Great swelling words of vanity. — Exaggeration, unreality, boastfulness, and emptiness are expressed by this phrase. It carries on the same idea as the waterless wells and the driven mists — great pretensions and no results. The rebuke here is not unlike the warning in 1 Peter 5:5-6.
Allure. — Translated “beguile” in 2 Peter 2:14, where see Note.
Through the lusts of the flesh. — Better, in the lusts of the flesh (as in 2 Peter 2:3, and 2 Peter 1:1-2; 2 Peter 1:4; 2 Peter 1:13). The preposition “in” points to the sphere in which the enticement takes place; “through” should be reserved for “wantonness” (see Note on 2 Peter 2:2), which is the bait used to entice.
Were clean escaped. — Both verb and adverb require correction. The margin indicates the right reading for the adverb — “for a little,” or better, by a little; scarcely. The verb should be present, not past — those who are scarcely escaping, viz., the “unstable souls” of 2 Peter 2:14. Wiclif has “scapen a litil;” Rheims “escape a litle.” The word translated “scarcely” occurs nowhere else in the New Testament; that translated here “clean,” and elsewhere “indeed,” or “certainly,” is frequent (Mark 11:32; Luke 23:47; Luke 24:34, &c. &c). Hence the change, an unfamiliar word being, by a slight alteration, turned into a familiar one. The two Greek words are much alike.