For the days will come upon you when your enemies will build a dirt wall around you, surrounding you, and hemming you in on every side.

"Simon, Simon [i.e., Peter], Satan has earnestly requested the right to sift you like wheat. [Note: Grain was sifted by using a sieve-like device in which grain and particles of dirt and straw were shaken together, allowing the grain to fall through while the dirt and straw remained. This was an allusion to the agitating trials Peter was soon to endure, and survive].

They said this to test Him, in order to have a charge to bring against Him. But Jesus stooped down and wrote [something] on the ground [i.e., in the dirt] with His finger.

This water prefigured immersion [into Christ], which now also saves you, not by removing dirt from the [physical] body, but [by serving] as an appeal [or, "pledge"] to God for a clear conscience through the raising of Jesus Christ from the dead.