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1 Peter 1:24 Updated American Standard Version (UASV)
²⁴For,
“All flesh is like grass,
And all its glory like the flower of grass.
The grass withers,
And the flower falls off,

All flesh is like grass. That is, all human beings, all men. The connection here is this: The apostle, in the previous verse, had been contrasting that which is begotten by man with that which is begotten by God in reference to its permanency. The former was corruptible and decaying, the latter abiding. The latter was produced by God, who lives forever; the former by the agency of man, who is himself corruptible and dying. It was not unnatural, then, to dwell upon the feeble, frail, decaying nature of man, in contrast with God, and the apostle, therefore, says that ‘all flesh, every human being, is like grass. There is no stability in anything that man does or produces. He himself resembles grass that soon fades and withers, but God and his word endure forever the same.’ The comparison of a human being with grass or with flowers is very beautiful and is quite common in the Scriptures. The comparison turns on the fact that the grass or the flower, however green or beautiful it may be, soon loses its freshness; is withered; is cut down, and dies. Thus in …

Psalm 103:15-16:
¹⁵As for man, his days are like grass;
as a flower of the field, so he flourishes;
¹⁶for the wind passes over it, and it is gone,
and its place knows it no more.

Isaiah 40:6–8:
⁶A voice says, “Call out!”
And I said, “What shall I cry?”
All flesh is grass,
and all its loyal love is like the flower of the field.

James 1:10-11:
¹⁰and the rich man should boast in his humiliation, because like flowering grass he will pass away. ¹¹For the sun rises with a scorching wind and withers the grass; its flower falls, and its beauty perishes; so too will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits.

And all its glory. All that man prides himself on—his wealth, rank, talents, beauty, learning, splendor of equipage or apparel.

Like the flower of grass. The word rendered ‘grass,’ (χόρτος,) properly denotes herbage; that which furnishes food for animals—pasture, hay. Probably the prophet Isaiah, from whom this passage is taken, referred rather to the appearance of a meadow or a field, with mingled grass and flowers, constituting a beautiful landscape, than to mere grass. In such a field, the grass soon withers with heat, and with the approach of winter; and the flowers soon fade and fall.

The grass withers, and the flower falls off. This is repeated, as is common in the Hebrew writings, for the sake of emphasis, or strong confirmation.

By Albert Barnes and Edward D. Andrews