and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way; and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked (for that righteous man dwelling among them was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds): the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
Show the surrounding paragraph
2 Peter 2:5-9 sits inside this longer paragraph.
But false prophets also arose among the people, as false teachers will also be among you, who will secretly bring in destructive heresies, denying even the Master who bought them, bringing on themselves swift destruction. Many will follow their immoral ways, and as a result, the way of the truth will be maligned. In covetousness they will exploit you with deceptive words: whose sentence now from of old doesn’t linger, and their destruction will not slumber. For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved for judgment; and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly; and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way; and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked (for that righteous man dwelling among them was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds): the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment, but chiefly those who walk after the flesh in the lust of defilement and despise authority. Daring, self-willed, they are not afraid to speak evil of dignitaries; whereas angels, though greater in might and power, don’t bring a railing judgment against them before the Lord. But these, as unreasoning creatures, born natural animals to be taken and destroyed, speaking evil in matters about which they are ignorant, will in their destroying surely be destroyed, receiving the wages of unrighteousness; people who count it pleasure to revel in the daytime, spots and defects, reveling in their deceit while they feast with you; having eyes full of adultery, and who can’t cease from sin; enticing unsettled souls; having a heart trained in greed; children of cursing; forsaking the right way, they went astray, having followed the way of Balaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of wrongdoing; but he was rebuked for his own disobedience. A mute donkey spoke with a man’s voice and stopped the madness of the prophet. These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever. For, uttering great swelling words of emptiness, they entice in the lusts of the flesh, by licentiousness, those who are indeed escaping from those who live in error; promising them liberty, while they themselves are bondservants of corruption; for a man is brought into bondage by whoever overcomes him.
Parallel Translations
-
and didn’t spare the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood on the world of the ungodly;
and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them to destruction, having made them an example to those who would live in an ungodly way;
and delivered righteous Lot, who was very distressed by the lustful life of the wicked
(for that righteous man dwelling among them was tormented in his righteous soul from day to day with seeing and hearing lawless deeds):
the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptation and to keep the unrighteous under punishment for the day of judgment,
-
Nether spared the olde worlde but saved Noe the ryghte preacher of rightewesnes and brought in the flud vpon the worlde of the vngodly
and turned the cities of zodom and Gomor into asshes: overthrewe them damned them and made on them an ensample vnto all that after shuld live vngodly.
And iust Lot vexed with the vnclenly conversacion of the wicked delivered he.
For he beynge ryghteous and dwellynge amonge them in seynge and hearynge vexed his righteous soule from daye to daye with their vnlawfull dedes.
The lorde knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptacion and how to reserve the vniuste vnto the daye of iudgement for to be punisshed:
Show all 3 translations
-
Neither hath spared the olde worlde, but saued Noe the eight person a preacher of righteousnesse, and brought in the flood vpon the world of the vngodly,
And turned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrhe into ashes, condemned them and ouerthrewe them, and made them an ensample vnto them that after should liue vngodly,
And deliuered iust Loth vexed with the vncleanly conuersation of the wicked:
(For he being righteous, and dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soule from day to day with their vnlawfull deedes.)
The Lord knoweth to deliuer the godly out of tentation, and to reserue the vniust vnto the day of iudgement vnder punishment.
Examined in Scripture Analysis
Science (1)
Historical claims about the natural world, weighed against the scientific record.
Contradictions (4)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
Show all 4
Cross-references (59)
- Psalms 34:15-19 (v9) Yahweh’s eyes are toward the righteous. His ears listen to their cry. Yahweh’s face is against those who do evil, to cut off their memory…
- 1 Corinthians 10:13 (vv7, 9) No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able,…
- Revelation 3:10 (v9) Because you kept my command to endure, I also will keep you from the hour of testing which is to come on the whole world, to test those who…
- 2 Timothy 3:12 (v9) Yes, and all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
- Jude 1:7 (v6) Even as Sodom and Gomorrah and the cities around them, having in the same way as these given themselves over to sexual immorality and gone…
Show all 57 cross-references
- Jude 1:14-15 (vv5, 9) About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute…
- 2 Peter 3:7 (v9) But the heavens that exist now and the earth, by the same word have been stored up for fire, being reserved against the day of judgment and…
- Luke 17:28-30 (v6) Likewise, even as it was in the days of Lot: they ate, they drank, they bought, they sold, they planted, they built; but in the day that…
- 2 Corinthians 5:10-11 (v9) For we must all be revealed before the judgment seat of Christ that each one may receive the things in the body according to what he has…
- Hebrews 11:7 (v5) By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which…
- 2 Peter 3:6 (v5) by which means the world that existed then, being overflowed with water, perished.
- Genesis 19:16 (v7) But he lingered; and the men grabbed his hand, his wife’s hand, and his two daughters’ hands, Yahweh being merciful to him; and they took…
- Job 5:19 (v9) He will deliver you in six troubles; yes, in seven no evil will touch you.
- Proverbs 16:4 (v9) Yahweh has made everything for its own end— yes, even the wicked for the day of evil.
- Genesis 19:29 (v7) When God destroyed the cities of the plain, God remembered Abraham, and sent Lot out of the middle of the overthrow, when he overthrew the…
- Deuteronomy 29:23 (v6) that all of its land is sulfur, salt, and burning, that it is not sown, doesn’t produce, nor does any grass grow in it, like the overthrow…
- Titus 2:14 (v9) who gave himself for us, that he might redeem us from all iniquity, and purify for himself a people for his own possession, zealous for…
- 2 Peter 2:4 (v9) For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved for…
- Psalms 4:3 (v9) But know that Yahweh has set apart for himself him who is godly: Yahweh will hear when I call to him.
- Luke 17:26-27 (v5) As it was in the days of Noah, even so will it be also in the days of the Son of Man. They ate, they drank, they married, and they were…
- Romans 2:5 (v9) But according to your hardness and unrepentant heart you are treasuring up for yourself wrath in the day of wrath, revelation, and of the…
- Genesis 19:24-25 (v6) Then Yahweh rained on Sodom and on Gomorrah sulfur and fire from Yahweh out of the sky. He overthrew those cities, all the plain, all the…
- Numbers 26:10 (v6) and the earth opened its mouth, and swallowed them up together with Korah when that company died; at the time the fire devoured two hundred…
- Job 21:30 (v9) that the evil man is reserved to the day of calamity, That they are led out to the day of wrath?
- Psalms 119:158 (v8) I look at the faithless with loathing, because they don’t observe your word.
- Genesis 19:7-8 (v7) He said, “Please, my brothers, don’t act so wickedly. See now, I have two virgin daughters. Please let me bring them out to you, and you…
- Psalms 32:6 (v9) For this, let everyone who is godly pray to you in a time when you may be found. Surely when the great waters overflow, they shall not…
- Isaiah 13:19 (v6) Babylon, the glory of kingdoms, the beauty of the Chaldeans’ pride, will be like when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah.
