But you are a chosen generation, a kingly priesthood, a holy nation, a purchased people: that you may declare his virtues, who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
Glossa Ordinaria
But you are a chosen generation. This testimony of praise, once given to the ancient people through Moses, the Apostle gives to the Gentiles who believe in Christ, who, as a corner stone, united the Gentiles into that salvation which Israel had had in itself. A royal priesthood. United to the body of the high priest, they were bound to hope for a kingdom and to offer to God the victims of an unspotted manner of life. Of acquisition, in the blood of his redemption, as the people of Israel was once redeemed out of Egypt by the blood of the lamb. Whence also in the following verse he mystically calls to mind the ancient history, and teaches that it was fulfilled specially in one people. That you may declare. As they, freed from Egypt, sang a song of triumph to the Lord, so we, after the darkness has been dissolved, after remission received through Christ, who leads us to the fatherland of the heavenly brightness, ought to repay to God thanks worthy of the heavenly benefits.
English is machine-translated from the public-domain Latin (Glossa Ordinaria, Migne, Patrologia Latina 113-114, 1852; digital text from Corpus Corporum, mlat.uzh.ch), since no public-domain English translation exists. It is not a scholarly translation. Please report errors.