2 Peter 2:18 NIV

Matthew Henry's Complete Commentary - 2 Peter 2:10-22

The apostle's design being to warn us of, and arm us against, seducers, he now returns to discourse more particularly of them, and give us an account of their character and conduct, which abundantly justifies the righteous Judge of the world in reserving them in an especial manner for the most severe and heavy doom, as Cain is taken under special protection that he might be kept for uncommon vengeance. But why will God thus deal with these false teachers? This he shows in what follows. I.... read more

William Barclay

William Barclay's Daily Study Bible - 2 Peter 2:17-22

2:17-22 These people are waterless springs, mists driven by a squall of wind; and the gloom of darkness is reserved for them. With talk at once arrogant and futile, they ensnare by appeals to shameless, sensual passions those who are only just escaping from the company of those who live in error. promising them freedom, while they themselves are the slaves of moral corruption; for a man is in a state of slavery to that which has reduced him to helplessness. If they have escaped the... read more

John Gill

John Gills Exposition of the Bible Commentary - 2 Peter 2:18

For when they speak great swelling words of vanity ,.... Marvellous things against the God of gods, great things and blasphemies against God, his name, his tabernacle, and his saints; see Daniel 11:36 ; or against men, dominions, and dignities, 2 Peter 2:10 ; or it may design their self-applauses and vain glorying in themselves, and their empty boast of knowledge and learning; and also express the windiness of their doctrines, and the bombast style, and high flown strains of rhetoric... read more

Adam Clarke

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible - 2 Peter 2:18

They speak great swelling words of vanity - The word ὑπερογκα signifies things of great magnitude, grand, superb, sublime; it sometimes signifies inflated, tumid, bombastic. These false teachers spoke of great and high things, and no doubt promised their disciples the greatest privileges, as they themselves pretended to a high degree of illumination; but they were all false and vain, though they tickled the fancy and excited the desires of the flesh; and indeed this appears to have been... read more

John Calvin

John Calvin's Commentary on the Bible - 2 Peter 2:18

Verse 18 18.For when they speak great swelling words of vanity. (172) He means that they dazzled the eyes of the simple by high-flown stuff of words, that they might not perceive their deceit, for it was not easy to captivate their minds with such dotages, except they were first besotted by some artifice. He then says that they used an inflated kind of words and speech, that they might fill the unwary with admiration. And then this grandiloquence, which the ample lungs of the soul send forth,... read more

Spence, H. D. M., etc.

The Pulpit Commentary - 2 Peter 2:18

For when they speak great swelling words of vanity; literally, for speaking. "Great swelling words" is expressed by one word in the Greek, ὑπέρογκα , St. Jude has the same word in Jude 1:16 ; it is used in the classical writers of great bulk of any kind, literal or figurative. The genitive is descriptive—the words are swelling, high-sounding; but they are only words, vain and meaningless; they have nothing but emptiness behind them. They allure through the lusts of the flesh, ... read more

Albert Barnes

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Whole Bible - 2 Peter 2:18

For when they speak great swelling words of vanity - When they make pretensions to wisdom and learning, or seem to attach great importance to what they say, and urge it in a pompous and positive manner. Truth is simple, and delights in simple statements. It expects to make its way by its own intrinsic force, and is willing to pass for what it is worth. Error is noisy and declamatory, and hopes to succeed by substituting sound for sense, and by such tones and arts as shall induce men to believe... read more

Joseph Benson

Joseph Benson's Commentary of the Old and New Testaments - 2 Peter 2:18-19

2 Peter 2:18-19. When they speak great swelling words of vanity Propose their vain and false doctrine in a lofty style, or affect sublime strains of language, which are often void of any real meaning; they allure through the lusts of the flesh By allowing their hearers to live in lewd courses, or to gratify some unholy desires under pretence of Christian liberty, 2 Peter 2:10; 2 Peter 2:19; those Who, as Christians; were clean escaped from the spirit, customs, and company of them... read more

Donald C. Fleming

Bridgeway Bible Commentary - 2 Peter 2:11-22

Character of the false teachers (2:10b-22)Being arrogant and self-assertive, the false teachers show no respect for anyone. They even insult angels, who hold a higher position than humans in the order of created beings. By contrast, the angels have such reverence for God that they dare not use insulting language in his presence, even against those who deserve condemnation (10b-11).The false teachers use neither their reasoning nor their willpower to control themselves. Like animals they simply... read more

E.W. Bullinger

E.W. Bullinger's Companion Bible Notes - 2 Peter 2:18

great swelling . Greek. huperonkos. Only here and Jude 1:16 . vanity . Greek. mataiotes. See Romans 8:20 . allure . Same as "beguile", 2 Peter 2:14 . through , &c . Literally by (dative case) lasciviousnesses. See "filthy", 2 Peter 2:7 . clean = indeed. Greek. ontos . See 1 Corinthians 14:25 . escaped . See 2 Peter 1:4 . The texts read "scarcely" or "but just (Greek. oligos) escaping". live . Greek. anastrepho. See 1 Peter 1:17 . read more