But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that you may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light:
A people for God's own possession ...  In the old versions this was translated "a peculiar people"; but in time the expression came to mean "odd" or "queer," and is thus better rendered as here.  "The phrase literally means `a people for (God's) possession.'"[29] There is also a meaning of "especially, for his very own" in the words.