2 Peter 2:17
in 2 Peter 2These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.
BSB
The same verse in ASV and KJV ▾
ASV
These are springs without water, and mists driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness hath been reserved.
KJV
These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
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This verse in 2 Peter 2
Commentary
13 notes on this verseA commentator
Albert Barnes1798–1870
Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869)
These are wells without water - Jud 1:12-13 employs several other epithets to describe the same class of persons. The language employed both by Peter and Jude is singularly terse, pointed, and emphatic. Nothing to an oriental mind would be more expressive than to say of professed religious teachers, that they were “wells without water.” It was always a sad disappointment to a traveler in the hot sands of the desert to come to a well where it was expected that water might be found, and to find it dry.
This site's exposition
wells without water
on 2 Peter 2:17-19
Wells without water and clouds carried by a tempest name the same failure twice, promise without substance, a cistern that looks like it should hold something and a cloud that looks like it should bring rain, both offering nothing when tested, and the mist of darkness reserved for them for ever answers their own emptiness with an emptiness that never lifts. They speak great swelling words of vanity, hyperonka, bombastic and hollow, and allure through the lusts of the flesh those that were clean escaped, only just breaking free from a life of error, catching converts on their way out the door. While they promise them liberty, eleutherian, they are themselves the servants of corruption, douloi tes phthoras, the letter's own irony sharpest here, that the men selling freedom are slaves twice over, first to their own lusts and now to the ruin those lusts produce.
The record, by era
The Church Fathers3 voices
These people are empty wells of the kind that animals fall into and die in, because there is no water at the bottom.
Peter calls these people dry springs—springs, because they have received knowledge of the Lord Christ, but dry, because they do not live in accordance with that knowledge.
These are the springs lacking water, the clouds carried by the storm, by which the darkness of gloom has been preserved for eternity. Indeed, where the proud words of vanity have sounded, they ensnare through the lusts of the flesh in their desires, those who …
The Medieval Church2 voices
They did not have the living word of the Spirit, the channel of delights which overflows to the glory of the nations. They were not clear-sighted like the saints. They were in some sense like clouds but more like "mists" covered in darkness and ignorance, …
These are wells without water, etc. Saint Jerome, placing these verses in the book against Jovinian, explains them thus: "Does it not seem to you that the apostle has described a different kind of ignorance?" For they reveal knowledge as if from wells, because they …
6 more voices on this verse
The Medieval Church1 voice
Having inserted much into the middle of his discourse, including among other things the example of Balaam, the apostle again begins to speak about the impure Gnostics. He likens them to waterless springs, because they have lost the purity of preaching and the sweet water …
The Puritans and the Awakening3 voices
Fountains and clouds promise water: so do these promise, but do not perform.
These are wells without water,....
Utter darkness was prepared for the devil, the great deceiver, and his angels, those instruments that he uses to turn men from the truth, and therefore for them it is reserved, and that for ever; the fire of hell is everlasting, and the smoke of the bottomless pit rises up for ever and ever.
The Nineteenth Century2 voices
A commentator
Jamieson, Fausset & Brown1802–1910
Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871)
"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].
These are wells without water - Persons who, by their profession, should furnish the water of life to souls athirst for salvation; but they have not this water; they are teachers without ability to instruct; they are sowers, and have no seed in their basket. Nothing is more cheering in the deserts of the east than to meet with a well of water; and nothing more distressing, when parched with thirst, than to meet with a well that contains no water. Clouds that are carried with a tempest - In a time of great drought, to see clouds beginning to cover the face of the heavens raises the expectation of rain; but to see these carried off by a sudden tempest is a dreary disappointment. These false teachers were equally as unprofitable as the empty well, or the light, dissipated cloud. To whom the mist of darkness is reserved - That is, an eternal separation from the presence of God, and the glory of his power. They shall be thrust into outer darkness, Mat 8:12; into the utmost degrees of misery and despair. False and corrupt teachers will be sent into the lowest hell; and be “the most downcast, underfoot vassals of perdition.” It is scarcely necessary to notice a various reading here, which, though very different in sound, is nearly the same in sense. Instead of νεφελαι, clouds, which is the common reading, και ὁμιχλαι, and mists, or perhaps more properly thick darkness, from ὁμου, together, and αχλυς, darkness, is the reading in ABC, sixteen others, Erpen’s Arabic, later Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, and Vulgate, and several of the fathers. This reading Griesbach has admitted into the text.