- Jeremiah 50:40 (v6) As when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah and its neighbor cities,” says Yahweh, “so no man will dwell there, neither will any son of man…
- Ezekiel 9:4 (v8) Yahweh said to him, “Go through the middle of the city, through the middle of Jerusalem, and set a mark on the foreheads of the men that…
- Zephaniah 2:9 (v6) Therefore as I live, says Yahweh of Armies, the God of Israel, surely Moab will be as Sodom, and the children of Ammon as Gomorrah, a…
- 1 Corinthians 10:11 (v6) Now all these things happened to them by way of example, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the ends of the ages have come.
- Genesis 7:1-24 (v5) Yahweh said to Noah, “Come with all of your household into the ship, for I have seen your righteousness before me in this generation. You…
- Genesis 13:13 (v7) Now the men of Sodom were exceedingly wicked and sinners against Yahweh.
- Genesis 19:22 (v7) Hurry, escape there, for I can’t do anything until you get there.” Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar.
- Psalms 12:1 (v9) Help, Yahweh; for the godly man ceases. For the faithful fail from among the children of men.
- Psalms 119:136 (v8) Streams of tears run down my eyes, because they don’t observe your law.
- Matthew 24:37-39 (v5) “As the days of Noah were, so will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in those days which were before the flood they were eating and…
- 1 Peter 3:19-20 (v5) in whom he also went and preached to the spirits in prison, who before were disobedient, when God waited patiently in the days of Noah,…
- Genesis 19:28 (v6) He looked toward Sodom and Gomorrah, and toward all the land of the plain, and saw that the smoke of the land went up as the smoke of a…
- Proverbs 25:26 (v8) Like a muddied spring and a polluted well, so is a righteous man who gives way before the wicked.
- Jeremiah 9:1-6 (v7) Oh that my head were waters, and my eyes a spring of tears, that I might weep day and night for the slain of the daughter of my people! Oh…
- Jeremiah 23:9 (v7) Concerning the prophets: My heart within me is broken. All my bones shake. I am like a drunken man, and like a man whom wine has overcome,…
- Ezekiel 16:49-56 (v6) “ ‘ “Behold, this was the iniquity of your sister Sodom: pride, fullness of bread, and prosperous ease was in her and in her daughters. She…
- Hosea 11:8 (v6) “How can I give you up, Ephraim? How can I hand you over, Israel? How can I make you like Admah? How can I make you like Zeboiim? My heart…
- Amos 4:11 (v6) “I have overthrown some of you, as when God overthrew Sodom and Gomorrah, and you were like a burning stick plucked out of the fire; yet…
- 2 Peter 3:17 (v7) You therefore, beloved, knowing these things beforehand, beware, lest being carried away with the error of the wicked, you fall from your…
- Genesis 6:1-8 (v5) When men began to multiply on the surface of the ground, and daughters were born to them, God’s sons saw that men’s daughters were…
- Job 22:15-16 (v5) Will you keep the old way, which wicked men have trodden, who were snatched away before their time, whose foundation was poured out as a…
- Psalms 119:139 (v8) My zeal wears me out, because my enemies ignore your words.
- Proverbs 28:12 (v8) When the righteous triumph, there is great glory; but when the wicked rise, men hide themselves.
- Malachi 3:15-17 (v8) Now we call the proud happy; yes, those who work wickedness are built up; yes, they tempt God, and escape.’ Then those who feared Yahweh…
- 1 Timothy 1:9 (v8) as knowing this, that law is not made for a righteous person, but for the lawless and insubordinate, for the ungodly and sinners, for the…
- James 5:16 (v8) Confess your offenses to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is…
- Jude 1:15 (v6) to execute judgment on all, and to convict all the ungodly of all their works of ungodliness which they have done in an ungodly way, and of…
- Psalms 120:5 (v7) Woe is me, that I live in Meshech, that I dwell among the tents of Kedar!
- Ezekiel 9:6 (v8) Kill utterly the old man, the young man, the virgin, little children and women; but don’t come near any man on whom is the mark. Begin at…
57 distinct cross-references across this passage (59 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (23 sources)
Historical commentary, presented as a primary source — not an endorsement.
Private notes
Saved on this device only — never synced or sent anywhere.
John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv5, 6, 8, 9 5. The old world. The import of what he…
5. The old world. The import of what he says is, that God, after having drowned the human race, formed again as it were a new world. This is also an argument from the greater to the less; for how can the wicked escape the deluge of divine wrath, since the whole world was once destroyed by it? For by saying that eight only were saved, he intimates that a multitude would not be a shield against God to protect the wicked; but that as many as sin shall be punished, be they few or many in number.
But it may be asked why he calls Noah the preacher of righteousness. Some understand that he was the preacher of the righteousness of God, inasmuch as Scripture commends God's righteousness, because he defends his own and restores them, when dead, to life. But I rather think that he is called the preacher of righteousness, because he labored to restore a degenerated world to a sound mind, and this not only by his teaching and godly exhortations, but also by his anxious toil in building the ark for the term of a hundred and twenty years. Now, the design of the Apostle is to set before our eyes God’s wrath against the wicked, so as to encourage us at the same time to imitate the saints.
John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.
Geneva Bible translators 1599 · Public Domain On vv5, 8, 9 Which was before the Flood: not that God made…
Which was before the Flood: not that God made a new world, but because the world seemed new.
For he ceased not for the space of an hundred and twenty years to warn the wicked both by word and deed, what wrath of God hanged over their heads.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv5–9 5 And spared not the old world, but saved…
5 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;
Ver. 5. Bringing in the flood] And so burying them all in one universal grave of waters. In this universal deluge God swept away all: as if he had blotted that out of his title, Exo 34:6, and now took up that emperor’s motto, Fiat iustitia et pereat mundus, Let justice be done, though the whole world be undone.
John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Poole 1685 · Public Domain On vv5–9 And spared not the old world: the world, for…
And spared not the old world: the world, for men in the world, viz. those that lived in it before the flood.
But saved Noah the eighth person; viz. together with the other seven, his wife, three sons, and their wives, 1Pe 3:20. Noah may be particularly named, because God had a special respect to him, and for his sake spared others.
Read full note →
A preacher: constituted to be so by Divine authority and commission.
Of righteousness: i.e. not only:
1. Of the righteousness of God, who had threatened to destroy the world for its wickedness; but:
2. Of the righteousness of Christ upon all them that should believe. It is not to be doubted but he preached the same righteousness whereof he himself was heir, and that was the righteousness of faith, Heb 11:7; and this he did not in words only, but in his actions; in that he built the ark for the saving himself and his household, which was a type of the salvation of believers by Christ. And:
3. Of the righteousness of sanctification, in his exhorting the men that then were to repentance and holiness, if possibly thereby they might prevent the approaching deluge.
Bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; the whole multitude of wicked men then living in the world.
Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
William Burkitt 1703 · Public Domain On vv7, 9 Observe here, 1. As bad as Sodom was, it…
Observe here, 1. As bad as Sodom was, it had a good man in it; God leaves not himself without witness, in the vilest and worst of places God has some that profess his name, and bear witness to his truth.
Observe, 2. The character given of him, just Lot; the denomination was taken from the habitual frame of his heart, and the general tenor of his life.
