For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but cast them down to hell, and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;
If. The consequent member of the sentence is virtually contained in 2 Peter 2:9. If God in past time has punished the ungodly and saved His people, He will be sure to do so also in our days (cf. end of 2 Peter 2:3). Angels - the highest of intelligent creatures (cf. Jude 1:6), yet not spared when they sinned.
Hell, х Tartaroosas (G5020)] - 'Tartarus:' nowhere else in New Testament or Septuagint: equivalent to Geenna. Not inconsistent with 1 Peter 5:8: though their final doom is hell, for a time they are permitted to roam beyond it in 'the darkness of this world.' Slaves of Tartarus ('the abyss,' or "deep," Luke 8:31; "the bottomless pit," Revelation 9:11) may come upon earth. Step by step they are given to Tartarus, until at last they shall be wholly bound to it.
Delivered - as the judge delivers the condemned prisoner to the officers (Revelation 20:2). Into chains. 'Aleph (') A B C read [seirois] 'dens' (Alford). This, however, may, in Hellenistic Greek, be equivalent to х seirais (G4577)] "chains" (cf. Jude 1:6). They are "reserved" unto hell's "mist of darkness" as their final "judgment." Meanwhile their exclusion from the light of heaven is begun. Satan and his demons are free to hurt us only to the length of their chain, like a chained dog. "Darkness" is their 'chain.' So the ungodly were virtually 'in prison,' though at large on the earth, from the moment that God's sentence went forth, though not executed until 120 years after (1 Peter 3:19).