2 Peter 2:4

2Pe_2:4-10

If God spared not the angels that sinned.

Angelic sinners

I. That they are the most ancient sinners. They were the first transgressors of Heavens eternal law.

1. The uniqueness of their circumstances. They had no tempter. Adam had; so has his race ever since; so have we. All their propensities were in favour of holiness.

2. The force of their freedom. Having neither an outward tempter nor an inward propensity to wrong, they must have risen up against all the external circumstances and internal tendencies of that being.

II. That they are the most influential sinners.

1. They were the original introducers of sin to this world.

2. They are the constant promoters of sin in this world.

III. That they are the most incorrigible sinners. Instances of mans conversion from sin are numerous. Their incorrigibility shows two things.

1. That intellectual knowledge cannot convert.

2. That an experience of the evil of sin cannot convert.

IV. That they are the most miserable of sinners. There are three things which indicate the extent of their misery.

1. Contrast between their present and past condition.

2. The vastness of their capacity.

3. The utter hopelessness of their state. (Homilist.)

Fallen angels a lesson to fallen men

These are ancient things. Most men hunger after the latest news; let us on this occasion go back upon the earliest records. It does us good to look back upon the past of Gods dealings with His creatures; herein lies the value of history. We should not confine our attention to Gods dealings with men, but we should observe how He acts towards another order of beings. If angels transgress, what is His conduct towards them? This study will enlarge our minds, and show us great principles in their wider sweep.

I. Consider our text for our warning. God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell. Behold here a wonder of wickedness, angels sin; a wonder of justice, God spared them not; a wonder of punishment, He cast them down to hell; a wonder of future vengeance, for they are reserved unto judgment! Here are deep themes and terrible.

1. Let us receive a warning, first, against the deceivableness of sin, for whoever we may be, we may never reckon that, on account of our position or condition, we shall be free from the assaults of sin, or even certain of not being overcome by it. Notice that these who sinned were angels in heaven, so that there is no necessary security in the most holy position. This should teach us not to presume upon anything connected with our position here below. You may be the child of godly parents who watch over you with sedulous care, and yet you may grow up to be a man of Belial. You may never enter a haunt of iniquity, your journeys may be only to and from the house of God, and yet you may be a bond slave of iniquity. The house in which you live may be none other than the house of God and the very gate of heaven through your fathers prayers, and yet you may yourself live to blaspheme.

2. The next thought is that the greatest possible ability, apparently consecrated, is still nothing to rely upon as a reason why we should not yet fall so low as to prostitute it all to the service of the worst of evils. A man may not say, I am a minister: I shall be kept faithful in the Church of God. Ah me! But we have seen leaders turn aside, and we need not marvel; for if angels fall, what man may think that he can stand?

3. Neither must any of us suppose that we shall be kept by the mere fact that we are engaged in the sublimest possible office. Apart from the perpetual miracle of Gods grace, nothing can -keep us from declension and spiritual death.

4. I want you to notice, as a great warning; that this sin of the angels was not prevented even by the fullest happiness. The most golden wages will not keep a servant loyal to the kindest of masters. The most blessed experience will not preserve a soul from sinning. No feelings of joy or happiness can be relied upon as sufficient holdfasts to keep us near the Lord.

5. This warning, be it noted, applies itself to the very foulest of sin. The angels did not merely sin and lose heaven, but they passed beyond all other beings in sin, and made themselves fit denizens for hell. Oh my unrenewed hearer, I would not slander thee, but I must warn thee: there are all the makings of a hell within thy heart! It only needs that the restraining hand of God should be removed, and thou wouldst come out in thy true colours, and those are the colours of iniquity.

6. The text may lead us a little farther before we leave it, by giving us a warning against the punishment of sin as well as against the sin itself. God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell: They were very great; they were very powerful; but God did not spare them for that. If sinners are kings, princes, magistrates, millionaires, God will cast them into hell. You unbelievers may combine together to hate and oppose the gospel, but it matters not, God will deal with your confederacies and break up your unities, and make you companions in hell even as you have been comrades in sin. Neither did He spare them because of their craft. There were never such subtle creatures as these are--so wise, so deep, so crafty; but these serpents and all the brood of them had to feel the power of Gods vengeance, notwithstanding their cunning.

II. But now I want to ask all your attention to this second point for our admiration.

1. I want you to admire the fact that though angels fell the saints of God are made to stand. Oh, the splendour of triumphant grace! Neither the glory of our calling, nor the unworthiness of our original, shall Cause us to be traitors; we shall neither perish through pride nor lust; but the new nature within us shall overcome all sin, and abide faithful to the end.

2. Now let us learn another lesson full of admiration, and that is that God should deal in grace with men and not with angels. One would think that to restore an angel was more easy and more agreeable to the plan of the universe than to exalt fallen man. I rather conceive it to have been the easier thing of the two if the Lord had so willed it. And yet, involving as it did the incarnation of the Son of God and His death to make atonement, the infinitely gracious Father condescended to ordain that He would take up men, and would not take up the fallen angels. It is a marvel: it is a mystery. I put it before you for your admiration. Behold how He loves us! What shall we do in return? Let us do angels work. Let us glorify God as angels would have done had they been restored and made again to taste Divine favour and infinite love. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

The punishment of the wicked

I. The certainty of the sinners future punishment might be argued from that attribute of justice which belongs to the Divine character, and the entire purity of which is in Scripture so frequently insisted on. For it is manifestly contrary to justice, that no distinction should be made between the righteous and the wicked.

1. The first instance he adduces is that of the angels that sinned. The angels, it may be admitted, fell from a loftier elevation in the scale of being than man did; but the final fall of those who perish through their own neglect of the salvation of the gospel, will be more terrible than that of angels.

2. But the apostle deduces the same inference from the Divine judgments at sundry times inflicted upon men--specifying particularly the general deluge, and the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha. And the inference on this latter ground is as just as in the former. For in the first place there can be no reasonable doubt that these remarkable events were purposely intended to manifest in a conspicuous manner the Divine displeasure against sin.

3. But while they serve as manifestations of the general truth, that God cannot look upon sin with allowance, they serve more particularly, as argued by the apostle, to remind us that a day of still more awful judgment is approaching, in which the ungodly shall be subjected, not to the calamity of a temporal destruction, but to a punishment commensurate with the magnitude of their guilt.

II. The magnitude of the evil and suffering in which their punishment is to consist.

1. It has already been apparent in some degree, that the punishment is indescribably dreadful; and it is farther manifest from the fact that it is a punishment which cannot be inflicted upon them in the present life. Our nature in its present state, if subjected to such a torment, would faint, and be consumed; and the punishment, so far at least as the body is concerned, would presently be ended.

2. There is another terrible indication on this subject, in the circumstance that the punishment is one in which man will be associated with the fallen angels. What must be the nature of that torment which constitutes an adequate punishment to fallen angels I

3. And then to all these considerations is to be added the tremendous thought that the punishment is everlasting. The fearful characteristic of those who die under the curse of the law is that they die without mercy. Their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched; and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up for ever and ever. (T. Crowther.)

The punishment of the angels that sinned

1. He delivered them: but into whose hands? Indeed, He delivers guilty mortals into the hands of guilty angels (Mat_18:34; 1Co_5:5; 1Ti_1:20). Some answer, that themselves are the instruments to torture themselves. After a sort, every transgressor is his own tormentor; and wickedness is a vexation to itself. Ambition racks the aspiring; envy eats the marrow of his bones that envieth; the covetousness which would be most rich, keeps the affected with it most poor; sobriety begets the headache; lust afflicts the body that nourishes it; and we say of the prodigal, he is no mans foe but his own.

2. Into chains of darkness. Into darkness--there is their misery; into chains--there is their slavery.

(1) Darkness signifies tile wrath of God, and is opposed to that favour of His which is called the light of His countenance (Psa_4:6).

(2) Chains.

(a) The power of Divine justice.

(b) The guiltiness of their own conscience. (T. Adams.)

Noah … a preacher of righteousness.

Noahs preaching

1. Noah had his calling immediately from God; whereas we are mediately ordained by the imposition of hands.

2. The Lord honoured Noah in conferring his office upon him. Certainly a ministers life is full of honour here and hereafter, too; so it is full of danger here and hereafter, too.

3. Noah faithfully executed this calling, and continued preaching a hundred years. Both in his doctrinal instructions and exemplary life he was a preacher of righteousness.

4. He had not such happy success of his preaching as his own soul desired, and he might in reason have expected. A man may be lawfully called by God and His Church, and yet not turn many souls. It is the measure, not the success, that God looks to; our reward shall be according to our works, not according to the fruit of our works; which is our comfort.

5. So long as Noah preached, the world was warned. God needed not to have given them any warning of His judgments; they gave Him no warning of their sins. Yet, that He might approve His mercy, He gives them long warning that they might have space enough of repenting. Oh, how loth is He to strike that threatens so long before He executes! (T. Adams.)

Sodom and Gomorrha.--

Sodom and Gomorrha

1. The strongest cities are not shot-proof against the arrows of God; but even things ordained for refuge are by His justice made destructive. There is nothing peaceable where God is an enemy.

2. Sin can bring down the most magnificent cities.

3. None of these wicked cities escaped. Men, women, children, houses, plants, monuments, all that grew on the earth were destroyed (Gen_19:25).

4. Great is the danger of living in opulent and delightful places. Where is no want is much wantonness; and to be rich in temporals hastens poverty in spirituals. In a scantiness, the things themselves do stint and restrain our appetites; but where is abundance, and the measure is left to our own discretion, our discretion is too often deceived. (T. Adams.)

Sodom and Gomorrha an example of the fate of the ungodly

1. No society of men or policy can hinder the judgment of God, which He will bring upon them for their sins.

2. The same judgments of God are executed by contrary causes. The old world was destroyed by water, these cities by fire. Sinners should not think themselves safe because they have escaped one judgment, for when they are farthest off from one evil, another is ready to fall upon them (Amo_5:19).

3. Extreme judgments follow extreme sins.

4. They that are unto others examples of sin shall be also unto them examples of punishment. (Wm. Ames, D. D.)

Delivered just Lot.--

Lot in Sodom

I. The spirits testimony concerning lot. Lot was a just man and a godly. What disclosures shall the last day make! What changes in our views of individuals!

1. His state before God. Only as justified by faith can we be accounted righteous.

2. Lots character. The bent and purpose of his soul was towards God. He ran not as he should have done in the way of Gods commandments; trial upon trial was needed to keep alive the flickering lamp of spiritual life.

II. His situation in sodom. He first pitched his tent towards it, and the next step was downwards--he dwelt in Sodom.

1. I ask of that residence, was it profitable? I would not make it the chief motive to serve the Lord, that it shall be well with you here; but i would yet say lose not this world and that which is to come.

2. I ask, further, concerning that residence, was it happy? Did it bring peace to his soul? could he rejoice whilst there abiding? What saith the Word of God? It speaks of him as vexed from day to day. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation, and He did deliver Lot; but He suffered His servant to feel that an evil and a bitter thing it is to depart from the narrow way; whilst dwelling in Sodom, happiness must not be his.

3. Nay, was that residence safe? He came forth from it a fugitive who had entered it as a prince. Are you seeking to avoid reproach by some concession contrary to Gods truth? Are you planning for the worlds aid? Cast off your vain confidences, safety is not in them!

III. The hindrances to his removal might be these.

1. The tie of property. There Lot had laid up his goods. For a time, doubtless, worldly prosperity was his, and the entanglement was strong. How strong that tie is to all! How great the grace to those who have burst from its hold!

2. The ungodly amongst whom he dwelt would be opposed to Lots departure. He evidently stood in fear (if them, and he might dread to give them any excuse for violence.

3. His family had, fearful to relate, formed alliances in that city of evil; these would cling around him, and prevent the determination to depart.

4. But far more than all was that lethargy of soul the hindrance, which nourished by the atmosphere in which he lived--increased by each days sojourn ill the infected city--would make him less and less capable of the effort needed for his escape.

Conclusion:

1. What a God is He with whom we have to do!

2. What a world is that with which we have to contend! We dwell as it were on enchanted ground.

3. What depths of heart-deceit does the history of man bring to light! (F. Storr, M. A.)

Just Lot

I. His grace--a just man.

1. What this justice is.

(1) Legal righteousness is of three sorts--

(a) Perfect, which consists in an absolute completion of the law: this is lost beyond all recovery.

(b) Civil, which consists in an outward deportment conformable to the law (Mat_5:20).

(c) Internal, when a man by repentance, and by endeavour after repentance, inwardly serves God. This may justify our faith; it cannot justify us.

(2) Evangelical righteousness is that which is revealed in the gospel; and should never have been revealed if that of the law could have saved us.

2. Thus is a man just before God, but Lot was also just before men; and there is a visible justice, as well as the invisible.

(1) There is a righteousness of preparation, which is a resolution of heart to be righteous (Psa_119:106). Though he do sometimes admit sin, he doth never intend sin.

(2) There is a righteousness of separation, because it is seen to decline the places of temptation (1Jn_5:18).

(3) There is a righteousness of reparation which consists in the reforming of errors and conforming of manners, salving past defects by a bettered life, and is indeed the righteousness of repentance. Righteous, not because there is no sin committed, but because there is no sin that is not repented.

(4) There is a righteousness of comparison; so was Lot just comparatively among the Sodomites.

(5) There is an operative righteousness. The best traveller may stumble in his journey, yet have his eye observant and his foot constant on his way.

(a) If we will be delivered, let us be just.

(b) Never did man serve God for nothing; if Lot be just, he shall now find the benefit of it.

(c) The Lord first makes us just and then saves us.

II. His place, which was sinful. But why would Lot stay in such a wicked city? Not as a neighbour affected with their customs, but as a physician to cure their diseases. But he that looked for a paradise found a hell, and the cup of his prosperity was spiced with the bitter fruits of a cursed society. What doth Lot in Sodom--a saint among sinners? Fishes may be fresh in salt waters; live in the sea and not partake the brinish quality. It is not so with man; rather some evil for neighbourhoods sake. Can a man be clean among lepers? Sooner are the good corrupted by the bad than the bad are bettered by the good.

