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,
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2 Peter 2:7-9 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
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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,
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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:
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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.
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Contradictions (4)
Questions where the Bible appears to say two different things, with the passages on each side set together.
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Cross-references (36)
- 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 1:14-15 (v9) About these also Enoch, the seventh from Adam, prophesied, saying, “Behold, the Lord came with ten thousands of his holy ones, to execute…
Show all 35 cross-references
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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.
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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.
- 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,…
- 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…
- 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…
- 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…
35 distinct cross-references across this passage (36 total citations).
Cross-references from openbible.info (CC BY 4.0)
Explain this passage (22 sources)
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John Calvin 1540 · Public Domain On vv8–9 8. In seeing and hearing. The common explanation is,…
8. In seeing and hearing. The common explanation is, that Lot was just in his eyes and ears, because all his senses abhorred the crimes of Sodom. However, another view may be taken of his seeing and hearing, so as to make this the meaning, that when the just man lived among the Sodomites, he tormented his soul by seeing and hearing; for we know that he was constrained to see and hear many things which greatly vexed his mind. The purport of what is said then is, that though the holy man was surrounded with every kind of monstrous wickedness, he yet never turned aside from his upright course.
But Peter expresses more than before, that is, that just Lot underwent voluntary sorrows; as it is right that all the godly should feel no small grief when they see the world rushing into every kind of evil, so the more necessary it is that they should groan for their own sins. And Peter expressly mentioned this, lest when impiety everywhere prevails, we should be captivated and inebriated by the allurements of vices, and perish together with others, but that we might prefer this grief, blessed by the Lord, to all the pleasures of the world.
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 vv8–9 Which way soever he looked and turned his ears.
Which way soever he looked and turned his ears.
He had a troubled soul, and being vehemently grieved, lived a painful life.
Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain.
John Trapp 1656 · Public Domain On vv7–9 7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy…
7 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked:
Ver. 7. Vexed] Gr. καταπονουμενοι, labouring under it, as under a heavy burden, and as much tortured as if he had been set upon a rack, as it is 2Pe 2:8.
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 vv7–9 Vexed; grievously afflicted or wearied.
Vexed; grievously afflicted or wearied.
The wicked; unjust, lawless, (understand men), such as had no respect to law or justice, in opposition to Lot, whom he calls just and righteous.
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.
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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 vv7–9 And delivered just Lot,.... Who was a just man,…
And delivered just Lot,.... Who was a just man, being justified by the righteousness of Christ imputed to him; and having the new man formed in him, which is created in righteousness and true holiness; and living soberly, righteously, and godly, though not without sin: for there is not a just man that lives and sinneth not; this righteous man was delivered from the burning of Sodom by the means of angels, Gen 19:16. The Jews are very injurious to this good man's character, and give a very different one of him from this of the apostle's; they call him a wicked man, a perfect wicked man, as wicked as the inhabitants of Sodom (d); and say, that because they abounded in sin, therefore Lot chose to dwell among them (e); and affirm (f), that all the time he was with Abraham, God did not join himself to him, and did not commune with Abraham on his account; but, when he was separated from him, did; they call him the evil imagination, and the old serpent that was accursed, and cursed Lot (g); but Philo the Jew (h) speaks better of him, and says that he did not embrace and delight in the iniquities of the inhabitants, though he did not arrive to the perfection of wisdom; and the author of the book of Wisdom calls him the "righteous man",
"When the ungodly perished, she delivered the righteous man, who fled from the fire which fell down upon the five cities.'' (Wisdom 10:6)
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as the apostle does here; and very truly, since it follows:
vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked; the inhabitants of Sodom, who had no regard to the laws of God or man, or to the law and light of nature; but as worse than brute beasts, lived daily in the commission of unnatural lusts; and therefore their conversation is rightly said to be filthy, and was a grievous burden to righteous Lot: for to a good man, not only his own sins, but the sins of others, whether professors or profane, are a burden, and make him groan under them, being grievously fatigued with them, as this good man was, and weary of life because of them, as Rebekah was, through the daughters of Heth.
