2 Peter 2:4
New International Version
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;

New Living Translation
For God did not spare even the angels who sinned. He threw them into hell, in gloomy pits of darkness, where they are being held until the day of judgment.

English Standard Version
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment;

Berean Standard Bible
For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;

Berean Literal Bible
For if God did not spare the angels having sinned, but having cast them down to Tartarus, in chains of gloomy darkness, delivered them, being kept for judgment;

King James Bible
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;

New King James Version
For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but cast them down to hell and delivered them into chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;

New American Standard Bible
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, held for judgment;

NASB 1995
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;

NASB 1977
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to pits of darkness, reserved for judgment;

Legacy Standard Bible
For if God did not spare angels who sinned, but cast them into the pit and delivered them to chains of darkness, being kept for judgment;

Amplified Bible
For if God did not [even] spare angels that sinned, but threw them into hell and sent them to pits of gloom to be kept [there] for judgment;

Christian Standard Bible
For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but cast them into hell and delivered them in chains of utter darkness to be kept for judgment;

Holman Christian Standard Bible
For if God didn’t spare the angels who sinned but threw them down into Tartarus and delivered them to be kept in chains of darkness until judgment;

American Standard Version
For if God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
And if God did not spare the Angels who sinned, but cast them down in chains of darkness into the lowest depths and handed them over to be kept for the judgment of torment,

Contemporary English Version
God did not have pity on the angels that sinned. He had them tied up and thrown into the dark pits of hell until the time of judgment.

Douay-Rheims Bible
For if God spared not the angels that sinned, but delivered them, drawn down by infernal ropes to the lower hell, unto torments, to be reserved unto judgment:

English Revised Version
For if God spared not angels when they sinned, but cast them down to hell, and committed them to pits of darkness, to be reserved unto judgment;

GOD'S WORD® Translation
God didn't spare angels who sinned. He threw them into hell, where he has secured them with chains of darkness and is holding them for judgment.

Good News Translation
God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell, where they are kept chained in darkness, waiting for the Day of Judgment.

International Standard Version
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but threw them into the lowest hell and imprisoned them in chains of deepest darkness, holding them for judgment;

Literal Standard Version
For if God did not spare messengers having sinned, but having cast [them] down to Tartarus with chains of deepest gloom, delivered [them], having been reserved to judgment,

Majority Standard Bible
For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment;

New American Bible
For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but condemned them to the chains of Tartarus and handed them over to be kept for judgment;

NET Bible
For if God did not spare the angels who sinned, but threw them into hell and locked them up in chains in utter darkness, to be kept until the judgment,

New Revised Standard Version
For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them into hell and committed them to chains of deepest darkness to be kept until the judgment;

New Heart English Bible
For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to the lower parts of hell, and committed them to chains of darkness, to be reserved for judgment;

Webster's Bible Translation
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 to judgment;

Weymouth New Testament
For God did not spare angels when they had sinned, but hurling them down to Tartarus consigned them to caves of darkness, keeping them in readiness for judgement.

World English Bible
For if God didn’t spare angels when they sinned, but cast them down to Tartarus, and committed them to pits of darkness to be reserved for judgment;

Young's Literal Translation
For if God messengers who sinned did not spare, but with chains of thick gloom, having cast them down to Tartarus, did deliver them to judgment, having been reserved,

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Deliverance from False Prophets
3In their greed, these false teachers will exploit you with deceptive words. The longstanding verdict against them remains in force, and their destruction does not sleep. 4For if God did not spare the angels when they sinned, but cast them deep into hell, placing them in chains of darkness to be held for judgment; 5if He did not spare the ancient world when He brought the flood on its ungodly people, but preserved Noah, a preacher of righteousness, among the eight;…

Cross References
Jude 1:6
And the angels who did not stay within their own domain but abandoned their proper dwelling--these He has kept in eternal chains under darkness, bound for judgment on that great day.

Revelation 20:1
Then I saw an angel coming down from heaven with the key to the Abyss, holding in his hand a great chain.

Revelation 20:2
He seized the dragon, that ancient serpent who is the devil and Satan, and bound him for a thousand years.