III. His case. Vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked.

1. The matter of his vexing was their sin; the evil of the place came from the persons, who were fully, filthily, palpably wicked.

(1) The impudence. It was manifest wickedness; their faces did not blush at it (Isa_3:9).

(2) The continuance. As their sins were extant, so constant; their ways were always grievous (Psa_10:5). It is not so much sin, as the trade of sin, that is damnable.

(3) The uncleanness. Their sin was not only palpable and durable, but detestable. They were exposed to turpitude, their bodies prostituted to fleshly pollutions.

2. Vexed. This was no ordinary disturbance, nor common displeasure; but oppressed, excruciated, tormented; his senses, his very soul, exceedingly afflicted. He was not an idle looker-on, as if he minded not what they did; nor in a timorous observation of the proverb, Of little meddling comes great rest; but knowing it to be the cause of God, his heart was perplexed about it. He was not vexed with them, but with their deeds; we are to hate none for their creation, but perverting the end of their creation. Vexed. That which is here passive is in the next verse active: he vexed his righteous soul. Who bade him stay there to be vexed? He vexed himself when he might have quitted himself. Yet because he was vexed he is delivered. Because he avoided their sins he escaped their judgments. And surely they were both miraculous; for his declining their sins was no less a wonder than his deliverance from their flames. As the latter was Gods gracious prevention, so the former was His prevenient grace. (Thos. Adams.)

Vexed his righteous soul.--

A saints vexation

I. The incentives.

1. Causal or radical--He being righteous. As in natural things, like things are not opposed by like things, fire fights not against fire, but against water; so in moral things, the innocent are not opposed by the innocent; one good man does not persecute another. Wolf and wolf can agree, lamb and lamb fall not out; but who can reconcile the wolf to the lamb?

2. Occasional--Dwelling among them. One reason why God suffers evil men is to try the good. They are the best lilies that thrive amongst thorns.

(1) Amongst them that hate righteousness, and him for it.

(2) Among them that thought Lot to be the only man that molested them.

(3) Among them that thought Lot a proud and imperious fellow.

(4) Among them that thought him a fool for his labour.

(5) Among them that thought him exorbitant, because he walked not after their rule.

(6) Among them that hated the truth, and loved the prophecy of wine and strong drink. Among these bad men dwelt this good Lot, and still he was righteous. It is likely they endeavoured to win him to them, either by rewards or menaces.

3. Objectual--Their unlawful deeds. Sin is the object or matter of a saints vexation. That which grieves God should also vex us: this hath tried the zeal of the saints. (Exo_32:19; 1Ki_19:14; 1Sa_4:22; Num_25:7-8).

4. Organical or instrumental--In seeing and hearing. The eye and ear are those special doors that let into the heart its comfort or torment.

(1) The sight of sin makes a man either sad or guilty; if we see it, and be not sorrowful, we are sinful.

(2) The most offensive sins are such as be objected to sight and hearing. Spiritual and internal sins may be more culpable, outward are more infamous.

(3) He did see and not see, hear and not hear. Connivance at rank impiety is bad in all men, in tolerable in some; such are the ministers of either gospel or justice.

(4) Sodoms sin was so much the more heinous to God, for offending man, and vexing the heart of His servant Lot.

(5) He that would not be vexed with evils, let him turn his eyes and ears another way. Let us frequent their company, where in seeing and hearing we may reap comfort.

II. The fire itself. Vexed his righteous soul.

1. Its property.

(1) It is the argument of a righteous man to be far from his Makers service. As sails to the ship and wind to the sails, so is fervency to righteousness. A soldier without courage,, a horse without mettle, a creature without vivacity, such is a Christian without fervency.

(2) It doth also improve righteousness; like the fire which came down from heaven upon the sacrifices, causing them to ascend thither in acceptation. Fervency is that mark which God would have us set on all His services, that so they may be discerned to be His own.

(3) It honours righteousness; many thousands have been righteous whose names are not on record; but of those who have been zealous in their piety, the Scripture takes special notice.

2. Its sincerity. As this was no common fervency, so no counter feit; he little dissembles whose soul is moved.

(1) There be some that vex them selves out of envy; Lot did not so. This is a black zeal, reckoned among the works of the flesh (1Co_3:3; Act_5:17; Gal_5:21; Jam_3:14; 1Co_13:4; Rom_13:13).

(2) There be that vex themselves out of choler; transported with in temperate passions. We do not read that Lot was cruel and turbulent, vexing others; but he vexed himself.

(3) There be that vex themselves without cause, and strike their friends for their enemies. Let our zeal come in to part, not to par take the fray; all endeavouring and praying, that peace may be within the gates of Zion.

(4) There be that vex themselves out of hypocrisy; they have other ends than Gods glory.

(5) There be that vex themselves out of Ignorance; for there is a zeal not according to knowledge. Here is a pitiable fervency, like mettle in a blind horse, or a sting in an angry bee.

(6) The very name of a counterfeit pre-supposeth an original. That virtue which even hypocrites put on to grace them, is, questionless, some rare and admirable thing. The true Lot, whose fervency is in the spirit, not in show; in substance, not in circumstance; for God, not for himself; guided by the Word, not by humour; tempered with charity, not driven with turbulency; such a mans praise is of God, though it be not of men; and through all contempts on earth, it shall find a glorious reward in heaven.

3. Its singularity. One Lot will be righteous amongst and against all Sodom, and express this righteousness in the midst of their vicious customs. It hath been the lot of fervent holiness to be rare, as to be excellent: adherents may hearten, opposites must not dash zeal out of countenance.

(1) So near as we can, let us make choice of the good; for man naturally produces works conformable to the objects before his eyes.

(2) If, like Lot, we be necessitated to the society of bad people, yet let us be good still; yea, therefore the more holy, because in the midst of a perverse generation, shining as lights in a dark place.

(3) Let us follow the examples of the best, not of the most. Who had not rather be righteous with one singular Lot, than perish with all ungodly Sodom?

4. Its constancy. From day to day. The fixed stars are even like themselves, whereas meteors and vapours have no con-tinned light. To run with the stream, or sail with the wind, or, like the marigold, to open only with the sunshine, is no praise of piety. Give me that Job that will be as honest a man among his thousands as under the rod, when the number of his present ulcers exceeds his former riches. (Thos. Adams.)

How ought we to bewail the sins of the places where we live

It is the disposition and duty of the righteous to be deeply afflicted with the sins of the places where they live.

I. For the obvious Scripture examples.--Our Lord (Mar_3:5) was grieved for the hardness of their hearts, namely, in opposing His holy and saving doctrines. David professeth that rivers of waters ran down his eyes, because men kept not Gods law; and that when he beheld the transgressors, he was grieved; because they kept not His Word (Psa_119:136; Psa_119:158). The next example shall be Ezras, who, hearing of the sins of the people in marrying with heathens, in token of bitter grief for it, rent his garment and his mantle, and plucked off the hair of his beard and of his head, and sat down astonied (Ezr_9:3); and he did neither eat bread, nor drink water: for he mourned because of the transgression of them that had been carried away (Ezr_10:6). To these I might add the example of Jeremiah (Jer_13:17). I shall conclude this with that expression of holy Paul (Php_3:18).

II. The manner how this duty of mourning for the sins of others is to be performed.

1. In our mourning for the sins of others in respect of God, we must advance--

(1) His great and unparalleled patience and long-suffering extended toward those whose sins we lament. This was evident in Nehemiahs bewailing the sins of the sinful Jews (Neh_9:30).

(2) In mourning for the sins of the wicked, advance God in the acknowledgment of His justice and spotless righteousness, should He with utmost severity take vengeance upon offenders.

(3) In spreading before God the wickednesses of great sinners, admire His infinite power, that can not only stop the worst of men in, but turn them from, their course of opposing God by their rebellions. We are not so to mourn for, as to despair of the conversion of, the worst. They are as much within the converting reach as the destructive reach of Gods hand.

(4) In mourning admire that grace and power that hath kept thee from their excesses. It should more comfort thee that thou sinnest not with them, than trouble thee that thou sufferest from them.

2. The second branch of the manner how we must bewail the sins of others is as it respects those for whom and for whose sins we lament and mourn.

(1) We must bewail the sins of our bitterest enemies, as well as of our most beloved relations--a rare and seldom-practised duty I fear that this will be found.

(2) We ought to bewail the sins of our near and dear relations in a greater measure than those of mere strangers--natural affection, sanctified, is the strongest.

(3) They that mourn for others sins, especially the sins of those they most love, must mourn more for their sins than their afflictions and outward troubles.

(4) We ought to bewail the sins of others according to the proportion of the sins of the times and places where we live.

(5) We ought to mourn for the sins of others advantageously to those for whom we mourn, with the using of all due means to reclaim and reduce them.

(a) By prayer for their conversion and Gods pardoning them.

(b) We must endeavour to follow the mourning for sinners with restraining them from sin (if we have it) by power.

(c) We must mourn for sinners with advantaging them by example, that they may never be able to tax us with those sins for which we would be thought sorrowful.

(d) We must follow our mourning for others sins with labouring to advantage them by holy reproof for the sins we mourn for.

(e) With expressing that commiseration toward a sinner in private which thou expressest for him before God in secret.

(6) We must mourn for those sins of others that are in appearance advantageous to ourselves.

3. I shall consider how we should mourn for the sins of others in respect of ourselves.

(1) They whom God hath set in any place or station of superiority over others, either more public or in families, should be the most eminent mourners for the sins of those committed to their charge.

(2) Those who, now converted, have been the most open sinners in their unconverted state should more lay to heart the sins of the openly wicked than those who have lived more civilly and without scandal.

(3) They that mourn for others sins must more mourn because those sins are offensive and dishonourable to God and hurtful to sinners, than because they are injurious to themselves that mourn over them.

(4) They that mourn for others sins should mourn more in secret than in open complaining.

(5) They that mourn for others sins must mourn to a high degree who have been the occasions and promoters of their sins--either by neglecting to reprove them for, restraining them from, or giving them examples of, sinning. This sanctified conscience will make one of the bitterest ingredients into sorrow for the sins of others.

(6) They that mourn for the sins of others must mourn with a holy reflection upon themselves.

(a) They must reflect upon themselves with sorrow, because they have the same impure natures that the most-to-be-lamented sinner in the world hath.

(b) With a reflection of examination.

(i) Whether you have not some way or other furthered this sinner in his much-to-be-lamented impieties.

(ii) Whether the same open sins that are acted by him--the noted offender--or sins almost or altogether as bad, are not acted and entertained by thee in secret places, or at least in thy heart.

(c) With a reflection of care and watchfulness that thou mayest never dare to fall into the sins that thou bewailest in another; that thou who labourest to quench the fire that hath seized upon thy neighbours house, mayest be careful to preserve thine from being set on fire also.

III. To show why this holy mourning is.

1. The disposition, and

2. Duty of the righteous,

I shall express the reasons of both distinctly.

1. It is their disposition, and that under a threefold qualification--

(1) Because they are a knowing people. They know what tears and heart-breakings sin hath stood them in; they know that sin will cost the wicked either tears of repentance or damnation; they know that sin is but gilded destruction, and fire and brimstone in a disguise (2Co_5:11).

(2) As to a saints disposition: he is compassionate and tender-hearted. If sinners mourn, he mourns with them; if not, he mourns for them.

(3) The righteous are a purified, sanctified people. A saint, as such, hates nothing but sin.

2. It is the duty as well as the disposition of the righteous to mourn for the sins of others; and that as they are considerable in a threefold relation.

(1) In their relation to God. As the sons of God they are commanded to be blameless, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation (Php_2:15).

(2) Their relation to the Mediator, the Lord Christ. Here I shall mention only a double relation between Christ and saints, that engageth them to mourn for the sins of others.

(a) The first is His relation to us as a suffering Surety, in respect whereof He paid the debt of penalty which we owed to Gods justice; for it was sin in man that made Christ a man of sorrows.

(b) There is a second relation between Christ and saints that should make them mourn for the sins of the wicked; and that is the relation of Teacher and Instructor. We are His disciples and scholars; and it is our duty as much to make Him our Example as to expect He should obtain our pardon. Christ never had a pollution, but oft a commotion, of affection; Christ never wept but for sin or its effects.

(3) Their relation to the wicked, for whose sins they should mourn.

(a) The saints are men with the worst; they have the relation of human nature to the greatest sinners upon earth (Heb_13:3). It is a wickedness to hide ourselves from our own flesh (Isa_58:7).

(b) The righteous are the same with the wicked in respect of corrupt, depraved nature; born in sin as much as they, with a principle of inclination to all their impieties (Eph_2:3). Should it not, then, make thee mourn to consider, by the wickedness of others, thine own inbred depravation? what thou hadst done thyself if God had not either renewed or restrained thee? yea, what thou wouldest do if God should leave thee, and withdraw His grace from thee?

(c) Perhaps the holiest men have been, some way or other, furtherers of the sins of the wicked among whom they live; perhaps by their former sinful example when they lived in the same sins themselves which now the wicked wallow in. Shouldest not thou, then, mourn for killing that soul which God so severely punisheth, though free grace hath pardoned thee? Should we not quench that fire with our tears which we have blown-up with our bellows of encouragement?

(d) In this relation of saints, to sinners that should put them upon mourning for them, it is very considerable that the godly and the wicked make up one community, or political body, in the places where they live. In which respect the sins of some particular offender or offenders may pull down judgments upon the whole body. So that every one had need do his utmost, by mourning, and in whatever other way he can, to redress the sins, and so to prevent the plagues, of the place where he lives.

IV. Application.

Use

I. Of information in sundry branches.

1. Godliness is uniform in all times, places, and companies. A righteous man is not, as the swine in a meadow, clean only in clean places; he will maintain opposition to sin in the midst of inducements to sin. His goodness may justly be suspected that only shows itself in good places, companies, and times.

2. The greatest sinners cannot constrain us to sin. The greatest temptation is no plea for committing the least sin: if we give not away, none can take away our holiness.