Read full note →
Observe, 3. How this good man laid to heart the wickedness of Sodom; he was grieved for their wicked and filthy conversation before God, more than for their unkind and cruel behavior towards him; the spirit of a child of God is a sympathizing spirit, it sadly lays to heart both the sins and the sufferings of others.
Observe, 4. The care that God took for this good man’s preservation, he delivered just Lot; he delivered him both from the company and conversation of the wicked, which was a continual vexation to him; and also delivered him from the judgments which were righteously brought upon the wicked; and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.
William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Matthew Henry 1710 · Public Domain On v7 When God sends destruction on the ungodly, he commands…
When God sends destruction on the ungodly, he commands deliverance for the righteous; and, if he rain fire and brimstone on the wicked, he will cover the head of the just, and they shall be hid in the day of his anger. This we have an instance of in his preserving Lot. Here observe, 1. The character given of Lot; he is called a just man; this he was as to the generally prevailing bent of his heart and through the main of his conversation. God does not account men just or unjust from one single act, but from their general course of life. And here is a just man in the midst of a most corrupt and profligate generation universally gone off from all good. He does not follow the multitude to do evil, but in a city of injustice he walks uprightly. 2. The impression the sins of others made upon this righteous man. Though the sinner takes pleasure in his wickedness, it is a grief and vexation to the soul of the righteous. In bad company we cannot escape either guilt or grief. Let the sins of others be a trouble to us, otherwise it will not be possible for us to keep ourselves pure. 3. Here is a particular mention of the duration and continuance of this good man's grief and vexation: it was from day to day. Being accustomed to hear and see their wickedness did not reconcile him to it, nor abate of the horror that was occasioned by it. This is the righteous man whom God preserved from the desolating judgment that destroyed all round about him. From this instance we are taught to argue that God knows how to deliver his people and punish his enemies. It is here presupposed that the righteous must have their temptations and trials. The devil and his instruments will thrust sore at them, that they may fall; and, if we will get to heaven, it must be through many tribulations. It is therefore our duty to reckon upon and prepare for them. Observe here, (1.) The Lord knows those that are his. He has set apart him who is godly for himself; and, if there is but one in five cities, he knows him; and where there is a greater number he cannot be ignorant of nor overlook any one of them. (2.) The wisdom of God is never at a loss about ways and means to deliver his people. They are often utterly at a loss, and can see no way; he can deliver a great many. (3.) The deliverance of the godly is the work of God, that which he concerns himself in, both his wisdom to contrive the way and his power to work out the deliverance out of temptation, to prevent their falling into sin and their being ruined by their troubles. And surely, if he can deliver out of temptation, he could keep from falling into it if he did not see such trials to be necessary. (4.) God makes a very great difference in his dealings with the godly and the wicked. When he saves his people from destruction, he delivers over his enemies to deserved ruin. The unjust has no share in the salvation God works out for the righteous. The wicked are reserved to the day of judgment. Here we see, [1.] There is a day of judgment. God has appointed a day wherein he will judge the world. [2.] The preservation of impenitent sinners is only a reserving of them to the day of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God.
Matthew Henry's Commentary on the Whole Bible (1708–1710) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Gill 1763 · Public Domain On vv5–9 And spared not the old world,.... In distinction from…
And spared not the old world,.... In distinction from the present world, that now is; which was, as it were, formed anew out of that which was destroyed by the deluge. The Vulgate Latin version renders it, "the original world"; and the Ethiopic version, "the first world"; it designs the ancient inhabitants of the world, as it was from the beginning, before the flood; who, being wicked, were not spared by God, but had just punishment inflicted on them:
but saved Noah the eighth person; not the eighth from Adam, as Enoch is said to be the seventh from him, Jde 1:14 for he was the tenth; nor is it to be read with the following clause, "the eighth preacher of righteousness"; but he was the eighth person, or one of the eight persons, saved from the flood; see Pe1 3:20 hence the Ethiopic version, rather as a paraphrase than a version, renders it, "but caused to remain seven souls with Noah; whom he saved"; Hottinger (p) and Dr. Hammond (q) observe, from the Arabic writers, that the mountain on which the ark rested, and a town near it, were called Themenim; that is, "the eight", from the number of persons then and there saved:
Read full note →
a preacher of righteousness; of the righteousness of God, in all his ways and works, and in case he should destroy the world by a flood, as he had threatened; and of civil and moral righteousness among men, both by words, during the building of the ark, and by works, by his own example, in his righteous life and conversation; and of the righteousness of faith, or of Christ, by which he was justified and of which he was an heir, Heb 11:7, the Jews (r) say that Noah was a prophet; and they represent him also, as a preacher, and even tell us the very words he used in his exhortations to the old world (s), saying,
"be ye turned from your evil ways and works, lest the waters of the flood come upon you, and cut off all the seed of the children of men:''
but though Noah, a preacher of righteousness, was saved, false teachers cannot expect to escape divine vengeance; who only are transformed as ministers of righteousness, but in truth are ministers of unrighteousness; opposers of the righteousness of Christ, and live unrighteous lives and conversations, and so their end will be according to their works:
bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly; or "the ungodly of the world", as "the ungodly of the earth" (t); see Psa 75:8 though here it indeed means a whole world of wicked men, all but a very few, which were destroyed by the flood. This expresses both the wickedness of the men of that generation, the imagination of the thoughts of whose heart were evil continually; and whose lives were filled up with uncleanness, violence, rapine, oppression, injustice, and corruption, of all sorts; and likewise the large numbers of them, there was a whole world of them; and yet this did not secure them from the wrath of God, but served to stir it up the more; wherefore false teachers and their followers must not build upon their numbers, or hope to be screened from just punishment on that account; since a world of ungodly men were, for their wickedness, at once swept away, with a flood of God's bringing upon them; causing that very useful and serviceable element of water to be the means of their destruction; for this was not a casual thing, which came of itself, or by chance, but was of God himself, who broke up the fountains of the great deep, and opened the windows of heaven, and destroyed at once all mankind, men, women, and children, and every living creature, excepting what were with Noah in the ark: and since they were persons of such a character as here described, it is not to be thought their punishment is ended here; it is the general notion of the Jews (u), that
"the generation of the flood shall have no part in the world to come, nor shall they stand in judgment.''
(p) Smegma Orientale, p. 251, 252. (q) In loc. (r) Aben Ezra in Gen. viii. 21. (s) Pirke Eliezer, c. 22. (t) Targum in Psal. xlvi. 8. (u) Misna Sanhedrin, c. 11. sect. 3. Vajikra Rabba, sect. 4. fol. 149. 1. Yalkut Simeoni, par. 2. fol. 89. 2.
John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
John Wesley 1765 · Public Domain On vv5, 9 And spared not the old, the antediluvian, world, but…
And spared not the old, the antediluvian, world, but he preserved Noah the eighth person - that is, Noah and seven others, a preacher as well as practicer, of righteousness. Bringing a flood on the world of the ungodly - Whose numbers stood them in no stead.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv5–9 Verse 5. Spared not the old world] The apostle's…
Verse 5. Spared not the old world] The apostle's argument is this: If God spared not the rebellious angels, nor the sinful antediluvians, nor the cities of Sodom and Gomorrha, he will not spare those wicked teachers who corrupt the pure doctrines of Christianity.