(d) Tzeror Hammot, fol. 14. 4. & 16. 4. & 20. 2. (e) Jarchi in Gen. xiii. 10. (f) Zohar in Gen. fol. 57. 2. Jarchi in Gen. xiii. 13. (g) Zohar in Gen. fol. 56. 1, 2. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 7. 3. & 14. 3. & 20. 2. Bereshit Rabba, sect. 44. fol. 39. 1. (h) De Vita Mosis, l. 2. p. 662.
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 v9 It plainly appears, from these instances, that the Lord…
It plainly appears, from these instances, that the Lord knoweth, hath both wisdom and power and will, to deliver the godly out of all temptations, and to punish the ungodly.
John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.
Adam Clarke 1810 · Public Domain On vv7–9 Verse 7. Vexed with the filthy conversation] Καταπονουμενον ὑπο…
Verse 7. Vexed with the filthy conversation] Καταπονουμενον ὑπο της των αθεσμων εν ασελγεια αναστροφης· Being exceedingly pained with the unclean conduct of those lawless persons. What this was, see in the history, Gen. 19., and the notes there.
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 v9 2Pe 2:9. The Lord, &c. — This answers to…
2Pe 2:9. The Lord, &c. — This answers to 2Pe 2:4, and closes the sense which was begun there; knoweth how to deliver — As if he had said, It plainly appears, from these instances, that the Lord hath both wisdom and power sufficient, or can find out ways and means, and will do so; to deliver the godly — Those who now suffer persecution; out of temptations —
That is, trials and afflictions of various kinds; and to reserve — Or, keep in ward, as it were; (so τηρειν seems here to signify;) the unjust — The unrighteous, or ungodly; unto the day of judgment — Temporal and eternal; to be punished — In a most signal manner, or with a severity becoming their guilt and wickedness. “The multitude of the inhabitants of the old world, and of the cities of the plain, was, in the eye of God, no reason for not destroying them. He destroyed them all at once. On the other hand, the few godly persons among them were not overlooked by God because they were few, but preserved by an immediate interposition of his power. This last observation Peter makes to show that, notwithstanding God permits false teachers to arise and deceive many, he will preserve the sincere from being deluded by them, and at length will destroy them out of the church. By God’s keeping the unrighteous in ward to be punished at the day of judgment, we are taught that the punishment inflicted on the wicked in this life, will not hinder them from being punished in the next. The principal part of their punishment will be that which they shall suffer after the judgment.”
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 vv7–9 And delivered just Lot - Gen 19:16. This case…
And delivered just Lot - Gen 19:16. This case is incidentally referred to, to show that God makes a distinction between the righteous and the wicked; and that while the latter will be destroyed, the former will be saved. See 2Pe 2:9. Lot is called “just,” because he preserved himself uncontaminated amidst the surrounding wickedness. As long as he lived in Sodom he maintained the character of an upright and holy man.
Vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked - By the corrupt and licentious conduct of the wicked around him. On the word “conversation,” see the notes at Phi 1:27. The original phrase, which is rendered “filthy,” has reference to licentiousness. The corruption of Sodom was open and shameless; and as Lot was compelled to see much of it, his heart was pained. The word here rendered “vexed,” means that he was wearied or burdened. The crimes of those around him he found it hard to bear with.
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 vv7–9 filthy conversation--literally, "behavior in licentiousness" (Gen 19:5).
just--righteous.
filthy conversation--literally, "behavior in licentiousness" (Gen 19:5).
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the wicked--Greek, "lawless": who set at defiance the laws of nature, as well as man and God. The Lord reminds us of Lot's faithfulness, but not of his sin in the cave: so in Rahab's case.
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 vv7–9 7. Delivered—A second example of preservation of the godly,…
7. Delivered—A second example of preservation of the godly, in the case of Lot. Gen_19:12-23. Just is the same Greek with righteous, in 2Pe_2:8.