3. One cause may produce contrary effects. Others sins draw the wicked to follow them, but they put the saints upon bewailing them.

4. It is our duty to rejoice in the holiness, if to mourn for the sins, of others. Love to Gods house in others was Davids gladness (Psa_122:1). It was the greatest joy of holy John that his spiritual children walked in the truth (3Jn_1:4). Holy ones were Pauls joy, crown, and glory (1Th_2:19-20).

5. Christianity abolisheth not affection, but rectifies it. Grace is like the percolation or draining of salt water through the earth; it only takes away the brackishness and unsavouriness of our affections and faculties.

6. Everything betters a saint. Not only ordinances, word, sacraments, holy society, but even sinners and their very sinning. Even these draw forth their graces into exercise, and put them upon godly, broken-hearted mourning.

7. The great misery that sill hath brought into the world, to make sorrow and mourning necessary. It should make us long for a better world, where that which is here our duty to practise shall for ever be our privilege to be freed from.

8. There must needs remain a better state for the saints.

9. How ought sinners to mourn for their own sins! The nearer the enemy is, the more dreadful he is. Nothing more dismal than to see a sinner to go, not swiftly only, but merrily, to eternal mourning. He that hath no tears for himself, should be helped by others.

Use

II. The second use is of reprehension; and that to sundry sorts.

1. To those that reproach the holy mourning of saints for others sins. They are falsely esteemed the incendiaries in a state whose great study is to quench Gods burning wrath. If sinners kindle the fire, let saints quench it.

2. This doctrine of mourning for the sins of others speaks reproof to those that take pleasure in the sins of others (Rom_1:32).

3. This doctrine reproves those that mourn for the holiness of others. I have known some parents that have greatly desired their children should be good husbands, to get and increase their estates; but then have been very fearful lest they should be too godly; and it hath been the righteous judgment of God that their children proved spendthrifts, neither godly nor good husbands. It is often seen that, as gardeners with their shears snip off the tops of the tallest sprigs, so men most labour to discountenance the tallest in Christianity.

4. This doctrine reproves those that put others upon sin, so far are they from mourning for their sins. Poor souls! have they not sins enough of their own to answer for? If is little enough to be a leader to heaven, but too much to be a follower to hell; what, then, to be a leader!

Use

III. of exhortation, to mourn for the sins of the wicked among whom we live.

1. If we mourn not for others sins, theirs become ours.

2. Mourning for others sins is the way to awaken thy conscience for thine own former sins.

3. Without mourning for sinners you will never seek the reformation of sinners.

4. This mourning for others sins will make us more fearful to admit sin into ourselves.

5. Mourning for others sins speaks thee a man of public usefulness to thy country.

6. Mourning for others sins makes the sins of others beneficial to thee.

7. Holy commotion of soul for others sins sends forth a most acceptable and fragrant savour into the nostrils of God.

Use

IV. I shall add one use more; and that is direction to the means of practising this duty of holy mourning for others sins:

1. Look not upon this duty with self-exemption. As if it belonged only to the highest in the practice of religion, or persons in office. All desire to bc marked, and therefore should be mourners (Eze_9:4).

2. Look upon mourning for sin to be no legal practice, but an evangelical duty. The gospel-grace makes tears sweeter, not fewer.

3. Preserve tenderness of conscience in respect of thine own sins.

4. Strengthen faith in divine threatenings against sin.

5. Be holily, not curiously, inquisitive into the state of the times.

6. Take heed of being drowned in sensual delights. (W. Jenkin, M. A.)

Distress of the pious at the wickedness of the godless

The pious are distressed at the sins of the godless because--

1. These sins sully the glory of God;

2. They show the tyranny of Satan over men;

3. They conduce to the condemnation of the godless. (J. Fronmuller.)

Grief at sin

John Bunyans wife having, after several previous applications to different judges, made a specially importunate appeal to Judges Hale and Twisdon for the release of her husband from Bedford gaol, and being again unsuccessful, said: I remember that though I was somewhat timorous at my first entrance into the chamber, yet, before I went out, I could not but break forth into tears, not so much Because they were so hard-hearted against me and my husband, but to think what a sad account such poor creatures will have to give at the coming of the Lord, when they shall then answer for all things whatsoever they have done in the body, whether it be good or whether it be bad. (Tinlings Illustrations.)

A Christian in the world is like a rose among noxious weeds

Does a rose refuse to grow and to emit a sweet odour because there are noxious weeds in the same field? And does the rose complain and declare that it will not fulfil its mission until every weed is pulled up? A rose is a rose in the midst of thorns and thistles. A Christian is a Christian under all circumstances, and whether the world is full of noxious weeds, and the Church swarming with hypocrites, the man of faith continues to grow and bear fruit, exhaling a sweet and salutary fragrance on all around. A Christian who refuses to shed spiritual fragrance upon the desert air, because of the presence of mean and defective church members, is a mere fungus sort of Christian, being devoid of the seeds of truth, and hence empty of spiritual vitality.

The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly.--

The Lords knowledge our safeguard

I. The Lords knowledge in reference to character.

1. He knows the godly--

(1) Under trial, when they are not known to others.

(2) Under temptation, when scarcely known to themselves.

2. He knows the unjust--

(1) Though they make loud professions of piety.

(2) Though they may be honoured for their great possessions.

II. The Lords knowledge in reference to the godly. He knows how to let them suffer, and yet to deliver them in the most complete and glorious manner.

1. His knowledge answers better than theirs would do.

2. His knowledge of their case is perfect.

3. He knows in every case how to deliver them.

4. He knows the most profitable way of deliverance.

5. His knowledge should cause them to trust in Him with holy confidence, and never to sin in order to escape.

III. The Lords knowledge in reference to the unjust.

1. They are unjust in all senses, for they are--

(1) Not legally just by keeping the law.

(2) Nor evangelically just through faith in Jesus.

(3) Nor practically just in their daily lives.

2. The Lord knows best--

(1) How to deal with them from day to day.

(2) How to reserve them under restraints. He makes it possible to reprieve them, and yet to maintain law and order.

(3) How to punish them with unrest and fears even now.

(4) How and when to strike them down when their iniquities are full.

(5) How to deal with them in judgment, and throughout the future state. The mysteries of eternal doom are safe in His hand. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Gods dealings with the godly and their persecutors

I. The deliverance of the godly.

1. A deliverance. It is a great comfort in every distress to hope for a deliverance; to believe it, greater; to be sure of it, greatest of all. Thus certain is every Christian, by the assurance of faith, grounded on the infallible promise of God. God often defers His deliverance.

(1) To return us home: when no man will harbour that unthrift son, he Will back again to his father.

(2) To make us seek our deliverance in the right place: while money can buy physic, or friends procure enlargement, the great Physician Helper is not thoroughly trusted.

(3) To set a better price on His benefits; for suddenly gotten are suddenly forgotten.

2. The persons delivered are the godly. Godliness consists in two things:

(1) The devout admiration; and

(2) Sincere imitation of God.

3. From what--out of temptations. They, of all men, are most subject to temptations. The higher a tree shoots up, the more tempest-beaten. To suggest evil is Satans blame; to resist it our praise. The more we are tried in the furnace, the purer gold we shall go to the treasury of heaven. Lord, make us as strong as the devil is malicious.

(1) We that pray for deliverance from evil must endeavour against evil. Let us have wary eyes, for it is not the self-appearing devil, but the same or transformed angel, that doth corrupt us.

(2) Consider what preventions the provident God useth against our sinnings. Sometimes He shortens our own arms, sometimes strengthens others against us. Sometimes reason is heard, when religion sits out; and the dishonesty, inutility, or difficulty of a sin is perpended. But it is best, when the fear of God hath corrected us, or the Word of God averted us, or the Spirit of God recalled us.

(3) Let us meditate how we are blessed of God, and have reason to bless God, for these happy deliverances.

(4) If we love not evil, let us long for our final and plenary deliver ance from it; that immortal court, where sin can no more enter; out of this the tempter is excluded for ever. Here the Lord delivers us from the damnation and domination of sin, there from the temptation and assault; here it shall not over come us, there it shall not come near us.

4. Our deliverer--The Lord. His sovereignty is--

(1) Independent.

(2) Absolute.

(3) Universal.

(4) Necessary. We could not live but by His dominion.

(5) Immutable. What God once is, He is for ever,

(6) Incomprehensible.

(7) Glorious and blessed.

5. The Lord knoweth how. As there is nothing impossible to His might, so there is nothing concealable from His understanding.

(1) He knows our temptations before they be upon us; He sees the preparing of the potion, weighs the ingredients to a scruple, qualifies the malignity of the purgatives with sweet consolations.

(2) He knows them when they be upon us (Exo_2:25; Psa_31:7).

(3) He knows how to rid them from us. They are often so perplexful and intricate, that neither we see, nor the world sees, nor reason apprehends how, yet the Lord knoweth.

II. The end of their persecutors.

1. The malefactors. The wicked are unjust.

(1) To God. Righteousness is an obedience to the will of God, and injustice is no other than disobedience.

(2) To man. Such are they that measure their right by their power, and therefore will do injury because they cannot do it. Unjust--

(a) To the commonwealth.

(b) To the Church.

(c) To private persons.

(3) To a mans self. So is the thriftless, that spends himself into poverty by pride and luxury; the envious, that loses the sweetness of his own by grudging at his neighbours; the covetous, that adds to the continent of his treasure what he should add to the content of his nature.

2. The binding over. Are reserved. Whether they sleep or wake, play or work, stand or walk, their time runs on, their judgment is nearer; and they are more surely kept unto it, than any dungeon, with the thickest walls and strongest chains, can hold a prisoner till his arraignment comes.

(1) Wickedness hath but a time, but the punishment of wickedness is beyond all time.

(2) The unjust are already reserved, the decree is passed against them. They are bound over to the last assizes by a threefold recognisance, as it were with infrangible, though insensible, chains of judgment--the bond of their sins, the bond of their conscience, and the bond of omnipotent justice--and this threefold cable is not easily broken.

3. The assizes. To the day of judgment.

(1) The sufficiency of the Judge

(2) The necessity of the judgment (2Th_1:6-7).

4. The execution. To be punished. In this judgment, God respects no persons; He knows no valour, no honour, no riches, no royalty, in the matter of sin; but Rom_2:9. (Thos. Adams.)

The trial and deliverance of the godly

I. Our religion must be fairly tried.

1. The pleasures of life, as they are generally deemed; present themselves before you; many of them decidedly sinful, others of them, though not directly immoral, yet very ensnaring, they invite you to the indulgence of gratifications which war against the soul. Do you habitually resist these salutations?

2. The world, apart from its disgusting vices, exhibits to your mind, in bright colours, the numerous comforts, the many enjoyments, the family advantages, the great interests, belonging to a state of prosperity and affluence. Do you when thus tempted adhere firmly to the great Christian principle of renouncing the world?

3. Even religion itself, with imposing professions, will invite your attention and adherence for the purpose of ensnaring and deceiving your souls. Do you continue steadfast in the faith, true to your only Lord and Master? Do you reject every substitute for Christ Himself?

4. A persecuting spirit, under the pretext of holy zeal for God and religion, has often been exerted, and has proved a severe trial of faith and sincerity. Do you notwithstanding cleave to the Lord?--hold fast the profession of your faith without wavering?

5. Afflictions generally are a trial of our religion. It is when we are brought low in trouble that the excellency of faith, the sincerity of our hearts, the truth of our profession, the reality of our love to God, and the purity of our faith in the Son of God will be most satisfactorily manifested. Yet, let it be seriously remembered, that it is not the impression of the moment, but the subsequent permanent, abiding effects of affliction that become a real test of godliness.

II. The encouraging promise conveyed in this passage to men of truth and sincerity. The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptation. A faithful God is not only able to comfort and sustain them that wait upon Him, but He will do it most wisely; He knoweth how to dispense His grace most advantageously to them that really love Him and cast their care upon Him. (S. Morell.)

Deliverance from temptation the privilege of the righteous

1. Who are here to be understood by the godly. He, and he only, can lay claim to so glorious a qualification who is actually in covenant with God, and that not only by external profession, but by real relation. In a word, he, and he only, ought to pass for godly, according to the unalterable rules of Christianity, who allows not himself in the omission of any known duty, or the commission of the least known sin. And this certainly will, and nothing less that I know of can, either secure a man from failing into temptation, or (which is yet a greater happiness) from falling by it.

2. The other thing to be inquired into is, what is here meant by temptation; a thing better known by its ill effects than by the best description. The Greek word signifies trial, and so imports not so much the matter as the end of the dispensation. But (the common and most received use of the word having added something of malignity to its first and native signification) generally in Scripture it denotes not only a bare trial, but-such a one as is attended with a design to hurt or mischieve the people so tried. As for the sense in which the word ought to be taken here, it may be, and no doubt with great truth is, in the full latitude of it, applicable to both sorts of temptation: it being no less the prerogative of Gods goodness and power to deliver men from such trials as afflict them, than from such as are designed to corrupt them. Nevertheless, I think it also as little to be doubted, that the text chiefly respects this latter signification, and accordingly speaks here most designedly of such a deliverance as breaks the snares and defeats the stratagems by which the great and mortal enemy of mankind is so infinitely busy, first to debauch, and then to destroy souls. And now, if it be inquired whether they are the righteous only whom God delivers from temptation, and that no such deliverances are ever vouchsafed by Him to any of the contrary character, I answer that I can find nothing in Scripture or reason to found such a doctrine upon, but that such deliverances both may be and sometimes are vouchsafed to persons far enough from being reckoned godly, either in the accounts of God or man. And first, that they may be so we need no other reason to evince it than this, that God in these cases may very well restrain the actions, without working any change upon the will or affections. And in the next place, that such deliverances not only may be, but sometimes actually are afforded to persons represented under no note of piety or virtue, but much otherwise, those three memorable examples of Abimelech, Esau, and Balaam (Gen_20:1-18; Gen_33:1-20; Num_22:1-41.) sufficiently demonstrate. So that we may rationally conclude that even wicked persons also are sometimes sharers in such deliverances; but still so, that this by all means ought to be observed Withal, that the said deliverances are dealt forth to these two different sorts of men upon very different grounds, viz., to the former upon the stock of covenant or promises; to the latter upon the stock of uncovenanted mercy, and the free overflowing egress of the Divine benignity, often exerting itself upon such as have no claim to it at all.

