with--Greek, "in."
deceivings--or else passively, "deceits": luxuries gotten by deceit. Compare [Mt 13:22], "Deceitfulness of riches"; [Ep 4:22], "Deceitful lusts." While deceiving others, they are deceived themselves. Compare with English Version, [Php 3:19], "Whose glory is in their shame." "Their own" stands in opposition to "you": "While partaking of the love-feast (compare Jude 12) with you," they are at the same time "luxuriating in their own deceivings," or "deceits" (to which latter clause answers Jude 12, end: Peter presents the positive side, "they luxuriate in their own deceivings"; Jude, the negative, "feeding themselves without fear"). But several of the oldest manuscripts, Vulgate, Syriac, and Sahidic Versions read (as Jude), "In their own love-feasts": "their own" will then imply that they pervert the love-feasts so as to make them subserve their own self-indulgent purposes.
14. full of adultery--literally, "full of an adulteress," as though they carried about adulteresses always dwelling in their eyes: the eye being the avenue of lust [Horneius]. Bengel makes the adulteress who fills their eyes, to be "alluring desire."
that cannot cease--"that cannot be made to cease from sin."
beguiling--"laying baits for."
unstable--not firmly established in faith and piety.
heart--not only the eyes, which are the channel, but the heart, the fountain head of lust. [Job 31:7], "Mine heart walked after mine eyes."
covetous practices--The oldest manuscripts read singular, "covetousness."
cursed children--rather as Greek, "children of curse," that is, devoted to the curse. Cursing and covetousness, as in Balaam's case, often go together: the curse he designed for Israel fell on Israel's foes and on himself. True believers bless, and curse not, and so are blessed.
15. have--Some of the seducers are spoken of as already come, others as yet to come.
following--out: so the Greek.
the way--([Nu 22:23], ; [Is 56:11]).
son of Bosor--the same as Beor ([Nu 22:5]). This word was adopted, perhaps, because the kindred word Basar means flesh; and Balaam is justly termed son of carnality, as covetous, and the enticer of Israel to lust.
loved the wages of unrighteousness--and therefore wished (in order to gain them from Balak) to curse Israel whom God had blessed, and at last gave the hellish counsel that the only way to bring God's curse on Israel was to entice them to fleshly lust and idolatry, which often go together.
16. was rebuked--Greek, "had a rebuke," or conviction; an exposure of his specious wickedness on his being tested (the root verb of the Greek noun means to "convict on testing").
his--Greek, "his own": his own beast convicted him of his own iniquity.
ass--literally, "beast of burden"; the ass was the ordinary animal used in riding in Palestine.
dumb--Greek, "voiceless-speaking in man's voice"; marking the marvellous nature of the miracle.
forbade--literally, "hindered." It was not the words of the ass (for it merely deprecated his beating it), but the miraculous fact of its speaking at all, which withstood Balaam's perversity in desiring to go after God had forbidden him in the first instance. Thus indirectly the ass, and directly the angel, rebuked his worse than asinine obstinacy; the ass turned aside at the sight of the angel, but Balaam, after God had plainly said, Thou shalt not go, persevered in wishing to go for gain; thus the ass, in act, forbade his madness. How awful a contrast--a dumb beast forbidding an inspired prophet!
17. (Jude 12, 13.)
wells--"clouds" in Jude; both promising (compare [2Pe 2:19]) water, but yielding none; so their "great swelling words" are found on trial to be but "vanity" ([2Pe 2:18]).
clouds--The oldest manuscripts and versions read, "mists," dark, and not transparent and bright as "clouds" often are, whence the latter term is applied sometimes to the saints; fit emblem of the children of darkness. "Clouds" is a transcriber's correction from Jude 12, where it is appropriate, "clouds ... without water" (promising what they do not perform); but not here, "mists driven along by a tempest."
mist--blackness; "the chilling horror accompanying darkness" [Bengel].
18. allure--Greek, "lay baits for."
through--Greek, "in"; the lusts of the flesh being the element IN which they lay their baits.
much wantonness--Greek, "by licentiousness"; the bait which they lay.
clean escaped--Greek, "really escaped." But the oldest manuscripts and Vulgate read, "scarcely," or "for but a little time"; scarcely have they escaped from them who live in error (the ungodly world), when they are allured by these seducers into sin again ([2Pe 2:20]).
19. promise ... liberty--(Christian)--These promises are instances of their "great swelling words" ([2Pe 2:18]). The liberty which they propose is such as fears not Satan, nor loathes the flesh. Pauline language, adopted by Peter here, and [1Pe 2:16]; see on [1Pe 2:16]; (compare [2Pe 3:15]; Ro 6:16-22; 8:[15, 21]; [Ga 5:1], ; compare [Joh 8:34]).
corruption--(See on [2Pe 2:12]); "destroyed ... perish ... corruption."
of whom--"by whatever ... by the same," &c.
20. after they--the seducers "themselves" have escaped ([2Pe 2:19]; see on [He 6:4-6]).
pollutions--which bring "corruption" ([2Pe 2:19]).
through--Greek, "in."
knowledge--Greek, "full and accurate knowledge."
the Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ--solemnly expressing in full the great and gracious One from whom they fall.
latter end is worse ... than the beginning--Peter remembers Christ's words. "Worse" stands opposed to "better" ([2Pe 2:21]).
21. the way of righteousness--"the way of truth" ([2Pe 2:2]). Christian doctrine, and "the knowledge of the Lord and Saviour."
turn--back again; so the Greek.
from the holy commandment--the Gospel which enjoins holiness; in opposition to their corruption. "Holy," not that it makes holy, but because it ought to be kept inviolate [Tittmann].
delivered--once for all; admitting no turning back.
22. But--You need not wonder at the event; for dogs and swine they were before, and dogs and swine they will continue. They "scarcely" ([2Pe 2:18]) have escaped from their filthy folly, when they again are entangled in it. Then they seduce others who have in like manner "for a little time escaped from them that live in error" ([2Pe 2:18]). Peter often quoted Proverbs in his First Epistle ([1Pe 1:7]; 2:17; 4:8, 18); another proof that both Epistles come from the same writer.
Chapter 3
[2Pe 3:1-18]. Sureness of Christ's Coming, and Its Accompaniments, Declared in Opposition to Scoffers about to Arise. God's Long Suffering a Motive to Repentance, as Paul's Epistles Set Forth; Concluding Exhortation to Growth in the Knowledge of Christ.
1. now--"This now a second Epistle I write." Therefore he had lately written the former Epistle. The seven Catholic Epistles were written by James, John, and Jude, shortly before their deaths; previously, while having the prospect of being still for some time alive, they felt it less necessary to write [Bengel].
unto you--The Second Epistle, though more general in its address, yet included especially the same persons as the First Epistle was particularly addressed to.