And the angels which kept not their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in everlasting chains under darkness unto the judgment of the great day.
(2 Peter 2:4.)
Kept not their first estate. Vulgate х heauton (G1438) archeen (G746)], 'their own principality,' which the fact of angels being elsewhere called "principalities" favours: 'their own' implies that, not content with the dignity once for all assigned to them under the Son of God, they aspired higher. Alford thinks Genesis 6:2 is alluded to; not the fall of the devil and his angels, as he thinks "giving themselves over to fornication" (Jude
7) proves. [Compare ton (G3588) homoion (G3664) tropon (G5158) toutois (G5125), 'in like manner to these'-namely, to the angels (Jude 1:6).] It is more natural to take "sons of God" (Genesis 6:2) of the Sethites, than of angels, who, as 'spirits,' do not seem capable of carnal connection. The parallel, 2 Peter 2:4, plainly refers to the fall of the apostate angels. 'In like manner to these,' Jude 1:7, refers to the inhabitants of Sodom and Gomorrha, "the cities about them" sinning "in like manner" as they did (Estius). Even if 'these,' Jude 1:7, refer to the angels, 'in like manner as these' will mean, not that the angels carnally fornicated with the daughters of men, but that their ambition, whereby their affections went away from God and they fell, is a sin of like kind spiritually as Sodom's going away from God's order of nature after strange flesh; the sin of the apostate angels after their kind is analogous to that of the Sodomites after their kind. Compare the somewhat similar connection of whoremongers and covetousness (Ephesians 5:5). The apocryphal book of Enoch interprets Genesis 6:2, as Alford. But though Jude accords with it in some particulars, it does not follow that he accords with it in all. The Hebrews name the fallen angels Aza and Azael.
Left - of their own accord.
Their own, х to (G3588) idion (G2398)] - 'their proper.'
Habitation - Heaven, all bright and glorious, opposed to the "darkness" to which they now are doomed. Their ambitious designs seem to have had a special connection with this earth, of which Satan before his fall was probably God's vicegerent: whence arises his subsequent connection with it as, first, the Tempter, then "the prince of this world."
Reserved. As there is evident reference to their having "kept not their first estate," translate, 'He hath kept' [the same Greek, teteereeken (G5083)]. Retributive justice. He hath kept them in His purpose: that is their sure doom. As yet, Satan and his demons roam at large on the earth. An earnest of their doom is their having been cast out of heaven; already restricted to 'the darkness of this present world,' the 'air' that surrounds the earth, their special element. They lurk in places of gloom, looking forward with agonizing fear to their final torment in the bottomless pit. Not literal chains and darkness, but figurative in this present world, where, with restricted powers and liberties, shut out from heaven, they, like condemned prisoners, await their doom. Even now, as chained dogs, they can go no further than the length of their chain. Everlasting. [Lest any doubt whether aioonios (G166) mean 'eternal,' here aidios (G126), from aei (G104), always is used, which can only mean everlasting.]