Saved Noah the eighth] Some think that the words should be translated, Noah the eighth preacher of righteousness; but it seems most evident, from 1Pet 3:20, that eight persons are here meant, which were the whole that were saved in the ark, viz. Shem, Ham, Japhet, and their three wives, six; Noah's wife seven; and Noah himself the eighth. The form of expression, ογδοον Νωε, Noah the eighth, i.e. Noah and seven more, is most common in the Greek language. So in APPIAN, Bell. Pun., p. 12, Τριτος δε ποτε εν σπηλαιῳ κρυπτομενος ελαθε, sometimes he the third (i.e. he with two others) lay hid in a cave. ANDOCIDES, Orat. iv. p. 295: Αἱρεθεις επι τουτῳ δεκατος αυτος, he himself the tenth (i.e. he and nine others) were chosen to this. See a number of other examples in Kypke.
Read full note →
World of the ungodly] A whole race without God-without any pure worship or rational religion.
Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Joseph Benson 1811 · Public Domain On vv5, 6, 9 2Pe 2:5. And spared not the old — The…
2Pe 2:5. And spared not the old — The antediluvian; world, but saved Noah — Interposed amidst the general ruin for the preservation of one good man and his family; the eighth person, a preacher, &c. — Bishop Pearson translates this clause, the eighth preacher of righteousness; supposing that Enoch, (Gen 5:24,) from whom Noah was descended, was the first preacher of righteousness, and that all the intermediate persons were likewise preachers thereof, and that Christ preached by them all. But of this there is no evidence; and it seems certain that Enoch could not be the first preacher of righteousness: Adam was, in a wonderful manner, fitted to perform that office in the first world, as Noah was in the second; and what excellent instructions both might give, is easy to be conceived! Bishop Pearson adds, that if the above-mentioned sense of the passage be not admitted, it may be understood as denoting, not the order in which Noah was ranked, but merely the number of persons that were with him, namely, Noah with seven others, or Noah one of eight. By terming Noah a preacher, κηρυκα, a crier, or herald, of righteousness, Peter intimates that all the time Noah was preparing the ark, he proclaimed to the antediluvians the destruction of the world by a flood, that from the dread of that impending judgment of God they might be brought to repentance. His preaching, however, it appears, was attended with little or no success. Bringing in the flood — In a gradual, but irresistible manner; upon the world of the ungodly — Whose numbers stood them in no stead.
Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Albert Barnes 1834 · Public Domain On vv5–9 And spared not the old world - The world…
And spared not the old world - The world before the flood. The argument here is, that he cut off that wicked race, and thus showed that he would punish the guilty. By that awful act of sweeping away the inhabitants of a world, he showed that people could not sin with impunity, and that the incorrigibly wicked must perish.
But saved Noah the eighth person - This reference to Noah, like the reference to Lot in 2Pe 2:7, seems to have been thrown in in the progress of the argument as an incidental remark, to show that the righteous, however few in number, would be saved when the wicked were cut off. The phrase “Noah the eighth,” means Noah, one of eight; that is, Noah and seven others. This idiom is found, says Dr. Bloomfield, in the best writers - from Herodotus and Thucydides downward. See examples in Wetstein. The meaning in this place then is, that eight persons, and eight only of that race, were saved; thus showing, that while the wicked would be punished, however numerous they might be, the righteous, however few, would be saved.
Read full note →
A preacher of righteousness - In Gen 6:9, it is said of Noah that he was “a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God;” and it may be presumed that during his long life he was faithful in reproving the wickedness of his age, and warned the world of the judgment that was preparing for it. Compare the notes at Heb 11:7.
Bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly - Upon all the world besides that pious family. The argument here is, that if God would cut off a wicked race in this manner, the principle is settled that the wicked will not escape.
Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.
Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary 1859 · Public Domain On v9 To reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment,…
To reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment, &c. That is, God many times does not punish the wicked in this life, he suffers them to run on in the ways of iniquity, with prosperity as to the enjoyment of a short and vain happiness in this world, but his judgments are most of all to be dreaded, when the punishments are reserved till the next life, as it will appear at the day of general judgment: and from the time of their death they shall be tormented in hell. (Witham)
George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).
Robert Jamieson, A. R. Fausset & David Brown 1871 · Public Domain On vv5–9 eighth--that is, Noah, and seven others. Contrasted with the…
eighth--that is, Noah, and seven others. Contrasted with the densely peopled "world of the ungodly."
preacher--not only "righteous" himself (compare Pe2 2:8), but also "a preacher of righteousness": adduced by Peter against the licentiousness of the false teachers (Pe2 2:2) who have no prospect before them but destruction, even as it overtook the ungodly world in Noah's days.
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.
Daniel D. Whedon 1874 · Public Domain On vv5–9 b. Second case—The antediluvians.
b. Second case—The antediluvians.
5. Spared not the old world—That is, though his long suffering waited a hundred and twenty years for the repentance of the wicked, and though he gave them for that period the preaching and godly example of Noah, the blow, when the day of punishment came, was unsparing and terrible.
Read full note →
Saved—Here comes in, by way of contrast, the idea of the preservation of the godly, which is as certainly God’s law of action as is the punishment of the wicked.
Noah, the eighth—Not the eighth preacher, as some say, but, according to a frequent idiom, Noah, and seven others.
A preacher—St. Peter alone mentions Noah’s preaching. He was a proclaimer of righteousness, heralding the coming flood, and exhorting the people to believe God, repent of their sins, obey him in holy living, and thus escape the impending wrath. Heb_11:7. But they refused, and that world of the ungodly was swept away. Such, and so terrible, is God when he arises to judgment; and such will he always be, with as little regard to numbers and as great regard to character.
Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges 1878 · Public Domain On vv5–9 5. and spared not the old world …] The…
5. and spared not the old world …] The à fortiori argument is continued, and enters on the series of typical examples of judgments which St Peter had heard from our Lord’s lips in Luk_17:26-29. In regard to this instance we note the parallelism with 1Pe_3:20, extending even to the stress laid on the number of those who were rescued from the destruction—“Noah, the eighth person,” is, according to a common idiom, equivalent to “Noah and seven others.” The nouns in the clause that follows are remarkable as being all without the article in the Greek.
bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly] The description of Noah as “a preacher of righteousness” has no verbal counterpart in the language of the Old Testament, but it is obviously implied in the substance of the narrative.
The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
Ellicott's Commentary for English Readers 1878 · Public Domain On vv5–9 (5) And spared not the old world.—The fact that…
(5) And spared not the old world.—The fact that the Flood is taken as the second instance of divine vengeance gives us no clue as to the source of the first instance. In the Book of Enoch the Flood follows closely upon the sin of the angels, as in Genesis 6 upon that of the sons of God, so that in either case the first instance would naturally suggest the second.