I. To show how far God delivers persons truly pious out of temptation.

1. God delivers by way of prevention, or keeping off the temptation; which, of all other ways, is doubtless the surest, as the surest is unquestionably the best. For by this is set a mighty barrier between the soul and the earliest approaches of its mortal enemy. Unspeakable are the advantages vouchsafed to mankind by Gods preventing grace, if we consider how apt a temptation is to diffuse, and how prone our nature is to receive an infection. For though the soul be not actually corrupted by a temptation, yet it is something to be sullied and blown upon by it, to have been in the dangerous familiarities of sin, and in the next approach and neighbourhood of destruction. Such being the nature of man, that it is hardly possible for hint to be near an ill thing and not the worse for it.

2. We are now to consider such persons as advanced a step further, and as they are actually entered into temptation; and so also God is at hand for their deliverance. For as it was God who suspended the natural force of that material fire from acting upon the bodies of the three children mentioned in Dan_3:1-30., so it is God alone who must control the fury of this spiritual flame from seizing upon the soul, having always so much fuel and fit matter there for it to prey upon. And for an eternal monument of His goodness, He has not left us without some such heroic instances as these upon record in His Word, that so the saints may receive double courage and confidence, having their deliverance not only sealed and secured to them by promise, but also that promise ratified and made good to them by precedents and examples, like so many stars appearing, both to direct and to comfort the benighted traveller.

3. And lastly, we are to consider the persons hitherto spoken of as not only entered into temptation, but also as in some measure prevailed upon by it. But that I may give some light to this weighty case of conscience, how far a person truly godly may, without ceasing to be so, be prevailed upon by temptation, I will here set down the several degrees and advances by which a temptation or sinful proposal gradually wins the soul, and those all of them comprised in Jam_1:14-15.

1. The first of which we may call seduction.

2. The second degree of temptation may be called enticement or allurement.

3. The third degree is, when after such possession had of the thoughts and fancy, the temptation comes to make its way into the consent of the will, and to gain that great fort also, so that the mind begins to propose, and accordingly to contrive the commission of the sin proposed to it.

4. The fourth degree of prevalence which a temptation gets over the soul is, the actual eruption of it in the perpetration or commission of the sin suggested to it.

5. The fifth and last degree, completing the victory which temptation obtains over a man is, when sin comes to that pitch as to reign, and so by consequence put out of all possibility either of resistance or escape. Having thus reckoned up the several degrees of temptation, and set before you the fatal round of the devils methods for destroying souls, let us now in the next place inquire how far God vouchsafes to deliver the pious and sincere out of them in answer to which, I first of all affirm, that Gods methods in this case are very various, and not to be declared by any one universal assertion. Sometimes by a total and entire deliverance, He delivers them from every degree and encroachment of a temptation. Sometimes He lets them fall into the first degree of it, and receive it into their thoughts; but then delivers them from the second, which is to cherish and continue it there, by frequent pleasing reflections upon it. Sometimes He gives way to this too, but then hinders it from coming to a full purpose and consent of will. Sometimes He lets it go thus far also, and suffers sin to conceive by such a purpose or consent: but then, by a kind of spiritual abortion, stifles it in the very birth, and so keeps it from breaking forth into actual commission. And lastly, for reasons best known to His most wise providence, He sometimes permits a temptation to grow so powerful as to have strength to bring forth and to defile the soul with one or more gross actual eruptions. But then, in the last place, by a mighty overpowering grace, He very often, as some assert, or always, as others affirm, keeps it from an absolute, entire, and final conquest. So that sin never comes to such a height as to reign in the godly, to bear sway, and become habitual. But though its endeavours are not always extinguished, nor its sallyings out wholly stopped, yet its dominion is broken. It may sometimes bruise and wound, but it shall never kill.

Now the foregoing particulars, upon a due improvement of them, will naturally teach us these two great and important lessons.

1. Concerning the singular goodness as well as wisdom of our great Lawgiver, even in the strictest and severest precepts of our religion. Certainly it is a much greater mercy and tenderness to the souls of men to represent the first movings of the heart towards any forbidden object as unlawful in themselves, and destructive in their consequence, and thereby to incite the soul to a vigorous resistance of them while they may be mastered, and with tea times less trouble extinguished, than after they are once actually committed, they can be repented of. No doubt sin is both more easily and effectually kept from beginning than, being once begun, it can be stopped from going on.

2. The other great lesson is concerning the most effectual method of dealing with the tempter and his temptations; and that is, to follow the method of their dealing with us. A temptation never begins where it intends to make an end.

II. To show what is the prime motive, or grand impulsive cause, inducing God to deliver persons truly pious out of temptation. NOW this is twofold:

1. The free mercy of God; and

2. The prevailing intercession of Christ.

III. To show why and upon what grounds deliverance out of temptation is to be reputed so great a mercy and so transcendent a privilege. In order to which, as all deliverance, in the very nature and notion of it, imports a relation to some evil from which a man is delivered; so in this deliverance out of temptation, the surpassing greatness of it, and the sovereign mercy shown in it, will appear from those intolerable evils and mischiefs which are always intended by, and naturally consequents upon, a prevailing temptation. Four things more especially are designed and driven at by the tempter in all his temptations.

1. To begin with the greatest, and that which is always first intended, though last accomplished, the utter loss and damnation of the soul. For this is the grand mark which the tempter shoots at, this being the beloved prize which he contends so hard for.

2. In the second place, loss of a mans peace with God and his own conscience, and the weakening, if not extinguishing, all his former hopes of salvation. It confounds and casts a man infinitely backwards as to his spiritual accounts. It degrades him from his assurance; renders his title to heaven dubious and perplexed; draws a great and discouraging blot over all his evidences, and even shakes in pieces that confidence which was formerly the very life and support of his soul, with new, terrible, and amazing objections.

3. The third consequence of a prevailing temptation is the exposing of a man to the temporal judgments of God in some signal and severe affliction. For though in much mercy God may, as we have shown, save such a one from eternal death, yet it rarely happens that He frees him both from destruction and from discipline too; but that some time or other He gives him a taste of the bitter cup, and teaches him what his sin has deserved, by what at present it makes him feel.

4. The fourth and last mischievous consequence of a prevailing temptation is the disgrace, scandal, and reproach which it naturally brings upon our Christian profession. The three former consequences terminated within the compass of the sinners own person; but this last spreads and diffuses the mischief much further: nothing in nature casting so deep a stain upon the face of Christianity as the blots which fall upon it from the lewd and scandalous behaviour of Christians. (R. South, D. D.)

And to reserve the unjust unto the day of Judgment to be punished.--

The reality of future punishment

I. Think of the crisis which is indicated by the text. The day of judgment. At the day of judgment those of whom our text speaks will be present. These unjust ones will avowedly be all there. They are still existing, because then they will be forthcoming. Yes, and all besides these unjust ones are still existing, in order that they may be forthcoming then. Every descendant of Adam is existing unto this hour; living as much as we are living, away amidst the intermediate blessedness or woe; awaiting there the coming of the Lord to judgment. Public pronunciation must there be of the allotted destiny, world without end. The present does not terminate upon itself.

II. Think of the parties designated by the text. The unjust. This word is used to represent the ungodly. To be unjust towards our fellow-man is to do unto him that which should have been avoided, and to neglect to do unto him that which should have been performed. We sustain to him relationships involving manifold obligations. We sustain towards God relationships involving manifold obligations. Certain things are due from us to God; certain tempers of heart; certain modes of thought; certain habits of life. They are in no wise optional Now, in the judgment of the great day inquisition will be instituted accordingly. Not a godly man has lived who will not then be honourably recognised. Not an ungodly man has lived whose ungodliness will not then be brought transparently to light. Compromise will be impossible. Suppression will be impossible. Evasion will be impossible.

III. Think of the doom declared by our text. Punishment unto which they have been reserved. There was, according to the intimation, an idea of ultimate escape. The penalty which had been merited would somehow be averted. So in their folly men imagined they should not surely die. But God was knowing them all the while; preparing, moreover, all the while, as His forewarnings told, to execute His will. Dare any man amongst us to suggest that the great God was inconsiderate when He spoke of a fearful looking-for of judgment? Dare any man amongst us to suggest that He who holdeth us responsible for the full sincerity of our own words has been so far indifferent to the full sincerity of His own as to speak of tribulation in the future life when there is no such thing as tribulation? Real, downright positively real, this future punishment of the unjust. Forecast-ings of the punishment are sometimes realised in the present life. Instances of punishment have now and then occurred among the children of men which are enough to silence the objections which some of you are making now. You want the preacher to remember the goodness of God. I have it in remembrance; but I have in remembrance also the blindness of Elymas the sorcerer, and the latter end of Herod, who was eaten up of worms. You want the preacher to remember the goodness of God. I have it in remembrance; but I have in remembrance also the expulsion of Adam and Eve from Paradise; the cherubim with the flaming sword being placed there to dare them ever to return. (W. Brock.)

The Biblical Illustrator, edited by Joseph S. Exell (c. 1880s–1900s) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Pe 2:4. For if — Or since, as ει γαρ may be here rendered; God spared not the angels that sinned — “The angels seem to have been placed originally in a state of trial. Those who stood are called in Scripture, the holy angels. The sin of the angels is spoken of likewise, Joh 8:44, and Jude, 2Pe 2:6, as a thing well known. Perhaps it was handed down by tradition from Adam and Eve, for the memory of it seems to have been preserved among the heathens in the fable of the Titans warring against the gods. What the sin of the angels was is not well known. Jdg 1:6, says, They kept not their first estate, or their own principality, as την εαυτων αρχην may be properly rendered, but left their proper habitation. Hence their sin, by many, is thought to have been pride, and a discontent with their station. See 1Ti 3:6. But whatever it was, considering their high intellectual powers, they might easily have avoided it; and therefore God did not spare them, as he spared Adam and Eve, who, on account of the greatness of the temptation spread for them by the evil angels, and their own inexperience, were fit objects of mercy.” But cast them down to hell — The bottomless pit, a place of unknown misery. The original expression, αλλα σειραις ζοφου Ταρταρωσας, is rendered by Macknight, But with chains of darkness confining them in Tartarus. The word Tartarus, he observes, is not found in the LXX., nor anywhere in the New Testament but here. Its meaning, therefore, must be sought for among the Greeks. Homer represents Tartarus, Iliad, 8. ver. 13, as “a deep place under the earth, where there are iron gates and a brazen entrance.” It is derived from a word expressive of terror, and signifies the doleful prison in which wicked spirits are reserved till they shall be brought out to public condemnation and execution. In like manner, Hesiod speaks of Tartarus as a place far under ground, where the Titans are bound with chains in thick darkness. But on other occasions the Greek writers speak of Tartarus as in the air, and at the extremity of the earth. Hence the epithet Ταρταρον ηεροεντα, airy Tartarus. The Jews, as appears from Job 2:2, thought that at least some of the fallen angels were permitted to wander up and down the earth, and to tempt men. This was the doctrine of the evangelists likewise, who speak of the devil tempting our Lord; and of Peter, who represents him as a roaring lion walking about, &c., 1Pe 5:8; as also of St. Paul, who insinuates that evil spirits have their habitation in the air, Eph 2:2; Eph 6:11-12. Wherefore seeing the Greeks named the place where they supposed the Titans, the enemies of the gods, were confined, Tartarus, it was natural for Peter, when writing in the Greek language, concerning confining the evil angels in the place where they were shut up, to call it Tartarus, although his idea of Tartarus was different from that of the Greeks. Because it is said, Rev 20:3, that Satan was cast, εις αβυσσον, into the abyss, and Luk 8:31, that the devil besought Jesus that he would not command them to go out, εις αβυσσον, into the abyss, Estius infers that Tartarus and Hell are the same; and that the greatest part of the angels who sinned are confined there, though some of them are allowed to roam about on the earth, tempting men. See Macknight and Doddridge. Reserved unto judgment — The full execution and open manifestation thereof. From this it follows that the angels who sinned are not at present suffering the punishment due to them for their crimes; but, like malefactors, they are kept in durance till the time come when they are to be punished with the wicked of mankind, whom they have seduced. Whitby hath shown that this was the opinion of all the Christian writers for five centuries. And it is agreeable to our Lord’s doctrine, who says, the fire into which wicked men are to be cast, is fire prepared for the devil and his angels.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2. The certainty of their punishment maintained from three historic precedents, 2Pe_2:4-12.

a. First case—The fallen angels.

4. Angels that sinned—When, why, how, or how many, we are nowhere informed. We only know that some angels “kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation,” (Jud_1:6,) and that they sinned. Inasmuch as sin is transgression, it follows that they were living under law, and were therefore in a state of probation. By their sin they fell under God’s displeasure and into swift punishment.

Cast… to hell—Literally, Thrust down to Tartarus. Only here is the word found in the New Testament. In the Greek mythology, Tartarus is the lowest part of Hades. Hesiod (Theog. 721,) speaks of it as the place below the earth where the rebellious Titans are enchained and the souls of the wicked are confined; and Homer (Il. 8:14-16) describes it as a deep gulf within the earth, with iron gates and a brazen entrance. Note Eph_4:10. Whatever be its real locality, St. Peter’s use of the word shows the remoteness from heaven to which the fallen angels were driven, and the hopeless wretchedness into which they were plunged.

Delivered—As prisoners.

Chains of darkness—Chains made of darkness, expressive of the impossibility of regaining that world of light from which they were cast down. Tregelles and Alford read, caverns of darkness.

Reserved—Kept in custody unto the day of final judgment.

God spared them not—And the case shows his rule of punishment of sin.

Daniel D. Whedon (gen. ed.), Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1874–1909) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2:4-10 Three Old Testament examples of judgment show that God will vindicate those who remain faithful to him and will condemn those who deny him, including the false teachers (see 2:3).