The words behind it
15 Greek wordsEvery Greek word of this verse in the order it stands, with what it means and the door to its own study. The last column counts the times a word stands in the whole Bible: the rarer the word, the more the places it appears belong together.
| Greek | Sound | Meaning | Word study | In the Bible |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| οὗτοί | houtoi | These | G3778 → | 1381 times |
| εἰσιν | eisin | are | G1510 → | 2333 times |
| πηγαὶ | pegai | springs | G4077 → | |
| ἄνυδροι | anudroi | without water | G504 → | |
| καὶ | kai | and | G2532 → | 9120 times |
| ὁμίχλαι | homichlai | mists | ||
| ὑπὸ | hupo | by | G5259 → | 219 times |
| λαίλαπος | lailapos | storm | G2978 → | |
| ἐλαυνόμεναι, | elaunomenai | being driven, | G1643 → | |
| οἷς | hois | for whom | G3739 → | 1405 times |
| ὁ | ho | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| ζόφος | zophos | gloom | G2217 → | |
| τοῦ | tou | <the> | G3588 → | 19766 times |
| σκότους | skotous | of darkness | G4655 → | |
| τετήρηται.¶ | teteretai | has been reserved. | G5083 → | 70 times |
οὗτοίThese
houtoiG3778 →1381 times
εἰσινare
eisinG1510 →2333 times
πηγαὶsprings
pegaiG4077 →
ἄνυδροιwithout water
anudroiG504 →
καὶand
kaiG2532 →9120 times
ὁμίχλαιmists
homichlai
ὑπὸby
hupoG5259 →219 times
λαίλαποςstorm
lailaposG2978 →
ἐλαυνόμεναι,being driven,
elaunomenaiG1643 →
οἷςfor whom
hoisG3739 →1405 times
ὁ<the>
hoG3588 →19766 times
ζόφοςgloom
zophosG2217 →
τοῦ<the>
touG3588 →19766 times
σκότουςof darkness
skotousG4655 →
τετήρηται.¶has been reserved.
teteretaiG5083 →70 times
A shaded row is a word that stands 400 times or fewer in the Bible.
The walk
8 stopsEach card is a verse this one points to, and under it the verses that one points to in turn. Where several paths arrive at the same place, that place is listed first: the text keeps returning to it.
Through
2 Peter 2:4For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;
it leads to
- Jude 1:6
And the angels who did not stay within their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling—these He has kept in eternal chains under darkness, bound for judgment on that great day.
- Matthew 25:41
Then He will say to those on His left, ‘Depart from Me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.
- Romans 8:32
He who did not spare His own Son but gave Him up for us all, how will He not also, along with Him, freely give us all things?
- Revelation 20:1–3
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the Abyss, holding in his hand a great chain.
- Jude 1:6
Through
Ephesians 4:14Then we will no longer be infants, tossed about by the waves and carried around by every wind of teaching and by the clever cunning of men in their deceitful scheming.
it leads to
- Hebrews 13:9
Do not be carried away by all kinds of strange teachings, for it is good for the heart to be strengthened by grace and not by foods of no value to those devoted to…
- Romans 16:17–18
Now I urge you, brothers, to watch out for those who create divisions and obstacles that are contrary to the teaching you have learned. Turn away from them.
- 1 Corinthians 14:20
Brothers, stop thinking like children. In regard to evil be infants, but in your thinking be mature.
- 1 John 4:1
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God. For many false prophets have gone out into the world.
- Hebrews 13:9
Where this verse is studied
On this page
Studies4
On this verse
About 2 Peter
This page draws on 13 works. Open the list of works
This page draws on Adam Clarke, Commentary on the Bible; Albert Barnes, Notes, Explanatory and Practical, on the Old and New Testaments (1832-1869); Albert Barnes, Notes on the New Testament; Andreas of Caesarea, CATENA; Augustine of Hippo, ON FAITH AND WORKS 25 (46); Bede, Commentary on the Catholic Epistles; Hilary of Arles, INTRODUCTORY COMMENTARY ON 2 PETER; Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible; John Gill, Exposition of the New Testament (1746-1748); John Wesley, Explanatory Notes upon the New Testament; Matthew Henry, Commentary on the Whole Bible; Oecumenius, Commentary on 2 Peter and Theophylact of Ohrid, Commentary on 2 Peter.