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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadMatthew Poole Commentary - 2 Peter 2:9 - 2:9
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This Chapter Verse Commentaries:
The Lord knoweth; according to the common rule, that words of knowledge in Scripture connote affections, as Psa_1:6. God’s knowing here implies not only his infinite wisdom, whereby he is never at a loss, but knows all the various ways whereby the godly may be delivered; but likewise his love and good will to them, whereby he is ready to do it, hath a heart for it: so the word is taken, Ecc_4:13 Amo_3:10; the text reads, will no more be admonished, the margin, knows not, &c.
How to deliver the godly; those that walk in the steps of just Lot and Noah, who was perfect in his generation. This concludes what the apostle began, 2Pe_2:4: the sum is: If God spared neither wicked angels nor wicked men, destroying the old world and Sodom, but delivered Lot and Noah, righteous persons; he still hath wisdom, power, and will to deliver other godly men, and punish other wicked men.
Out of temptations; afflictions, Jam_1:2,12.
And to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished: the Greek word is in the present tense, which may be understood, either:
1. As put for the future, and then the sense is as in our translation, that though God many times lets the wicked alone in this world, so that they escape present punishment, yet they shall not escape future torment; they are a while spared, but never pardoned; and when free from temporal evils, are reserved for eternal vengeance. Or:
2. It may be understood as in the present tense, which agrees well with the instances of God’s vengeance before mentioned, which was executed on wicked men in this world; and then the sense is: The Lord knows how to deliver the godly out of temptations when he sees fit, even in this life, and how to reserve those wicked men, whom he punisheth with temporal judgments here, to a much more severe and dreadful punishment at the day of judgment hereafter.