2:4 The first example of judgment is the angels who sinned: The widespread Jewish tradition was that “the sons of God” in Gen 6:1-5 (understood as angels) had intercourse with women and were therefore judged by God at that time (see 1 Enoch 6–10; cp. 1 Pet 3:19-20; Jude 1:6). • in gloomy pits of darkness: This description of the underworld was popular in the ancient world and is probably metaphorical.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

2Pe 2:4. Εἰ, if) The Apodosis is contained in 2Pe 2:9.—ἀγγέλων, angels) The most noble of created beings: Rom 8:38, note.—οὐκ ἐφείσατο, spared not) Thus also 2Pe 2:5. A severe judgment is intimated against those, whom you might have supposed likely to escape.—σειραῖς) σειρὰ, a twisted rope, of twig, hemp, hair, etc. Thus δεσμοῖς, in chains, Jud 1:6.—ζόφου, of darkness) Darkness itself keeps them prisoners, and is as a chain. Wis 17:17, Septuagint, ἁλύσει σκότους ἐδέθησαν, they were bound with a chain of darkness.—ταρταρώσας) The noun is ὁ καὶ ἡ τάρταρος, plural τάρταρα; the verb, ταρταρόω: it does not occur elsewhere in the New Testament, nor in the Septuagint. Therefore the meaning must be sought for from other sources, from Homer, Hesiod, and Plato: according to whom Tartarus is the lowest place in nature; most dreadful with darkness and cold. Whence Hesychius: τάρταρος, ὁ ὑπὸ τὴν γῆν κατώτατος τόπος, Tartarus, the lowest place beneath the earth. Eustathius, on the Iliad, book vii., τάρταρος, ὅς φερωνύμως τετάρακται, ἀὴρ ὑπόγαιος καὶ ἀνήλιος, καὶ διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ψυχρός, κ.τ.λ., Tartarus, which, in accordance with its name, is in confusion [deriving Τάρταρος from ταράσσω], is a thick haze[6] under ground without the sun, and on this account is also cold. And this idea is confirmed by the word ζόφου, of darkness, here used. Thence ταρταροῦν, from ταρταρόω, is to sentence and consign to Tartarus, or darkness. Similar forms are θανατόω, κατιόω, κυκλόω, πυρόω, σκοτόω, σταυρόω, ταπεινόω, φιμόω. But it is possible for slaves of Tartarus to dwell also on earth: Luk 8:31; Eph 2:2; Rev 9:11; Rev 9:14; Rev 12:9, etc.: just as it is possible for one taken captive in war to walk even beyond the place of his captivity. Step by step, therefore, the angels who have sinned, are given to Tartarus (ταρταροῦνται).—παρέδωκεν, delivered) them; just as the judge delivers the prisoner to the officers. Compare Rev 20:2.—εἰς κρίσιν τηρουμένους, reserved unto judgment) the judgment of the great day, Jud 1:6.

[6] The lower air or haze (ἀηρ) is opposed to the pure upper air (αἰθήρ). See Hom. Il. xiv. 288.—T.

Bengel's Gnomon of the New Testament — English translation (T&T Clark, Edinburgh, 1860) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Pe_2:4. From here to 2Pe_2:6 three examples of divine judgment; cf. Jud_1:5 ff.

First example: the fallen angels, Jud_1:6.

εἰ γάρ] The apodosis is wanting; Gerhard supplies: οὐδʼ ἐκείνοις φείσεται. In thought, if not in form, the latter half of 2Pe_2:9 constitutes the apodosis (Winer, 529 f. [E. T. 712 f.], de Wette-Brückner, Wiesinger, and the more modern writers generally). The irregularity of the construction is explained by the fact that the third example is dwelt on at much length.

ὁ Θεὸς ἀγγέλων ἁμαρτησάντων οὐκ ἐφείσατο] The nature of the sin is not stated; otherwise in Jude.[65] What sin the apostle refers to is only faintly hinted at by the circumstance that the example of the flood immediately follows. It is less likely (against Wiesinger) that 2Pe_2:20 contains any reference to it, for in that verse other sins are conjoined with the ὈΠΊΣΩ ΣΑΡΚῸς … ΠΟΡΕΎΕΣΘΑΙ.

ἈΛΛᾺ ΣΕΙΡΑῖς ΖΌΦΟΥ … ΤΗΡΟΥΜΈΝΟΥς] but (when he) having cast (them) down into Tartarus, hath delivered them over to the chains of darkness, as being reserved unto the judgment. σειραῖς ζόφου is mostly taken in connection with ΤΑΡΤΑΡΏΡΑς (sc. δεδεμένους) (de Wette: but cast them down into hell with chains of darkness); but, since the added ΖΌΦΟΥ shows that the ΣΕΙΡΑΊ are designated as fetters, which belong to the darkness of Tartarus (not: fetters which consist in darkness (Schott), nor: fetters by which they were banished into darkness, as Hofmann explains), the enchaining could only have take place there, and therefore (with Calov, Pott, Steinfass, Hofmann, Wahl, s.v. παραδίδωμι) it is preferable to connect the words with ΠΑΡΈΔΩΚΕΝ (as opposed to de Wette, Brückner, Dietlein, Wiesinger, etc.).[66]

Instead of σειραῖς ζόφου, Jude has: ΔΕΣΜΟῖς ἈΪΔΊΟΙς; ΖΌΦΟς is not Tartarus itself, but the darkness of Tartarus; the word is to be found only here and in Jude.

ΤΑΡΤΑΡΟῦΝ does not mean: tartaro adjudicare (Crusius, Hypomn. I. p. 154), but: to remove into Tartarus (cf. Homer, Il. viii. 13: ἤ μιν ἑλὼν ῥίψω εἰς τάρταρον ἠερόεντα). The expression ΤΆΡΤΑΡΟς occurs nowhere else either in the N. T. or LXX. It is not equal to ᾍΔΗς, which is the general term for the dwelling-place of the dead. Nor does the author use it as synonymous with ΓΕΈΝΝΑ, for that is the place of final punishment, the hell fire (Fronmüller), but it is used to designate the place of preliminary custody.

ΠΑΡΈΔΩΚΕΝ here, as often, used with the implied idea of punishment.

ΕἸς ΚΡΊΣΙΝ ΤΗΡΟΥΜΈΝΟΥς] ΚΡΊΣΙς is the final judgment (ΚΡΊΣΙς ΜΕΓΆΛΗς ἩΜΈΡΑς); as those who are reserved for the judgment; Luther inexactly: in order to reserve them.

On the reading: παρέδωκεν εἰς κρίσιν κολαζομένους τηρεῖν, the infin. ΤΗΡΕῖΝ is dependent on ΠΑΡΕΔ., and ΚΟΛΑΖ. states, not: the purpose for which, but the condition in which, they are reserved for judgment; the Vulg. therefore translates inexactly: tradidit cruciandos, in judicium reservari. Dietlein, in opposition to all reliable authorities, insists on reading: ΤΕΤΗΡΗΜΈΝΟΥς, which, moreover, he incorrectly paraphrases: as those who once should have been kept; it must rather be: as those who (until now) have been kept.

[65] Fronmüller is wrong in asserting that the apostasy of Satan is meant here; it cannot be doubted that the sin meant here is the same as that of which Jude speaks, and it is not that apostasy; see my Comment. on Jude.

[66] When Brückner says: the expression becomes more drastic if the act of casting into Tartarus be completed only by the binding with chains, this supports the construction to which he objects. Schott translates altogether unwarrantably: but has fastened them down into the depths with chains of darkness.

Meyer — Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the New Testament — English translation by Peter Christie, edited by Frederick Crombie (T&T Clark, 1880) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

2Pe 2:4-10 a . A historical illustration of the Divine judgment on the wicked, and care of the righteous .

“God spared not angels who sinned, but having cast them into Tartarus, gave them over to chains of darkness, reserving them for judgment. He spared not the ancient world, but guarded Noah, with seven others, while the impious world was overwhelmed by a flood. So Divine judgment was extended to the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, which were overwhelmed by ashes, and overthrown by earthquake, as an example of what is in store for impious persons, while righteous Lot was delivered, grieved and wearied as he was by the profligate life of the lawless. For day after day this man with his righteous instincts, in his life among them, was vexed with the sight and sound of their lawless deeds. In all this we have a proof that the Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of trial, and to keep the ungodly under discipline until the day of judgment, especially those who follow the polluting lusts of the flesh and despise authority.”

2Pe 2:4 . εἰ γὰρ ὁ θεός … introducing a series of conditional sentences. The apodosis is found in οἶδεν κύριος … of 2Pe 2:9 . σειραῖς . No doubt a rendering of δεσμοῖς in Jud 1:6 , agreeably to the practice of this writer, who is somewhat fond of using rarer words, instead of the more commonplace. σειρά usually means a “cord” or “rope” (Homer, Il. xxiii., 115, Od. xxii., 175). It would seem to mean “a golden chain” in Il. viii., 19, 25, cf. Plato. Theatetus , i. 53 C. The meaning “fetters” is peculiar to 2 Peter (for var. lect. σειροῖς , see textual note). ταρταρώσας = “cast into Tartarus”. The verb is a ἅπαξ λεγ . τάρταρος occurs in three passages of LXX. (Job 40:15 (Job 40:20 ), Job 41:22 (Job 41:23 ), Prov. 24:51 (Pro 30:16 ): but in none of these is there any corresponding idea in the Hebrew. The word also occurs in Enoch xx. 2, where Gehenna is the place of punishment for apostate Jews, and Tartarus for the fallen angels. In Homer ( e.g. Il. viii. 13) Hades is the place of confinement for dead men, and Tartarus is the name given to a murky abyss beneath Hades in which the sins of fallen Immortals (Kronos, Japetos, and the Titans) are punished ( cf. Salmond, H.B.D. 2:344 a ). Hence 2 Peter uses this word in agreement with the Book of Enoch and Greek mythology, because he is speaking of fallen angels and not of men. As regards the cosmology that is here implied, it has been suggested that the earth is not regarded as flat, but the universe is conceived as two concentric spheres, the outer heaven, the inner the earth. The nether half of heaven is Tartarus, and the nether half of the earth is Hades (St. Clair, Expositor , July, 1902). The use of the word by 2 Peter is remarkable as implying an atmosphere of Greek thought in the circle in which he moved, and for which he wrote. ζόφος in Homer is used of the gloom of the nether world, Od. xx. 356, cf. Heb 12:18 . Also Heb 12:17 and Jud 1:6 ; Jud 1:13 . It is implied that fallen angels and unrighteous men alike undergo temporary punishment until the day of their final doom, cf. Jud 1:9 . Enoch x. 4, 12, lxxxviii. 2.

The Expositor's Greek Testament, edited by W. Robertson Nicoll (1897–1910) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4 sqq. εἰ γὰρ ὁ θεός κ.τ.λ. to the end of 2Pe 2:10. The sentence has a different climax to that which we expect. The protasis is, roughly, this: “Speedy punishment awaits these men. For if God did not spare the angels … nor the old world at the Flood … nor Sodom and Gomorrah,”—the natural apodosis would be, “He will not spare these false teachers.” But as a matter of fact the writer’s thought is diverted, when he comes to his second example (of the Flood), to the preservation of Noah; and, at his third example, to the saving of Lot. And so in his apodosis he puts the saving of the righteous from among sinners in the first place, though he does not omit the punishing of the wicked.

Note that his examples vary from those in Jude, who has (1) the people saved out of Egypt, (2) the angels, (3) Sodom and Gomorrah. The first example in Jude is obscurely expressed, and perhaps this is why our writer substitutes another for it.

Note also the recurrent participial construction:

ταρταρώσας παρέδωκεν … ἐφύλαξεν—ἐπάξας … τεφρώσας κατέκρινεν.

ἀγγέλων ἁμαρτησάντων κ.τ.λ. The example is taken from the Book of Enoch. See Introd. p. xlvii.

σειροῖς ζόφου ταρταρώσας παρέδωκεν (Jude, δεσμοῖς ἀϊδίοις ὑπὸ ζόφον τετήρηκεν). There is a curious question of reading here:

ABC have σειροῖς and א σιροῖς: KLP, the Latin Vulgate, the Syriac, and one Egyptian version σειραῖς. σιροῖς or σειροῖς means pits, specially underground receptacles for the storage of grain. We do not find the word in that portion of Enoch which exists in Greek, but we read of angels and stars being confined underground in wildernesses—in the glens (νάπαι) of the earth and in various abysses.

σειραῖς “chains,” answers to the δεσμοῖς of Jude, and chains are specially mentioned in Enoch; but here again the word σεῖραί does not occur. Both words are uncommon, but σειροῖς is the more unusual: σειραῖς would be an “elegant” word for chains, and it is rather characteristic of our writer to refine the vocabulary of Jude; but in strength of attestation σειροῖς has the better claim to be adopted.

τηρουμένους. Another reading κολαζομένους τηρεῖν (the words occur again in 2Pe 2:9) has rather strong attestation (אA, the Latin and Egyptian version; against BCKLP). Our author’s style does not forbid us to think that he may have repeated the words just as he has repeated οὐκ ἐφείσατο in 2Pe 2:4-5 and κόσμος in 2Pe 2:5.

Cambridge Greek Testament for Schools and Colleges (Cambridge University Press, 1896; 21 vols, various authors incl. Carr, Maclear, Plummer, Farrar, Lumby, Moule, M. R. James, Simcox) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

So the Greeks called the deep dungeon under the earth, which should be appointed to torment the souls of the wicked in.

Bound them with darkness as it were with chains: and by darkness, he meaneth that most miserable state of life, that is full of horror.

