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2Pe_2:17. Description of the teachers of false doctrine from another point of view, in as far as by making a false show of freedom they seduce others to immorality. First, a double comparison, of which the second only occurs in Jud_1:12.
οὗτοί εἰσι πηγαὶ ἄνυδροι ] The point of comparison lies in the deceptiveness of a πηγή , which is without water; it awakens an expectation which it does not fulfil (as a contrast, cf. Pro_10:11; Isa_58:11).
πηγή here (which Hofmann wrongly disputes) means, as in Joh_4:6 : a spring well; fontes enim proprie sic dicti non carent aqua (Gerhard).
καὶ ὁμίχλαι ὑπὸ λαίλαπος ἐλαυνόμεναι ] ὁμίχλη properly mist, here clouds of mist, as the plural already goes to prove, as well as the fact that it is not the mist, but the misty clouds, which must be regarded as foretelling rain.
λαίλαψ , according to Aristotle (lib. de mundo), equal to πνεῦμα βίαιον καὶ εἱλούμενον κάτωθεν ἄνω ; Mar_4:37. The point of comparison is the same here as in the previous figure, only that by ὑπὸ λαίλ . ἐλαυν . their want of consistency (not: their punishment) is more pointedly referred to.[78]
ΟἿς … ΤΕΤΉΡΗΤΑΙ ] so, too, in Jud_1:13; it connects itself with ΟὟΤΟΙ , not with ὉΜΊΧΛΑΙ , as Hofmann maintains, for how can this relative clause express “the dissolving of vapour into nothing”?
[78] Wiesinger inappropriately remarks: “However empty in itself the conduct of these men may be, still for the Christian community it has the effect of a storm which cleanses it;” for their conduct is not compared to a storm, but to clouds of mist; nor is reference made to their effect on the Church, but to that of the storm on the clouds of mist.