Father's prerogative ‘of judgment' is introduced. There the impartial righteousness of His judgment was a reason for a walk in godly fear. Here it is the ground of assurance for the innocent sufferer. What is it, however, that Christ is said to have committed to this Righteous Judge? Many interpreters (e.g. Winer, de Wette, etc.) and Versions (including Wycliffe, the Rhemish, and both the A. V. and the R. V. in the text) supply himself as the object of the committal. This however, is to give the active verb a reflexive force; of which there is no example in the case of this verb, Mark 4:24, which is appealed to, not being really in point. Hence others make it = committed his judgment, or his cause (so Gerhard, Calvin, Beza, the Syriac, Tyndale, and the margin of both the A. V. and the R. V.), or his punishment (the Genevan), or his vengeance (Cranmer). The unnamed object, however, should naturally be supplied from the things dealt with in the immediate context. These are clearly the wrongs patiently endured by Christ. With Luther, therefore, etc., we may best render it indefinitely ‘left it,' understanding the ‘it' to refer to the subjection to reviling and suffering just mentioned. This is better than (with Alford) to make it = committed His revilers and injurers; although we might thus secure an allusion to Christ's prayer in behalf of His enemies (Luke 23:34).