Geneva Bible (1599) marginal notes — public domain. Text via Bolls.life.

if--The apodosis or consequent member of the sentence is not expressed, but is virtually contained in Pe2 2:9. If God in past time has punished the ungodly and saved His people, He will be sure to do so also in our days (compare end of Pe2 2:3).

angels--the highest of intelligent creatures (compare with this verse, Jde 1:6), yet not spared when they sinned.

hell--Greek, "Tartarus": nowhere else in New Testament or the Septuagint: equivalent to the usual Greek, "Gehenna." Not inconsistent with Pe1 5:8; for though their final doom is hell, yet for a time they are permitted to roam beyond it in "the darkness of this world." Slaves of Tartarus (called "the abyss," or "deep," Luk 8:31; "the bottomless pit," Rev 9:11) may also come upon earth. Step by step they are given to Tartarus, until at last they shall be wholly bound to it.

delivered--as the judge delivers the condemned prisoner to the officers (Rev 20:2).

into chains-- (Jde 1:6). The oldest manuscripts read, "dens," as ALFORD translates: the Greek, however, may, in Hellenistic Greek, mean "chains," as Jude expresses it. They are "reserved" unto hell's "mist of darkness" as their final "judgment" or doom, and meanwhile their exclusion from the light of heaven is begun. So the ungodly were considered as virtually "in prison," though at large on the earth, from the moment that God's sentence went forth, though not executed till one hundred twenty years after.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 4. For if God spared not the angels] The angels were originally placed in a state of probation; some having fallen and some having stood proves this. How long that probation was to last to them, and what was the particular test of their fidelity, we know not; nor indeed do we know what was their sin; nor when nor how they fell. St. Jude says they kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation; which seems to indicate that they got discontented with their lot, and aspired to higher honours, or perhaps to celestial domination. The tradition of their fall is in all countries and in all religions, but the accounts given are various and contradictory; and no wonder, for we have no direct revelation on the subject. They kept not their first estate, and they sinned, is the sum of what we know on the subject; and here curiosity and conjecture are useless.

But cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness] Αλλα σειραις ζοφου ταρταρωσας παρεδωκεν εις κρισιν τετηρημενους· But with chains of darkness confining them in Tartarus, delivered them over to be kept to judgment; or, sinking them into Tartarus, delivered them over into custody for punishment, to chains of darkness. Chains of darkness is a highly poetic expression. Darkness binds them on all hands; and so dense and strong is this darkness that it cannot be broken through; they cannot deliver themselves, nor be delivered by others.

As the word Tartarus is found nowhere else in the New Testament, nor does it appear in the Septuagint, we must have recourse to the Greek writers for its meaning. Mr. Parkhurst, under the word ταρταροω, has made some good collections from those writers, which I here subjoin.

"The Scholiast on AESCHYLUS, Eumen., says: Pindar relates that Apollo overcame the Python by force; wherefore the earth endeavoured ταρταρωσαι, to cast him into Tartarus. Tzetzes uses the same word, ταρταροω, for casting or sending into Tartarus; and the compound verb καταταρταρουν, is found in Apollodorus; in Didymus' Scholia on Homer; in Phurnutus, De Nat, Deor., p. 11, edit. Gale; and in the book περι ποταμων, which is extant among the works of Plutarch. And those whom Apollodorus styles καταταρταρωθεντας, he in the same breath calls ριφθεντας εις ταρταρον, cast into Tartarus. Thus the learned Windet, in Pole's Synopsis. We may then, I think, safely assert that ταρταρωσας, in St. Peter, means not, as Mede (Works, fol., p. 23) interprets it, to adjudge to, but to cast into, Tartarus; ριπτειν εις ταρταρον, as in Homer, cited below. And in order to know what was the precise intention of the apostle by this expression, we must inquire what is the accurate import of the term ταρταρος. Now, it appears from a passage of Lucian, that by ταρταρος was meant, in a physical sense, the bounds or verge of this material system; for, addressing himself to ΕΡΩΣ, Cupid or Love, he says: Συ γαρ εξ αφανους και κεχυμενης αμορφιας ΤΟ ΠΑΝ εμορφωσας, κ. τ. λ. 'Thou formedst the universe from its confused and chaotic state; and, after separating and dispersing the circumfused chaos, in which, as in one common sepulchre, the whole world lay buried, thou drovest it to the confines or recesses of outer Tartarus -

'Where iron gates and bars of solid brass

Keep it in durance irrefrangible,

And its return prohibit.'

"The ancient Greeks appear to have received, by tradition, an account of the punishment of the 'fallen angels,' and of bad men after death; and their poets did, in conformity I presume with that account, make Tartarus the place where the giants who rebelled against Jupiter, and the souls of the wicked, were confined. 'Here,' saith Hesiod, Theogon., lin. 720, 1, 'the rebellious Titans were bound in penal chains.'

Τοσσον ενερθ 'ὑπο γης, ὁσον ουρανος εστ 'απο γαιης.

Ισον γαρ τ 'απο γης ες ΤΑΡΤΑΡΟΝ ηεροεντα.

'As far beneath the earth as earth from heaven;

For such the distance thence to Tartarus.'

Which description will very well agree with the proper sense of Tartarus, if we take the earth for the centre of the material system, and reckon from our zenith, or the extremity of the heavens that is over our heads. But as the Greeks imagined the earth to be of a boundless depth, so it must not be dissembled that their poets speak of Tartarus as a vast pit or gulf in the bowels of it. Thus Hesiod in the same poem, lin. 119, calls it -

ΤΑΡΤΑΡΑ τ 'ηεροεντα μυχῳ χθονος ευρυοδειης·

'Black Tartarus, within earth's spacious womb.'

"And Homer, Iliad viii., lin. 13, c., introduces Jupiter threatening any of the gods who should presume to assist either the Greeks or the Trojans, that he should either come back wounded to heaven, or be sent to Tartarus.

Η μιν ἑλων ῥιψω ες ΤΑΡΤΑΡΟΝ ηεροεντα,

Τηλε μαλ', ἡχι βαθιστον ὑπο χθονος εστι βερεθρον,

Ενθα σιδηρειαι τε πυλαι, και χαλκεος ουδος,

Τοσσον ενερθ' αιδεω, ὁσον ονρανος εστ' απο γαιης.

'Or far, O far, from steep Olympus thrown,

Low in the deep Tartarean gulf shall groan.

That gulf which iron gates and brazen ground

Within the earth inexorably bound

As deep beneath th' infernal centre hurl'd,

As from that centre to the ethereal world.'

POPE.

'Where, according to Homer's description, Iliad viii., lin. 480, 1, -

- - Ουτ' αυγης ὑπεριονος ηελιοιο

Τερποντ', ουτ' ανεμοισι· βαθυς δε τε ΤΑΡΤΑΡΟΣ αμφις.

'No sun e'er gilds the gloomy horrors there,

No cheerful gales refresh the lazy air,

But murky Tartarus extends around.' POPE.

"Or, in the language of the old Latin poet, (cited by Cicero, Tuscul., lib. i. cap. 15,)

Ubi rigida constat crassa caligo inferum.

"On the whole, then, ταρταρουν, in St. Peter, is the same as ριπτειν ες ταρταρον, to throw into Tartarus, in Homer, only rectifying the poet's mistake of Tartarus being in the bowels of the earth, and recurring to the original sense of that word above explained, which when applied to spirits must be interpreted spiritually; and thus ταρταρωσας will import that God cast the apostate angels out of his presence into that ζοφος του σκοτους, blackness of darkness, (2Pet 2:17; Jude 1:13,) where they will be for ever banished from the light of his countenance, and from the beatifying influence of the ever blessed Three, as truly as a person plunged into the torpid boundary of this created system would be from the light of the sun and the benign operations of the material heavens."

By chains of darkness we are to understand a place of darkness and wretchedness, from which it is impossible for them to escape.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

4. For if. We have stated how much it behoves us to know that the ungodly, who by their mischievous opinions corrupt the Church, cannot escape God’s vengeance; and this he proves especially by three remarkable examples of God's judgment, — that he spared not even angels, that he once destroyed the whole world by a deluge, that he reduced Sodom to ashes, and other neighboring cities. But Peter thought it sufficient to take as granted what ought to be never doubted by us, that is, that God is the judge of the whole world. It hence follows that the punishment he formerly inflicted on the ungodly and wicked, he will now also inflict on the like characters. For he can never be unlike himself, nor does he shew respect of persons, so as to forgive the same wickedness in one which he has punished in another; but he hates injustice and wrong equally, whenever it is found.

For we must always bear in mind that there is a difference between God and men; for men indeed judge unequally, but God keeps the same course in judging. For that he forgives sins, this is done because he blots them out through repentance and faith. He therefore does not otherwise reconcile himself to us than by justifying us; for until sin is taken away, there is always an occasion of discord between us and Him.

As to the angels. The argument is from the greater to the less; for they were far more excellent than we are, and yet their dignity did not preserve them from the hand of God; much less then can mortal men escape, when they follow them in their impiety. But as Peter mentions here but briefly the fall of angels, and as he has not named the time and the manner and other circumstances, it behoves us soberly to speak on the subject. Most men are curious and make no end of inquiries on these things; but since God in Scripture has only sparingly touched on them, and as it were by the way, he thus reminds us that we ought to be satisfied with this small knowledge. And indeed they who curiously inquire, do not regard edification, but seek to feed their souls with vain speculations. What is useful to us, God has made known, that is, that the devils were at first created, that they might serve and obey God, but that through their own fault they apostatized, because they would not submit to the authority of God; and that thus the wickedness found in them was accidental, and not from nature, so that it could not be ascribed to God.

All this Peter declares very clearly, when he says that angels fell, though superior to men; and Jude is still more express when he writes, that they kept not their first estate, or their pre-eminence. [Jude 1:6.] Let those who are not satisfied with these testimonies have recourse to the Sorbonian theology, which will teach them respecting angels to satiety, so as to precipitate them to hell together with the devils.

Chains of darkness. This metaphor intimates that they are held bound in darkness until the last day. And the comparison is taken from malefactors, who, after having been condemned, suffer half of their punishment by the severity of the prison, until they are drawn forth to their final doom. We may hence learn, not only what punishment the wicked suffer after death, but also what is the condition of the children of God: for they calmly acquiesce in the hope of sure and perfect blessedness, though they do not as yet enjoy it; as the former suffer dreadful agonies on account of the vengeance prepared for them.

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.

(4) For if God.—The sentence has no proper conclusion. The third instance of God’s vengeance is so prolonged by the addition respecting Lot, that the apodosis is wanting, the writer in his eagerness having lost the thread of the construction. The three instances here are in chronological order (wanton angels, Flood, Sodom and Gomorrha), while those in Jude are not (unbelievers in the wilderness, impure angels, Sodom and Gomorrha). Both arrangements are natural—this as being chronological, that of St. Jude for reasons stated in the Notes there. (See on 2Pe_2:5.)

The angels that sinned.—Better, the angels for their sin: it gives the reason why they were not spared, and points to some definite sin. What sin is meant? Not that which preceded the history of the human race, commonly called the fall of the angels—of that there is no record in the Old Testament; and, moreover, it affords no close analogy to the conduct of the false teachers. St. Jude is somewhat more explicit (Jud_1:6); he says it was for not keeping their own dignity—for deserting their proper home; and the reference, both there and here, is either to a common interpretation of Gen_6:2 (that by “the sons of God” are meant “angels”), or, more probably, to distinct and frequent statements in the Book of Enoch, that certain angels sinned by having intercourse with women—e.g., Enoch vii. 1, 2; cv. 13 (Lawrence’s translation). Not improbably these false teachers made use of this book, and possibly of these passages, in their corrupt teaching. Hence St. Peter uses it as an argumentum ad hominem against them, and St. Jude, recognising the allusion, adopts it and makes it more plain; or both writers, knowing the Book of Enoch well, and calculating on their readers knowing it also, used it to illustrate their arguments and exhortations, just as St. Paul uses the Jewish belief of the rock following the Israelites. (See Note on 1Co_10:4.)

Cast them down to hell.—The Greek word occurs nowhere else, but its meaning is plain—to cast down to Tartarus; and though “Tartarus” occurs neither in the Old nor in the New Testament, it probably is the same as Gehenna. (See Note on Mat_5:22.)

Into chains of darkness.—Critical reasons seem to require us to substitute dens, or caves, for “chains.” The Greek words for “chains” and for “caves” here are almost exactly alike; and “caves” may have been altered into “chains” in order to bring this passage into closer harmony with Jud_1:6, although the word used by St. Jude for “chains” is different. (See Note there.) If “chains of darkness” be retained, comp. Wis_17:17. There still remains the doubt whether “into chains of darkness” should go with “delivered” or with “cast down into hell.” The former arrangement seems the better.

(4-8) Three instances of divine vengeance, proving that great wickedness never goes unpunished.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4. For if God spared not the angels that sinned] Better, spared not angels, there being no article in the Greek. Here the nature of the sin is not specified. We may think either of a rebellion of angels headed by Satan, such as Milton has represented in Paradise Lost, or of the degradation of their spiritual nature by sensual lust, as in Gen_6:2. Looking to the more definite language of Jude, 2Pe_2:6-8, where the guilt of the angels is placed on a level with that of Sodom, it seems probable that the Apostle had the latter in his thoughts.

but cast them down to hell] Literally, cast them into Tartarus. The use of a word so closely bound up with the associations of Greek mythology is a phenomenon absolutely unique in the New Testament. A compound form of the same word had been used of Zeus as inflicting punishment on Cronos and the rebel Titans. (Apollodorus, Bibl. 1. 1.) Here it is used of the Almighty as punishing rebellious angels.

delivered them into chains of darkness] The MSS. present two readings, one giving a word which literally means a “rope,” as in the LXX. of Pro_5:22, and may, therefore, rightly be rendered “cords,” “bonds,” or “chains,” so agreeing with the thought of Wis_17:17 (“they were bound with a chain of darkness”) and Jude, 2Pe_2:6, and the other a noun which has probably the meaning of “dens” or “caves.” The latter is the best supported, having A, B, C and א in its favour. The two words differ but by a single letter, (1) σειραῖς, and (2) σειροῖς, and as (2) was the less familiar of the two and (1) agreed better with the “everlasting chains” (or “bonds”) of Jude 2Pe_2:6, the change was a natural one for transcribers to make.

to be reserved unto judgment] Literally, being reserved. The judgment in Jude, 2Pe_2:6, is defined as that of the “great day.” Here it is left undefined, but it is natural to refer it to the same great day of doom. As far as the text goes, it indicates a difference of some kind between the angels who are thus imprisoned, and the “demons” who torment and harass men on earth, but it would be hazardous to dogmatise with undue definiteness, on the strength of this passing allusion, as to the condition of these inhabitants of the unseen world.