Noah the eighth person.—According to a common Greek idiom, this means Noah and seven others; and the point of it is that the punishment must have been signal indeed if only eight persons out of a whole world escaped. The coincidence with 1Pe_3:20 must not pass unobserved, especially as there the mention of “spirits in prison” immediately precedes, just as here, the angels in “caves of darkness.” The suggestion that eight is here a mystical number (the sabbatical seven and one over) is quite gratuitous; as also that “eighth” may mean eighth from Enos, which would be utterly pointless, there being neither mention of Enos nor the faintest allusion to him. (Comp. Clement I. vii. 6; ix. 4; and see Note on 2Pe_2:9.)
Read full note →
Bringing in the flood upon the world.—“In” should be omitted. The phrase is exactly parallel to “bring upon themselves swift destruction “in 2Pe_2:1. The word for “bring” is the same in both cases.
A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Pulpit Commentary 1880 · Public Domain On vv5–9 And spared not the old world, but saved Noah…
And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person; rather, as in the Revised Version, the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others. "The eighth" is a common classical idiom (generally with the pronoun aujtov) for a with seven others." Mark the close parallelism with 1Pe_3:20, where, as here, the apostle impresses upon his readers the fewness of the saved. A preacher of righteousness. The Old Testament narrative does not directly assert this; but "a just man and perfect," who "walked with God", (Gen_6:9) must have been a preacher (literally, "herald") of righteousness to the ungodly among whom he lived. Josephus, in a well-known passage ("Ant.," 1:3, 1), says that Noah tried to persuade his neighbours to change their mind and their actions for the better. Bringing in the Flood upon the world of the ungodly. The Revised Version renders, when he brought a Flood upon the world. In the Greek there is no article throughout this verse. In verse 1 the ungodly are represented as bringing upon themselves swift destruction; here God brings the punishment upon them. The same Greek verb is used in both places. In one place St. Peter gives the human, in the other the Divine, aspect of the same events (comp. Clement I, 7 and 9).
A preacher of righteousness.
Read full note →
In the Book of Genesis we read that Noah was a righteous and blameless man, who found grace in the eyes of the Lord, and walked with God. Josephus, who preserves, it would seem, an old Hebrew tradition, witnesses not only to Noah"s just and pious character, but to his ministry to the sinful generation among whom his lot was cast. After describing the sinfulness of the people, Josephus proceeds, "But Noah was very uneasy at what they did; and, being displeased at their conduct, persuaded them to change their dispositions and acts for the better; but, seeing that they did not yield to him, but were slaves to their wicked pleasures, he was afraid they would kill him." The office and ministry ascribed to Noah are required in every generation, and God ever raises up faithful men whom he empowers to discharge amongst their contemporaries the duties devolving upon the preachers of righteousness.
I THE NECESSITY FOR PREACHERS OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
1. This appears from a consideration of man"s nature. Human beings areconstituted with moral capabilities and with faculties to be employed in a moral life. Intelligence, conscience, and will are the prerogative of men among the inhabitants of this earth. And even the most degraded, those most nearly allied in habits to the brutes, are susceptible of elevation in the scale of moral life. He who examines, fairly and completely, the nature of man must admit that he is made for righteousness.
2. And the requirement of God corresponds with the nature of man. Godcalls men to righteousness, holds them responsible to himself, as the righteous Governor and Judge, for obedience or disobedience to his commands.
3. Yet it is not to be questioned that the ideal of human character andconduct has not been reached, that unrighteousness has prevailed amongst men, that in the highest sense "there is none that doeth righteousness none who has no failings to acknowledge, none who has a perfect obedience to present.
II THE IMPORT OF THE PREACHING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
1. The standard of righteousness has to be maintained. It would be base indeed on the part of the preacher were he to substitute an inferior standard for the Law of God, were he to accommodate his teaching to the corrupt nature and the ungodly life of the sinful. The Law, which is holy, just, and good, must he upheld in all its purity and in all its rigidity. And this may he done with the assurance that the conscience, even of the iniquitous, will in all likelihood acknowledge that the right is a higher and better standard than the agreeable or the customary, however human
2. infirmity may have practically adopted and followed the latter. Every minister of religion is bound to insist upon a scriptural rule of right, to apply the laws of morality to all parts of human nature, to all relations of human society.
3. The violators of the Law of righteousness have to be rebuked. Probablythe reference in the text is especially to this aspect of the preacher"s service. It is not enough to say, "This is what men should be and do!" It is necessary to address to the disobedient the remonstrances, the rebukes, the warnings, which are authorized by the Word of God. Expostulation, reproach, and admonition are not the most agreeable or the most easy parts of a preacher"s work; yet they are indispensable, and are often most valuable in their effects. Many faithful preachers have, like Noah, to lament that their rebukes and warnings seem to have been in vain; yet they have the satisfaction of having done their duty and delivered their soul.
1. The restoration of righteousness by means of the Divine Mediator has tohe proclaimed. There is a righteousness which is by the Law; but there is also a higher righteousness which is by faith in Christ unto those who believe, and this is exactly adapted to the needs of sinful men, who upon repentance and faith may become "just with God." It is the privilege and the delight of the Christian preacher to exhibit the beauty and appropriateness of this spiritual righteousness, and to invite men to use those means by which they may secure this for themselves.
III THE METHODS OF THE PREACHING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
1. The most natural and obvious method is by the utterances of the livingvoice, the organ by which, according to the constitution imposed upon man, truth is communicated and impression produced by the rousing of deep and divinely implanted emotion.
2. Yet there are other means of preaching righteousness, for which somemay be qualified who are not gifted with effective speech. The press affords in these days an outlet for much consecrated Christian energy, and most important is it, when gifted authors are found endeavouring to lower by their writings the standard of human morality, that Christian thinkers and writers should wield their pen, in all departments of literature, in the service of righteousness and of God.
3. In any case righteousness may be, and should be, preached in theimpressive and effective language of the life.
IV THE RESULTS OF THE PREACHING OF RIGHTEOUSNESS.
1. Such preaching must be witness of condemnation against those whorefuse it.
2. But to those who accept and obey the Divine message it is the means ofsalvation and of life eternal. J.R.T.
The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
The Biblical Illustrator 1887 · Public Domain On v8 Make merchandise of you.
2Pe_2:8
Make merchandise of you.
Read full note →
False teachers as merchantmen
The apostle here makes a continuation of their sins and a declaration of their plagues. They extend the thread of their mischief very long, till hell fire burn it off. They broach heresies, corrupt multitudes, sell souls, as merchants do their wares; cozen mens consciences, colour foul natures with fair words, blaspheme the gospel, deny Jesus Christ. Oh, how constant and long-winded are they in their wickedness! But there is a judgment that wakes while they slumber.
I. The general similitude (merchandising) here used. The calling of a merchant is of great antiquity and necessary use. Merchants are the feet of the world, whereby distant countries meet together. Yet it is a dangerous profession, not only for wreck of life and goods, but also of conscience; which is not always made in their ships abroad, but too commonly in their shops at home.
