2 Peter 2:17 - Coke's Commentary on the Holy Bible

These are wells without water, &c.— When a thirsty person goes to a fountain to drink, and finds it dried up, and there is nothing but an empty pit, he is greatly disappointed. These false teachers pretended to be fountains of deeper knowledge and greater purity than any others; but when a man came thirsting after truthandrighteousness,howgreat must be his disappointment when he found nothing but emptiness and vanity! In this comparison is pointed out their ostentation and hypocrisy: they made a show of something profitable and refreshing; but it was only a mere show. They were altogether empty and unprofitable; all appearance, but no reality. They made great pretences to extraordinary holiness, but were very wicked. Theyinvited men to come and drinkat the inexhaustible fountain of their knowledge, but not one drop of the water of life could be found there. 2 Timothy 3:5. Again, he compares them to light or small clouds, carried about with a whirlwind: so the Arabs compare persons who put on the appearance of virtue, when yet they are destitute of all goodness, to a light cloud, which makes a show of rain, and afterwards vanishes. When clouds arise in a dry and thirsty land, they give men hopes of refreshing showers; but when the promising appearance ends in a tempest, it proves hurtful, and destroys the fruits of the earth: in like manner these false teachers promised to be fruitful clouds, and to refresh men with their uncommon knowledge and piety; but they were only empty and delusive promises, and ended in the harm of such as regarded them. In this comparison the apostle might probably intend to denote their levity and inconstancy, as well as their hypocrisy. They were carried about with every wind of doctrine: they were dark as a mist, light as a cloud, empty as a thin vapour; shadow without substance; pernicious, instead of being profitable and useful. The mist of darkness, means the thickest and most horrible darkness. The allusion here seems to be to a most dark and dismal prison or dungeon. They were like dark clouds, and they were to be punished in extreme darkness: they endeavoured to spread darkness over the minds of others, and darkness was to be their portion. See 2 Peter 2:4 and Jude, 2 Peter 2:6; 2 Peter 2:13.