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.

For if God spared not the angels that sinned..... By whom are meant the devil and his angels; who are spirits created by God and as such were good; their first estate which they left was pure and holy, as well as high and honourable; they, were at first in the truth, though they abode not in it; they were once among the morning stars and sons of God, and were angels of light; their numbers are many, and therefore are here expressed in the plural number, "angels", though it cannot be said how large; a legion of them was in one man; one at first might be in the rebellion, and draw a large number with him into it, at least was at the head of it, who is called Beelzebub, the prince of devils: what their first sin was, and the occasion of it, is not easy to say; it is generally thought to be pride, affecting a likeness to, or an equality with God; since this was what man was tempted to by them, and by which he fell, as they are thought to do; and because this is the sin of such who fall into the condemnation of the devil; Ti1 3:6 and is the sin, that goes before a fall in common; as it did before the fall of man, so it might before the fall of angels, Pro 16:18. The passage in Joh 8:44 seems most clearly of any to express their sin, which was "not abiding in the truth"; in the truth of the Gospel, particularly the great truth of the salvation of men, by the incarnate Son of God; and which they could by no means brook and which might spring from pride, they not bearing the thought that the human nature should be exalted above theirs; hence the Jews, in opposing Christ as the Messiah and Saviour, are said to be of their father the devil, and to do his lusts; and Judas that betrayed him, and fell from his apostleship, and the truth, is called a devil; and the heresies of men, respecting the person and office of Christ, are styled doctrines of devils; and men that have professed this truth, and afterwards deny it, are represented in the same irrecoverable and desperate case with devils, and must expect the same punishment, Joh 8:44, and also it may be observed on the contrary, that the good angels that stand, greatly love, value, esteem, and pry into the truths of the Gospel; particularly the scheme of man's salvation, by the incarnation, obedience, sufferings, and death of Christ: now these

God spared not; or "had no mercy on", as the Arabic version renders it; he did not forgive their sin, nor provide a Saviour for them; but directly, and at once, notwithstanding the dignity and excellency of their nature, in strict justice, and awful severity, without any mercy, inflicted due punishment on them; wherefore it cannot be thought that false teachers, who, as they, abide not in the truth, but deny and oppose it, should escape the vengeance of God:

but cast them down to hell; they were hurled out of heaven, from whence they fell as lightning, into the "lowest", or inferior places, as the Syriac version renders it; either into the air, as in Eph 2:2 or into the earth; as in Rev 12:9 or into the deep, the abyss, the bottomless pit, where they are detained, as in a prison, Luk 8:31 though for certain reasons, and at certain times, are suffered to come forth, and rove about in this earth, and in the air: and these, when removed from their ancient seats in heaven, were not merely bid to go away, as the wicked will at the day of judgment; or were "drove" out, as Adam was from the garden of Eden; but "cast down"; with great power, indignation, wrath, and contempt, never to be raised and restored again:

and delivered them into chains of darkness: leaving them under the guilt of sin, which is the power of darkness, and in black despair; shutting them up in unbelief, impenitence, and hardness of mind; being holden with the cords of their sins, and in the most dreadful state of bondage and captivity to their lusts, in just judgment on them; and in the most miserable and uncomfortable condition, being driven from the realms of light, deprived of the face and presence of God, in the utmost horror and trembling, and fearful looking for of judgment, and fiery indignation to consume them; and in utter darkness, without the least glimmering of light, joy, peace, and comfort; and where there is nothing but weeping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth; and being also under the restraints of the power and providence of God, and not able to stir or move, or do anything without divine permission; and being likewise, by the everlasting, unalterable, and inscrutable purposes and decrees of God, appointed to everlasting wrath and destruction; by which they are consigned and bound over to it, and held fast, that they cannot escape it:

to be reserved unto judgment: to the day of judgment, to the last and general judgment; the judgment of torment, as the Syriac version here calls it; the words may be rendered, "and delivered them to be kept at judgment, in chains of darkness"; when they will be in full torment, which they are not yet in; and then they will be cast into the lake of fire prepared for them, and be everlastingly shut up in the prison of hell from whence they will never more be suffered to go out; till which time they are indeed under restraints, and are held in by Christ, who has the power of binding and loosing them at pleasure; and who then, as the Judge of men and devils, will bring them forth, and pass and execute sentence on them. The Jews give an account of the dejection, fall, and punishment of the angels, in a manner pretty much like this of Peter's, whom they speak of under different names; so of the serpent that deceived Adam and Eve, whom they call Samael, and because of that sin of his, they say (k) that the Lord

"cast down Samael and his company from the place of their holiness, out of heaven;''

and of Aza and Azael, angels, who, they say, sinned by lusting after the daughters of men, they frequently affirm, that God cast them down from their holiness (l), and that he , "cast them down below in chains" (m); and that God cast them down from their holiness from above; and when they descended, they were rolled in the air--and he brought them to the mountains of darkness, which are called the mountains of the east, and bound them "in chains" of iron, and the chains were sunk into the midst of the great deep (n): and elsewhere they say (o), that God cast them down from their holy degree, out of heaven--from their holy place out of heaven--and bound them in "chains" of iron, in the mountains of "darkness".

(k) Sepher Bahir in Zohar in Gen. fol. 27. 3. (l) Zohar in Gen. fol. 25. 3. (m) lb. fol. 32. 3. (n) Midrash Ruth in Zohar in Gen. fol. 45. 1. 2. vid. fol. 77. 3. (o) Zohar in Numb. fol. 84. 1. vid. Tzeror Hammor, fol. 6. 4. & 9. 4. & Raziel, fol. 14. 2. & 18. 2.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

4 For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

Ver. 4. If God spared not the angels] Though but for one sin only, and that in thought only. It sprang from the admiration of their own gifts, it was confirmed by pride and ambition, it was perfected by envy, stirred by the decree of exalting man’s nature above angels in and by Christ. Some say it was a transgression of some commandment in particular (not expressed), as Adam was.

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.

For if God spared not the angels that sinned - The apostle now proceeds to the proof of the proposition that these persons would be punished. It is to be remembered that they had been, or were even then, professing Christians, though they had really, if not in form, apostatized from the faith 2Pe 2:20-22, and a part of the proofs, therefore, are derived from the cases of those who had apostatized from the service of God. He appeals, therefore, to the case of the angels that had revolted. Neither their former rank, their dignity, nor their holiness, saved them from being thrust down to hell; and if God punished them so severely, then false teachers could not hope to escape. The apostle, by the “angels” here, refers undoubtedly to a revolt in heaven - an event referred to in Jud 1:6, and everywhere implied in the Scriptures. When that occurred, however - why they revolted, or what was the number of the apostates - we have not the slightest information, and on these points conjecture would be useless. In the supposition that it occurred, there is no improbability; for there is nothing more absurd in the belief that angels have revolted than that men have; and if there are evil angels, as there is no more reason to doubt than that there are evil men, it is morally certain that they must have fallen at some period from a state of holiness, for it cannot be believed that God made them wicked.

But cast them down to hell - Greek ταρταρώσας tartarōsas - “thrusting them down to Tartarus.” The word here used occurs nowhere else in the New Testament, though it is common in the Classical writers. It is a verb formed from Τάρταρος Tartaros, Tartarus, which in Greek mythology was the lower part, or abyss of Hades, ᾍδης Hadēs, where the shades of the wicked were supposed to be imprisoned and tormented, and corresponded to the Jewish word Γεέννα Geenna - “Gehenna.” It was regarded, commonly, as beneath the earth; as entered through the grave; as dark, dismal, gloomy; and as a place of punishment. Compare the Job 10:21-22 notes, and Mat 5:22 note. The word here is one that properly refers to a place of punishment, since the whole argument relates to that, and since it cannot be pretended that the “angels that sinned” were removed to a place of happiness on account of their transgression. It must also refer to punishment in some other world than this, for there is no evidence that This world is made a place of punishment for fallen angels.

And delivered them into chains of darkness - “Where darkness lies like chains upon them” - Robinson, Lexicon. The meaning seems to be, that they are confined in that dark prisonhouse as if by chains. We are not to suppose that spirits are literally bound; but it was common to bind or fetter prisoners who were in dungeons, and the representation here is taken from that fact. This representation that the mass of fallen angels are confined in “Tartarus,” or in hell, is not inconsistent with the representations which elsewhere occur that their leader is permitted to roam the earth, and that even many of those spirits are allowed to tempt men. It may be still true that the mass are con fined within the limits of their dark abode; and it may even be true also that Satan and those who axe permitted to roam the earth are under bondage, and are permitted to range only within certain bounds, and that they are so secured that they will be brought to trial at the last day.

To be reserved unto judgment - Jud 1:6, “to the judgment of the great day.” They will then, with the revolted inhabitants of this world, be brought to trial for their crimes. That the fallen angels will be punished after the judgment is apparent from Rev 20:10. The argument in this verse is, that if God punished the angels who revolted from Him, it is a fair inference that He will punish wicked people, though they were once professors of religion.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

If God spared not the Angels, &c. St. Peter here brings these examples of God’s justice. 1. Towards the rebellious angels that fell from heaven; 2. that of the general flood, or deluge; 3. when he destroyed Sodom and those other cities. First, angels that sinned, God by his justice delivered them, drawn down with infernal ropes into hell to be tormented, and to be reserved even for greater torments after the day of judgment. This seems to be the liberal sense of this fourth verse, which is obscure, and has divers reading in the Greek. In the examples of the deluge and of Sodom, St. Peter shews not only the severity of God’s judgments upon the wicked, but also his merciful providence towards the small number of the just, as towards Noe [Noah], a preacher of justice, the eighth and chief of those that were preserved in the ark, when he spared not the world that was of old, (literally, the original world) or wicked of those ancient times. When he delivered that just man, Lot, at the time he reduced Sodom and those other cities to ashes: for Lot was just both in sight and hearing, without being corrupted by what he saw and heard; chaste as to his eyes and ears, or as to all that could be seen or heard of him, when the wicked among whom he lived vexed and grieved his just soul by their impious deeds. God, therefore, who knows and approves the ways of the godly, preserves them by his providence amidst temptations. (Witham)

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[BIBLIOGRAPHY]

Rudentibus inferni detractos in tartarum tradidit cruciandos, in judicium reservari, Greek: seirais zophou (some few copies, Greek: adou ) Greek: tartarosas, paredoken eis krisin teteremenous; other manuscripts, Greek: teroumenous. Greek: Tartaroo must signify cast into a place, called Greek: tartaros, derived from Greek: taratto, turbo. The Rhem. Testament hath, with ropes of hell drawn down; but the sense rather seems to be, delivered into chains, or into prison. Some would have Greek: tartarosas to signify, cast down into this region of the air. It is true divers of the ancient Fathers were of opinion, that devils are dispersed in the airy region, where they are punished and tormented; but these same Fathers do not deny, that there is in the inferior parts of the earth a place of torments for the devils and damned souls, into which (called also the abyss) the devils begged not to be sent and confined there. (Luke viii. 31.) This is the place called hell, tartarus, &c.

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).

For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell: elsewhere called the deep, Luk 8:31, and the bottomless pit, Rev 9:1; 11:7; 17:8; 20:1,3. This implies a change:

1. Of the state of those sinning angels, that whereas before it was the highest among the creatures, now it is the lowest.

2. Of their place, that whereas they were before the throne of God with the rest of the angels, they are now thrust down into a lower place, agreeable to their sin and misery. What place that is we find not expressed in Scripture, and therefore we are not to be over curious in our inquiries after it; but may rest satisfied, that they are excluded from the place of their primitive happiness, and are in a place where they are afflicted with the pain both of loss and sense.

And delivered them into chains of darkness: either to be bound, or held with darkness as with chains; or kept in chains under darkness, as Jud 1:6; where darkness may imply the misery and horror of their condition, and chains, their obduracy in their wickedness, their despair of deliverance, their expectation of future judgment, Heb 10:27, together with the providence and power of God, watching over and holding them in that condition, till final vengeance come upon them. It is a metaphor taken from malefactors condemned, who are bound in chains, and kept in the dungeon till execution.

To be reserved; so kept that they cannot escape.

Unto judgment; viz. that of the last day, the time of their full torment, in which the wrath of God, which they feel in a great measure now, will come upon them to the utmost.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

For if God spared not the angels that sinned; rather, angels when they sinned; there is no article. St. Peter is giving proofs of his assertion that the punishment of the ungodly lingereth not. The first is the punishment of angels that sinned. He does not specify the sin, whether rebellion, as in Rev_12:7; or uncleanness, as apparently in Jud_1:6, 7, and Gen_6:4. Formally, there is an anacoluthon here, but in thought we have the apodosis in verse 9. But cast them down to hell. The Greek word, which is found nowhere else in the Greek Scriptures, is tartarwsav, "having cast into Tartarus." This use of a word belonging to heathen mythology is very remarkable, and without parallel in the New Testament. (The word tartarov occurs in the Septuagint,av Job_40:15. Compare also the Septuagint rendering of the name of Job"s daughter Keren-Happuch, jAmalqai kerav, the horn of Amalthaea; and the word seirhnev in (Isa_43:20) Apparently, St. Peter regards Tartarus not as equivalent to Gehenna, for the sinful angels are "reserved unto judgment," but as a place of preliminary detention. Josephus, quoted by Professor Lumby in the "Speaker"s Commentary," speaks of the oldest heathen gods as fettered in Tartarus, ejn Tartarw dedemenouv ("Contra Apion," 2:33). And delivered them into chains of darkness. The Revised Version "pits" represents the reading of the four oldest manuscripts; but the variations in two of them (the Sinaitic and Alexandrine have seiroiv zofoiv), and the fact that seirov seems properly to mean a pit for the storage of corn, throw some doubt upon this reading. The other reading seiraiv, cords, may possibly have arisen from the parallel passage in Jud_1:6, though the Greek word for "chains" is different there. The chains consist in darkness; the pits are in darkness, Paredwke, delivered, is often used, as Huther remarks, with the implied idea of punishment. It is simpler to connect the chains or pits of darkness with this verb than (as Fronmuller and others) with tartarwsav, "having cast them in bonds of darkness into Tartarus". (comp. RAPC Wis 17:2, 16, 17) To be reserved unto judgment; literally, being reserved; but the readings here are very confused. St. Jude says (verse 6) that the sinful angels are reserved "unto the judgment of the great day." Bengel says, "Possunt autem in terra quoque versari mancipia Tartari (Luk_8:31; Eph_2:2; etc.) sic ut bello captus etiam extra locum captivitatis potest ambulare." But in the ease of a mystery of which so little has been revealed, we are scarcely justified in assuming the identity of the angels cast into Tartarus with the evil spirits who tempt and harass us on earth.