1. The merchants are false teachers. As Judas sold Christ for thirty pieces, so they sell men to sin, little esteeming the price that a soul cost.
2. The wares--you; your estates, liberties, lives, and souls. They set up a mart of holy things, and with their impostures fill their purses. An evil pastor may sell his flock three ways--
(1) By flattery. He that encourages a man in his errors sells him for his own gain.
(2) By heresy. Broaching schisms and factions and erroneous opinions, as it were feeding the people with bones, or rather poisons, instead of wholesome meat.
(3) By silence. The watchman who does not ring the alarm bell at the approach of danger betrays the city to the enemy.
3. Through covetousness. This is the ground or motive of their traffic. It is true of every schism, what was said of Lucillas faction, with a little inversion: anger bred it, pride fostered it, and covetousness confirmed it.
(1) This sin of covetousness is iniquity in all men, blasphemy in a clergyman. The titles we bear, the office we sustain, the Person we represent, the nearness of our calling to that absolute integrity, are remembrances unto us that we be not covetous.
(2) There is no fault in a minister like covetousness, because there is no sin reigning in the world like worldliness. We may preach our hearts out to dissuade mens affections from this world; if we embrace it ourselves, they will never believe us.
(3) The vice of covetousness is an epidemical disease, the grand Cairo of mischief, the metropolis of wickedness, a universal plague that has infected all conditions of people.
4. The means of their utterance, feigned words! Heresy was never found disjoined from hypocrisy. Their speeches are so ambiguous and equivocal, that they seem to hold both ours and our adversaries tenets. What they cannot perform by the evidence of truth, they seek to attain by the eloquence of art. As rebels Drake their proclamations in the name of the king, and pirates intending to rob merchants hang out the flags of other nations, both to scandal them and to conceal themselves; so do hypocrites wear Christian colours that they may be the devils cozeners.
II. Their perdition.
1. The severity of it.
(1) Their judgment. The menaces of God are not always followed with an infallible event, being sometimes on purpose signified, that they may be by penitence prevented.
(2) For whose sake doth God execute judgment upon these false teachers? For His own glory and the Churchs good, that they may no longer cozen mens souls with their impostures.
(3) Though the Lord will judge these wicked persons, yet this forbids not magistrates to execute justice upon them.
(4) Their judgment--their own; as proper to them as the inheritance they bought with their money. Sin doth naturally draw a punishment.
(5) Their judgment. But is it so certainly theirs, that no repentance can prevent it? Yes, serious repentance may avert the vengeance, if their gracious God gives the repentance.
(6) Their judgment and their damnation. Observe the proportion and adaptation of their punishment to their sin. It holds in divers analogies.
(a) They denied the Lord that bought them, therefore the same Lord shall judge them.
(b) They acted all their villainy in secret, therefore now it shall be laid open.
(c) The way of truth hath been blasphemed by them, therefore now it is fit that it be glorified on them.
(d) Before they sold men in covetousness, therefore now they shall be sold themselves in justice.
(e) Before they brought in the heresy of damnation, therefore now they shall sustain the penalty of damnation.
(f) Before they did pull on themselves destruction voluntarily, therefore now must father the child of their own begetting, and suffer destruction nesessarily.
(g) Their sin did hasten punishment and make it swift, therefore fit it should no longer tarry; it lingereth not.
(7) Damnation is principally taken for the censure or sentence condemning; as the sentence follows the trial, and the execution the sentence; here it intends the execution of the judgment.
2. Sleepeth not, lingereth not, slumbereth not. Though it be not yet present, it is propinquant; if not extant, yet instant.
(1) This wakeful vengeance is threatened against the ungodly very fitly; for nothing is more proper to the nature of sin than to sleep in security.
(2) Sin will not let justice sleep, bug sends it up continual challenges, provoking Him to draw that sword, which He had rather should rest in the scabbard, than be sheathed in His own creatures.
3. Long ago. There is a preordination of plagues for reprobates, and the very moment of the execution appointed (Jud_1:4).
Lessons:
1. Seeing God doth not sleep in His justice, let not us sleep in our injustice.
2. As this is terror to the ungodly, so comfort to the righteous. As justice is ever waking, so mercy is never asleep. (Thos. Adams.)
Manhood in the market
Who are they that are engaged in this business?
1. The liquor-dealers.
2. Writers and publishers of obscene literature.
3. Purchasers of the virtue of women.
4. Bribers and bribe-takers.
5. Mercenary journalists.
6. Atheistic orators and religious quacks. (A. Little.)
The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
B. W. Johnson 1891 · Public Domain On vv5–9 5. And spared not the old world. The case…
5. And spared not the old world. The case of the antediluvians furnishes the second example of God's swift justice. But preserved Noah with seven others. God did not then forget the righteous. A preacher of righteousness. By example as well as by word. See Gen. 7:1–7, and 1 Pet. 3:20.
B. W. Johnson's The People's New Testament with Notes (1889–1891) — public domain. Electronic text from the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (CCEL) ThML edition.
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary 1892 · Public Domain On v9 2Pe_2:10. Despise government.—Dominion. Both self-restraint and restraint of good…
CRITICAL AND EXEGETICAL NOTES
2Pe_2:10. Despise government.—Dominion. Both self-restraint and restraint of good rules and wise authorities. Those who own no superior. Evil of dignities.—Lit. “They tremble not while railing at glories.” “These men deny the existence of, or irreverently speak slightingly of, those spiritual agencies by means of which God conducts the government of the world.”
Read full note →
2Pe_2:11. Angels.—See Jude, 2Pe_2:9. Allusion is evidently to some tradition which has not been otherwise preserved. (But see Zec_3:1-2.)
2Pe_2:12. Brute beasts.—R.V., “as creatures without reason, born mere animals, to be taken and destroyed.” Omit “natural.” A denunciation of final ruin against these covetous and corrupting teachers.
2Pe_2:13. Spots.—In a moral sense. Sporting themselves.—Making great show and boasting, as if they were the favourites of heaven.
2Pe_2:14. Beguiling.—Enticing. Decoying as with a bait. Covetous practices.—Plans of fraud and extortion. Cursed children.—Children of the curse: or children of malediction. They are devoted to execration.
2Pe_2:15. Bosor.—R.V., “Beor.” From which it is only a dialectical variation.
2Pe_2:16. Rebuked.—Lit. “But bad a conviction of his own transgression”; was convicted of it. Madness.—Infatuation; conscious and voluntary perversion of mind.
2Pe_2:18. Great swelling words of vanity.—Exaggeration, unreality, boastfulness, emptiness, are expressed by this phrase. Clean escaped.—Better, “who are just escaped,” “almost escaped.” Such were in special peril of these evil things.
2Pe_2:19. Servants.—Bond-slaves. (See Rom_6:16; Rom_8:21.)
2Pe_2:20. They have escaped.—It is not clear whether the deluded ones, or those who delude them, is meant. Probably the latter. “The fullest clearness of spiritual vision had not protected these heresiarchs from the temptations of their sensuous natures.”