Vexed—Literally, Worn down by the conduct of the lawless in licentiousness. Αθεσμος, says Bloomfield, “signifies a despiser of all laws. The term is applied to these, because they did not live after that primeval law, partly of nature and partly of tradition, with which they were favoured.”
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 vv7–9 7. vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked]…
7. vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked] More accurately, vexed with the mode of life (or conduct) of the lawless ones in lasciviousness. On “conversation” see notes on 1Pe_1:15, and on “lasciviousness” note on 2Pe_2:2.
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 vv7–9 (7) And delivered just Lot.—Better, righteous Lot; it is…
(7) And delivered just Lot.—Better, righteous Lot; it is the same adjective as occurs twice in the next verse. These repetitions of the same word, of which there are several examples in this Epistle (“destruction” thrice, 2Pe_2:1-3; various repetitions, 2Pe_3:10-12; “look for” thrice, 2Pe_3:12-14, &c), and which have been stigmatised as showing poverty of language, are perfectly natural in St. Peter, and not like the laboured efforts of a writer endeavouring to personate him. A person writing under strong emotion does not stop to pick his words; he uses the same word over and over again if it expresses what he means and no other word at once occurs to him. This is still more likely to be the case when a person is writing in a foreign language. The fact that such repetitions are frequent in the Second Epistle, but not in the First, is not only fully explained by the circumstances, but, as being so entirely in harmony with them, may be regarded as a mark of genuineness. “Delivered righteous Lot.” Here, as in the case of the Flood (2Pe_2:5), the destruction of the guilty suggests the preservation of the innocent. Is it fanciful to think that these lights in a dark picture are characteristic of one who had himself “denied the Master who bought him,” and yet had been preserved like Noah and rescued like Lot? This brighter side is wanting in Jude, so that in the strictly historical illustrations this Epistle is more full than the other (see Note on 2Pe_2:15); it is where apocryphal books seem to be alluded to that St. Jude has more detail.
The filthy conversation.—Literally, behaviour in wantonness (comp. 2Pe_2:2; 2Pe_2:18)—i.e., licentious mode of life. The word for “conversation,” or “behaviour,” is a favourite one with St. Peter—six times in the First Epistle, twice in this (2Pe_3:11); elsewhere in the New Testament only five times.
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Of the wicked.—Literally, of the lawless—a word peculiar to this Epistle; we have it again in 2Pe_3:17. The word translated “abominable” in 1Pe_4:3 is closely allied to it.
The judgment on Sodom and Gomorrha forms a fitting complement to that of the Flood as an instance of God’s vengeance, a judgment by fire being regarded as more awful than a judgment by flood, as is more distinctly shown in 2Pe_3:6-7, where the total destruction of the world by fire is contrasted with the transformation of it wrought by the Flood.
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 vv7–9 And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation…
And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked; literally, and delivered righteous Lot, who was being worn out (kataponoumenon; comp. Act_7:24, the only other place of the New Testament where the word occurs) with the behaviour of the lawless in licentiousness. The word translated "lawless" (ajqesmwn) is found only in one other place of the New Testament; (2Pe_3:17) but it is near akin to the ajqemitoiv ("abominable") of 1Pe_4:3.
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.
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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 vv7–9 7. And delivered righteous Lot. The saving of the…
7. And delivered righteous Lot. The saving of the righteous is as marked as the punishment of the wicked. See Gen. 19:1, 7. Vexed, etc. See Gen. 19:5.
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.”
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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.
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.
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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 vv7, 9 2:7-8 Even though the Old Testament does not portray…
2:7-8 Even though the Old Testament does not portray Lot as a particularly righteous man (see “Lot” Profile), he remained basically faithful to the Lord; Jewish tradition also portrays him as righteous (see Wisdom of Solomon 10:6; 19:17).
Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.