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Cast them down to hell - The bottomless pit, a place of unknown misery. Delivered them - Like condemned criminals to safe custody, as if bound with the strongest chains in a dungeon of darkness, to be reserved unto the judgment of the great day. Though still those chains do not hinder their often walking up and down seeking whom they may devour.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

Examples from History:

v. 4. For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto Judgment;

v. 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;

v. 6. and turning the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah into ashes, condemned them with an overthrow, making them an ensample unto those that after should live ungodly;

v. 7. and delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked;

v. 8. (far that righteous man, dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds;)

v. 9. the Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the Day of Judgment to be punished;

v. 10. but chiefly them that walk after the flesh in the lust of uncleanness, and despise government.

St. Peter here substantiates his statement concerning the punishment which is sure to strike the false teachers by a reference to history, which shows that God’s avenging hand always finds those that are guilty of wickedness. The apostle’s first example is that of the evil angels: For if God did not spare the angels that had sinned, but, committing them to pits of darkness, bound them over, reserved for judgment. God had created all angels good and holy in the beginning. But a great number of them, filled with pride, rebelled against His government, became guilty of wickedness. Their punishment was swift and terrible: He committed them to the chains and pits of the darkness of hell. This is, of course, not to be taken literally, since the angels, as spirits, cannot be held with physical chains. But the evil angels have been deprived of the blessed fellowship with God, they have been shut out forever from the hope of eternal bliss in the presence of the Lord; and though they have some liberty of movement under God’s permission, they stand convicted, they are being reserved for the time when God will pronounce the final judgment upon them.

A second example is that of the Flood at the time of Noah: And if God did not spare the ancient world, but kept Noah, the herald of righteousness, as the eighth one, when He brought on the Deluge on the world of godless men. The Lord had shown a great deal of patience in the case of the men of the ancient world. Even after repeated warnings He had granted them a further respite of one hundred and twenty years, during which time Noah made every effort, by the preaching of righteousness, to bring men to repentance, Heb 11:7. But finally the patience of the Lord was exhausted. He spared only Noah, as one of eight, Noah and his family. All other men were swallowed up in the terrible cataclysm which came upon the world in the Deluge. The picture is that of an unloosing of forces which had been held back only with difficulty, and which now, being released, swept everything before them.

A third example is that of the cities Sodom and Gomorrah: And reducing the cities Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes, He carried out His sentence by a devastation, thus setting an example for those that are determined to lead a godless life, and delivered the righteous Lot, who was severely afflicted by the lawless people, by the lasciviousness of their conduct; for day after day, by seeing and hearing, the righteous man living among them vexed and distressed his righteous soul at their lawless deeds, Gen 19:1-38. The judgment of God upon the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, rightly considered, is one of the most awful examples of His avenging justice. So great was the cry of these two cities in the ears of Jehovah, and so very grievous was their sin, that He visited them with a devastating earthquake, at the same time sending down fire from heaven. Thus the cities were completely overthrown and reduced to ashes in a most terrible catastrophe, the effect of which is plainly noticeable to this day. The Dead Sea with the country surrounding it is a warning example to all men that are determined, in spite of all warnings of the Lord, to continue in their godless life. Only one man was found in the cities who was righteous in the sight of God, Lot, the nephew of Abraham. And Lot was able to testify to the insolent lasciviousness of the conduct of Sodom’s citizens. Day after day he had been obliged to see the most revolting sins, to hear the most horrible and filthy talk. The vexation and distress which he thus incurred was magnified, at least in a measure, by the fact that Lot himself had chosen this city for his abode and continued to live there on account of the temporal gain which the rich country brought him. It was a misery and affliction for him to be in the very midst of so much lawlessness and immorality. But God again made a distinction between the just and the unjust by delivering the righteous Lot, thus affording a great measure of comfort to the believers, of all times, Mal 3:13-18.

The apostle now draws his conclusion from the examples offered: The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations, but to keep the unjust for the Day of Judgment under punishment, but especially those walking according to the flesh in the lust of pollution and despising authority. From the discussion presented in the chapter up to this point this double conclusion stands out very plainly. In either case the Lord knows how to deal with the situation. He has ways and means to deliver the godly, those that fear Him and walk righteously before Him, out of the temptations which are due to their surroundings, to the unbelievers in whose midst they are living. But, on the other hand, the fact that He will not be mocked, but that He knows how to avenge any offense to His honor is seen in His keeping the unjust, the unrighteous, in punishment and pain until the great Day of Judgment, Psa 16:4; Heb 2:15. Just as the evil angels are even now condemned to the darkness of hell, so the unrighteous will enter the same damnation, according to their souls, just as soon as they die. And they will be kept in this suffering until the Day of Judgment, when the sentence upon them will be confirmed and their sufferings will continue according to both soul and body throughout eternity. This punishment will be especially severe in the case of such unbelievers as live in open sins of the flesh, in the various forms of immorality, in unnatural lusts as practiced in Sodom, whereby both soul and body are polluted, Rom 1:26-32 and at the same time openly despise all authority, divine as well as human, particularly the Lordship of Christ.

Paul E. Kretzmann, Popular Commentary of the Bible (1921–1924) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Our apostle having asserted in the foregoing verse, that the judgment of the wicked in general lingereth not, and that the damnation of seducers in particular slumbereth not; he comes here in these verses to make his assertion good by a three-fold instance, namely, the angels, the old world, and the people of Sodom and Gomorrah; from whence he would have them conclude, that, if God spared not these, he would not long spare false prophets and their followers.

Observe, 1. The example of God’s severity on the fallen angels; they sinned, and kept not their first state, they fell from that state of holiness in which they were originally created; and their punishment followed, they were cast down to hell, and delivered into chains of darkness, reserved unto judgment.

But are they not judged and punished already?

Yes, no doubt, but the full wrath of God will not be poured out upon them until the day of judgment; if they are now as full of sin as they can be, it is certain they are not so full of misery and torment as they shall be.

Learn hence, 1. That the angels, though created in an holy, yet are they not in an immutable state.

2. The freedom of their own wills was the cause of their sin, and their sin the cause of their misery.

3. That for sin they were cast down to hell, where their misery is much, but they expect more.

Observe, 2. The example of the old world, upon whose sinning God brought a flood, drowning them all, except eight persons.

Where note, That the greatest multitudes and number of sinners does not hinder God’s justice from executing judgment upon them for their sins; a whole world sinning are as easily destroyed by God as a single sinner.

Observe, 3. He instances in the wicked cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, who were consumed by fire from heaven, and rendered by the Almighty a dreadful spectacle to all that should live ungoldily. Sin lays the foundation of ruin in the most flourishing cities and kingdoms; the strongest walls cannot keep judgments out, when sin enters in; Sodom’s plenty and power could not secure her inhabitants, when sin had once exposed them to the wrath of God.

Note also, The intention, end, and design of God, in punishing some sinners; it is to make them examples unto others.

William Burkitt's Expository Notes on the New Testament (1700–1703) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

4–11. For if God spared not the angels that sinned. In order to show that judgments on these wicked teachers are sure, Peter cites examples. Even angels when they sinned were subjected to punishment. But cast them down to hell. The sinning angels were cast out of heaven. The word rendered “hell” is not Gehenna, but Tartarus, a Greek term used for the place of future punishment. Delivered them into chains of darkness. “Pits” in the Revision; possibly dungeons of darkness gives the idea. Compare Jude 6. Both passages point to a time when angels sinned, fell, and thus became angels of darkness.

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.

Connecting Statement:

Peter gives examples of people who acted against God and whom God punished because of what they did.

did not spare

"did not refrain from punishing" or "punished"

he handed them down to Tartarus

The word "Tartarus" is a term from Greek religion that refers to the place where evil spirits and wicked men who have died are punished. AT: "he cast them into hell" (See: How to Translate Names)

to be kept in chains of lower darkness

This can be stated in active form. AT: "where he will keep them in chains of lower darkness" (See: Active or Passive)

in chains of lower darkness

Possible meanings are 1) "in chains in a very dark place" or 2) "in very deep darkness that imprisons them like chains." (See: Metaphor)

until the judgment

This refers to the day of judgment when God will judge every person.

he did not spare the ancient world

Here the word "world" refers to the people who lived in it. AT: "he did not spare the people who lived in the ancient world" (See: Metonymy)

he preserved Noah ... along with seven others

God did not destroy Noah and seven other people when he destroyed the rest of the people who lived in the ancient world.

reduced the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah to ashes

"burned the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire until only ashes remained"

condemned them to destruction

Here the word "them" refers to Sodom and Gomorrah and the people who lived in them.

as an example of what is to happen to the ungodly

Sodom and Gomorrah serve as an example and a warning of what will happen to others who disobey God.

translationWords

God

angel

sin

judge

world

Noah

righteous

flood

godly

Sodom

Gomorrah

ash

condemn

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

4-11.] Argument, enforced by three historical proofs, that God will assuredly punish these wicked persons. The protases, εἰ γὰρ.… καὶ ἀρχ. κόσμ.… καὶ πόλεις, have no single apodosis, properly so called, to answer to them, but the apodosis when it comes, is complicated with an additional protasis καὶ δίκαιον Λὼτ κ.τ.λ. which causes it to consist of two members, the deliverance of the righteous, and the punishment of the wicked.

4.] First historical proof: the punishment of the apostate angels. Cf. Jud 1:6. For (connect with the position immediately preceding, οἷς τὸ κρῖμα κ.τ.λ.) if God spared not angels having sinned (how, is not here specified; but Jude, ver. 6, is more particular: see note there. ἁμαρτησάντων, anarthrous, is not = τῶν ἁμ., “that sinned:” but carries a ratiocinative force, giving the reason of οὐκ ἐφείσατο: “for their sin”), but casting them into hell (the word is no where else found: but its meaning must be plain by analogy. Tartarus is no where else mentioned in the N. T. or LXX: there can be no doubt that it is used as equivalent to γέεννα. It seems best to take the verb absolutely, by itself, and join σειροῖς ζόφου to παρέδωκεν, as is done in E. V. So Huther after Calov., Pott, Wahl, al., against De Wette, Dietlein, al. The aor. participle is contemporary with the aor. verb παρέδωκεν, as in ἀποκριθεὶς εἶπε) delivered (them) over (“παρέδωκεν is here, as often, used with an implied idea of punishment.” Huther) to dens (so with the reading in txt: σειρός, the same as σίρος, or σιῤῥός, properly a cave where corn is stored, so Demosth. p. 100 ult., ὀλυρῶν τῶν ἐν τοῖς Θρᾳκίοις σιροῖς, also p. 135. 5. The form σειρός is found (as a var. read. in Demosth. also) in Pollux ix. 49; Phot. p. 504. 23; Varro de re rust. i. 57. The word is used for a wolf’s den, by Longus i. 11. The other reading, σειραῖς, has perhaps come from the δεσμοῖς ἀϊδίοις of ║ Jude, and would seem to suit the sense better: see there) of darkness (if the reading σειραῖς be retained, the expression is remarkably illustrated by Wisd. 17:17, ἁλύσει σκότους ἐδέθησαν: and will probably mean, as there, that darkness itself is the chain, gen. of apposition) in custody (pres.: “being kept.” The readings are in great confusion, from the combined influence of ║ Jude, and our ver. 9) unto (with a view to: or merely temporal, until: but this is not probable here, as the want of μεγάλης ἡμέρας, Jud 1:6, removes all definite allusion to the time of the judgment) judgment:

Henry Alford, The Greek Testament (1849–1861) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The angels. No article. Angels. So Rev. Compare Jude 1:6.

Cast them down to hell [ταρταρωσας] . Only here in New Testament. From Tartarov, Tartarus. It is strange to find Peter using this Pagan term, which represents the Greek hell, though treated here not as equivalent to Gehenna, but as the place of detention until the judgment. Chains of darkness [σειραις ζοφου] . Seira is a cord or band, sometimes of metal. Compare Septuagint, Pro 5:22; Wisd. of Sol 17:2, 18. The best texts, however, substitute siroiv or seiroiv, pits or caverns. Sirov originally is a place for storing corn. Rev., pits of darkness. Of darkness [ζοφου] . Peculiar to Peter and Jude. Originally of the gloom of the nether world, So Homer :

"These halls are full Of shadows hastening down to Erebus Amid the gloom [υπο ζοφον] ." Odyssey, 20, 355.

When Ulysses meets his mother in the shades, she says to him :

"How didst thou come, my child, a living man, Into this place of darkness ? [υπο ζοφον] ." Odyssey, 11, 155.

Compare Jude 1:13. So Milton :

"Here their prison ordained In utter darkness, and their portion set As far removed from God and light of heaven As from the center thrice to the utmost pole." Paradise Lost, 1, 71 - 74.

And Dante :

"That air forever black." Inferno, 3, 329.

"Upon the verge I found me Of the abysmal valley dolorous That gather thunder of infinite ululations. Obscure, profound it was, and nebulous, So that by fixing on its depths my sight Nothing whatever I discerned therein." Inferno, 4, 7, 12.

"I came unto a place mute of all light." Inferno, 5, 28.

To be reserved [τηρουμενους] . Lit., being reserved. See on 1Pe 1:4, "reserved in heaven."

Marvin R. Vincent, Word Studies in the New Testament (1887–1900) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.