2Pe_2:22. The form of the proverbs is participial. “The dog returned to his own vomit; the washed sow to her wallowing in the mire” (see Pro_26:11). “In both cases stress is laid on the fact that there had been a real change. The dog had ejected what was foul; the sow had washed herself; but the old nature had returned in both cases. These who after their baptism returned to the impurities they had renounced, were, in the apostle’s eyes, no better than the unclean beasts. In the union of the two types of baseness we may, perhaps, trace a reminiscence of our Lord’s teaching in. Mat_7:6” (Plumptre).
MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.—2Pe_2:9-22
Denunciations of the Libertines.
I. Confidence in God’s over-ruling.—“The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly.” This involves His recognition of the ungodly, and visitation of them in judgment. The sway and triumph of evil in the world is most perplexing to God’s people; it would be altogether overwhelming if they could not be sure of the Divine overruling with a patience that can wait for fitting opportunities. Delayed judgment is never any sign of indifference, nor is delayed deliverance. As Christ said to impatient disciples, so God again and again says to His people, “My time is not yet come, but your time is always ready.” The overruling of God is even more important than His ruling. It meets us just where we feel our chief difficulty.
II. Denunciation of vices.—The things which naturally follow as the outcome of false teaching—
(1) impurity,
(2) self-assertion,
(3) railing,
(5) wanton and luxurious living,
(5) covetousness. These denunciations can only with great difficulty be made subjects of pulpit exercise. They must be classed with the imprecatory Psalms. There may come times and fitting occasions for publicly denouncing the characteristic iniquities of a nation or a generation; but such work can only be done wisely by specially fitted men, and men who have gained the right to speak. In small spheres of pulpit service, the denunciation of public sins is apt to be taken as directed to certain individuals; and the personal element produces bitterness rather than conviction.
III. The law that increases Divine judgments.—Privilege enjoyed deepens responsibility. When privilege is abused; when men know and do not; when men who have come out of their sinful life go back to it;—then it is as though the stone on which they might have fallen fell on them. The weight of woe heaps up for those who were once “fair for the celestial city,” but turned back to wilfulness and sin.
SUGGESTIVE NOTES AND SERMON SKETCHES
2Pe_2:9. The Godly Delivered—the unjust reserved unto judgment. There are only two great classes of people in the world—the godly and the unjust. The godly are those who have been born again, made partakers of the Divine nature, and live unto God. The unjust are those who are ungodly, who live to themselves and to the world. God deals very differently with the two classes.
I. His treatment of the godly.—
1. He allows them to fall into temptations, as
(1) solicitations to sin, and
(2) as trials. This he permits (a) to manifest the reality of His grace, (b) to condemn the world, (c) that we may be conformed to Christ.
2. The Lord knows how to deliver them. It matters not what form the temptation may take.
II. His treatment of the unjust.—“God knoweth how to reserve the unjust to the day of judgment to be punished.”
1. The end of all the ungodly is to be punished.
2. God knoweth how to reserve; He is not in haste to punish.—R. M. McCheyne.
God’s Judgments.—In a general way it may be said that the Old Testament is the book of God’s judgments, and the New Testament the book of God’s mercies. There are stories of judgment in the New Testament (Judas, Ananias, Elymas), and there are stories of God’s mercies in the Old; but this distinction marks off the characteristic of each Dispensation. Few hearers get much good from the histories of God’s judgments read to them from the Old Testament, because they are not felt to be matters of personal concern.
1. We ought to learn from them that God will not forget any godly man whatever, but will save him amid the destruction of all around him.
2. With the ungodly it will be otherwise; for them, so long as they continue in their ungodliness, there is neither mercy nor hope, but a certain looking forward to wrath and punishment at the hand of a mighty and offended God. There is no mercy for the obstinate and impenitent sinner. The two great lessons to be learnt from such histories are: the extent of God’s most fearful judgments, and their certainty. For as the word of God’s mercy is sure, so is the word of His wrath. And who are the cursed? All who are living in any known sin; all who are living in forgetfulness of God; all who are not Christ’s people; all who are not showing forth the blessed fruits of the Spirit in their daily lives. Many trust they shall do well, if they keep from the grosser works of the flesh. Some may say, “This is the old story we have heard so often.” But that should give double cause for trembling, seeing the gospel has been slighted so often and so long. God sends merciful invitations to repentance, that men may be saved from the ruin of a wicked world. It is He who will bring to pass the threatenings of His word against all manner of unrighteousness, and ungodliness, and sin.—A. W. Hare, A.M.
2Pe_2:15. Perversion as Shown in the Character of Balaam.—Repulsive as Balaam’s character is, seen at a distance, when it is seen near it has much in it that is human, like ourselves, inviting compassion, even admiration; there are traits of firmness, conscientiousness, nobleness. And yet the inspired judgment of his character as a whole is one of unmeasured severity. Our main lesson in Balaam’s history must ever be to trace how it is that men, who to the world appear respectable, conscientious, honourable, gifted, religious, may be in the sight of God accursed, and heirs of perdition. Balaam illustrates perversion.
I. Perversion of great gifts.—The inspiration of Balaam was from God. In him Divine powers were perverted—
1. By turning them to purposes of self-aggrandisement. God’s true prophets make no effort to show themselves different from others. Balaam does everything to fix attention on himself. His enchantments were a priest’s man-œuvres, not a prophet’s. He was a self-seeker. Balak struck the key-note of his character when he said, “Am I not able to promote thee unto honour?”
2. By making those gifts subservient to his own greed. His very vaunts show that Balaam half suspected his failing. Brave men do not vaunt their courage, nor honourable men their honesty. By Balaam spiritual powers were degraded in order to make himself a vulgar man of wealth. (Compare the case of Simon Magus.)
II. Perversion of conscience.—Shown in his second appeal to God. He ought to have been satisfied with his first answer. In duty “first thoughts” are best; they are more fresh, more pure, have more of God in them. Balaam’s problem was how to go to Balak, and yet not offend God. He went to God to get his duty altered, not in simplicity to know what it was. All this rests on the idea that the will of God makes right, instead of being right. The second stage is full of hideous contradictions. God permits him to go, and then is angry with him for going. We notice in him the evidences of a disordered mind and heart. In Balaam we see an attempt to change the will of God. His feeling was, God is mutable. What was wanting for Balaam to feel was, God cannot change; what he did feel was only this: God will not change. See also his attempt to blind himself. We see perfect veracity with utter want of truth. He does not deceive Balak with a spell. He would not utter a falsehood, but tries to get away from seeing the truth. Balaam tried a last expedient, and recommended Balak to use the fascination of the daughters of Moab to entice Israel into idolatry; and a more diabolical wickedness could hardly be conceived. The root of Balaam’s sin was selfishness. Balaam’s self—the honour of Balaam as a true prophet; therefore he will not lie. The wealth of Balak for himself; therefore the Israelites must be sacrificed. Even in his sublimest aspirations he never forgets himself.
1. Learn the danger of great powers. It is an awful thing, this conscious power to see more, to feel more, to know more, than our fellows.
2. Mark well the difference between feeling and doing. A man may be going on finely, uttering orthodox words, and yet be rotten at heart.—F. W. Robertson.
2Pe_2:16. Balaam and the Ass.—An excellent old writer, speaking of Balaam, to whom St. Peter refers in the text, compares him to Redwald, the first Saxon king who professed Christianity, and who set up, in the same church, one altar for the Christian religion, and another for sacrificing to devils. Balaam, beyond, perhaps, any Scriptural personage, was the “double-minded man,” signalised by the apostle James. Balaam was neither an impostor nor a hypocrite. He rather seems to have been a man heartily and honestly bent on the doing of what our Lord declares can never be done: the “serving of two masters.” We must admit that God communicated directly with Balaam, not only giving him orders and prohibitions, but actually furnishing him with the words he was to utter over the Israelites. Perhaps full justice has not been done to Balaam. He had good impulses, which were only unserviceable and abortive because outweighed and counter-matched by covetousness and the love of money. He had a conscience vigorously at work, under whose chastisement his sufferings must have been terrible. Balaam is the nominal Christian of these times, sincerely anxious to stand fair, and to keep terms with disciples of Christ and with men of Belial. When we see men devout in church, and something very different on week-days, we must not set them down as necessarily hypocrites. There is a bona fide struggle to compound with conscience, and run together in the life, man of God and man of the world, as warp and woof—very foolish, no doubt, and impracticable, but not base, not dishonest.
I. Recall to memory the few facts of this miracle.—Whether what happened to Balaam happened to him in vision, or in literal historical fact, the moral and spiritual lessons are exactly the same. There is something to be learned from that strange group on the highway, considered merely as a fact: a wicked man being obstructed in the pursuit of his wickedness by a prodigy. We learn how gracious God is in making the way of transgressors a hard one; just as when Pilate was warned by the dream of his wife, and Saul was warned on the road to Damascus. Regarding the narrative as an allegory, we may see that this is not the only place in the Bible where proud man is humbled and brought to confusion by being outdone and excelled by one of the beasts of the field. How came it that the eyes of the mere brute on which the prophet rode saw the vision of the angel before the prophet himself? There is here a portrait of what takes place in the world, day after day, in all generations. There is hardly a wider gulf between the animal and the man than there is between some unlettered believer in sacred truth and the philosophic doubter or denier of that truth. The difficulty of difficulties in the present state of things is not to exert but to control the faculties of our reason, to persuade ourselves where reason cannot follow, that there reason ought not to try to follow. Faith is the problem of the militant Church. The province of the human mind is to humble itself, to keep the ear wide open, and to be contented that the eye shall remain closed through excess of light. Only when, by nature or through a struggle, the mind prefers listening to understanding, can the glory of Christ crucified be spiritually discerned.
II. This miracle of the text is virtually repeated whenever pride or prescription takes to lording it over some lower rank, guilty of no sins but natural disadvantages.—Illustrated in the history of British colonisation. For many years we considered black and brown and red men to be brutes, and treated them accordingly. Illustrated in our resistance of Providence. We make a miserable blunder whenever we try to force Divine providence, or to urge the events of our lives dead against the angel. If we want to go one way, and our destiny, controlled by guardian angels, is forcing us into another way, our wisdom will lie in succumbing at once. We shall take nothing by contesting it. Things like that living thing under Balaam will crush our foot against the wall, so that we cannot even dismount and walk. Providence will maim us for every pathway but its own.—Henry Christopherson.
ILLUSTRATIONS TO CHAPTER 2
2Pe_2:19. Slavery of Sin.—Men would rather be sin’s drudges than God’s freemen, and neglect that service wherein is perfect freedom for that wherein there is intolerable slavery. They will disturb their consciences, violate their reason, impair their health, in contradicting the laws of God, and prefer a sensual satisfaction, with toil here and eternal ruin hereafter, before the honour of God, the dignity of their nature, or happiness, or peace and health, which might be preserved with a cheaper expense than they are at to destroy them.—Charnock.
2Pe_2:22. The Habits of the Sow.—There is no regeneration for the sow in any amount of washing by water; the ablution over, away she wends again to her wallowing in the mire. Like the canine race (dishonouredly characterised in the same proverb) the porcine is of ill account in Holy Writ. As the flesh of the swine is formally prohibited as “unclean” in Leviticus, so in Isaiah the offering of swine’s blood is, by implication, denounced as almost inconceivably abominable, and the “eating swine’s flesh, and the abomination and the mouse,” are with execration connected together (Isa_66:3; Isa_66:17). Of the Mohammedans we are assured that nothing in the creed or practice of Christians does so much to envenom the hatred of Mohammedans against them as the fact of their eating pork. Besides its being an offence to their religion, their aversion to the flesh of the “unclean beast” resembles an instinctive antipathy, such as the “idea of uncleanness,” when once it sinks into the feelings, seems always to excite in those whose personal habits are scrupulously cleanly.
The Backslider’s Fate.—The Greek poet tells us of Hecuba not daring for shame so much as to lift up her eyes, or look Polymnestor in the face, because she had been a queen, but was then a poor captive. Common captives can easily lift up their eyes and cry to those who are in prosperity for relief and help, whereas others who have lived at ease can with more ease starve than beg. As a downfall from a seeming height in spirituals into the mire of sin hath more wickedness in it than a bare continuance in sin, so a downfall from a real height in temporals into the mire of misery hath more trouble in it than a bare continuance in misery. They who have made a fair show, or an outward flourish, in the faith, and afterwards fall back, are worse than those who never made any show at all. It is sad for any one to live openly in sin; but for such as have made an open profession of godliness to apostatise, and fall back to sin—this is matter of saddest lamentation.—Caryl.
CHAPTER 3
The Preacher's Complete Homiletical Commentary (gen. ed. Joseph S. Exell; Funk & Wagnalls, c. 1892) — public domain (pre-1929). A full-Bible homiletical/sermon-outline anthology covering 65 of 66 books (2 John is absent from the source module). Text from a community e-Sword module.
C. I. Scofield 1917 · Public Domain On v5 kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8").
world
kosmos = mankind. (See Scofield "Mat 4:8").
The Scofield Reference Bible (1917 edition), notes by C. I. Scofield — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.
unfoldingWord translationNotes 2017 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On v7 Connecting Statement:
Connecting Statement:
Peter gives an example of Lot, whom God rescued out from among men who deserved punishment.
Read full note →
the sensual behavior of lawless people
"the immoral behavior of people who broke God's law"
that righteous man
This refers to Lot.
was tormented in his righteous soul
Here the word "soul" refers to Lot's thoughts and emotions. The immoral behavior of the citizens of Sodom and Gomorrah disturbed him emotionally. AT: "was greatly disturbed" (See: Synecdoche)
translationWords
righteous
Lot
lawful
torment
soul
lord
godly
trial
righteous
punish
judgment day
unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.
Tyndale Open Study Notes 2022 · CC BY-SA 4.0 On vv5, 6, 7, 9 2:5 The second example of judgment is that God…
2:5 The second example of judgment is that God did not spare the ancient world at the time of Noah. In the flood, God destroyed all human life apart from Noah and his family (see Gen 6–8).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.