Treasury of Scripture

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 to judgment;

spared.

2 Peter 2:5
And spared not the old world, but saved Noah the eighth person, a preacher of righteousness, bringing in the flood upon the world of the ungodly;

Deuteronomy 29:20
The LORD will not spare him, but then the anger of the LORD and his jealousy shall smoke against that man, and all the curses that are written in this book shall lie upon him, and the LORD shall blot out his name from under heaven.

Psalm 78:50
He made a way to his anger; he spared not their soul from death, but gave their life over to the pestilence;

the angels.

Job 4:18
Behold, he put no trust in his servants; and his angels he charged with folly:

Luke 10:18
And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.

John 8:44
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.

but.

Isaiah 14:12
How art thou fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, which didst weaken the nations!

Matthew 8:29
And, behold, they cried out, saying, What have we to do with thee, Jesus, thou Son of God? art thou come hither to torment us before the time?

Matthew 25:41
Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

into.

2 Peter 2:11
Whereas angels, which are greater in power and might, bring not railing accusation against them before the Lord.

Jude 1:6
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.

to be.

2 Peter 2:9
The Lord knoweth how to deliver the godly out of temptations, and to reserve the unjust unto the day of judgment to be punished:

Job 21:30
That the wicked is reserved to the day of destruction? they shall be brought forth to the day of wrath.

Jude 1:13
Raging waves of the sea, foaming out their own shame; wandering stars, to whom is reserved the blackness of darkness for ever.

Jump to Previous
Angels Cast Caves Chains Committed Consigned Darkness Deepest Delivered Eternal Evil Gloom Gloomy Hell Hurling Judged Judgement Judgment Keeping Kept Nether Night Pits Pity Putting Readiness Reserved Sinned Spare Spared
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Angels Cast Caves Chains Committed Consigned Darkness Deepest Delivered Eternal Evil Gloom Gloomy Hell Hurling Judged Judgement Judgment Keeping Kept Nether Night Pits Pity Putting Readiness Reserved Sinned Spare Spared
2 Peter 2
1. Peter warns of false teachers, showing the impiety and punishment both of them and their followers;
7. from which the godly shall be delivered, as Lot was out of Sodom;
10. and more fully describes the manners of those profane and blasphemous seducers.














(4-8) Three instances of divine vengeance, proving that great wickedness never goes unpunished.

(4) For if God.--The sentence has no proper conclusion. The third instance of God's vengeance is so prolonged by the addition respecting Lot, that the apodosis is wanting, the writer in his eagerness having lost the thread of the construction. The three instances here are in chronological order (wanton angels, Flood, Sodom and Gomorrha), while those in Jude are not (unbelievers in the wilderness, impure angels, Sodom and Gomorrha). Both arrangements are natural--this as being chronological, that of St. Jude for reasons stated in the Notes there. (See on 2Peter 2:5.)

The angels that sinned.--Better, the angels for their sin: it gives the reason why they were not spared, and points to some definite sin. What sin is meant? Not that which preceded the history of the human race, commonly called the fall of the angels--of that there is no record in the Old Testament; and, moreover, it affords no close analogy to the conduct of the false teachers. St. Jude is somewhat more explicit (Jude 1:6); he says it was for not keeping their own dignity--for deserting their proper home; and the reference, both there and here, is either to a common interpretation of Genesis 6:2 (that by "the sons of God" are meant "angels"), or, more probably, to distinct and frequent statements in the Book of Enoch, that certain angels sinned by having intercourse with women--e.g., Enoch vii. 1, 2; cv. 13 (Lawrence's translation). Not improbably these false teachers made use of this book, and possibly of these passages, in their corrupt teaching. Hence St. Peter uses it as an argumentum ad hominem against them, and St. Jude, recognising the allusion, adopts it and makes it more plain; or both writers, knowing the Book of Enoch well, and calculating on their readers knowing it also, used it to illustrate their arguments and exhortations, just as St. Paul uses the Jewish belief of the rock following the Israelites. (See Note on 1Corinthians 10:4.)

Cast them down to hell.--The Greek word occurs nowhere else, but its meaning is plain--to cast down to Tartarus; and though "Tartarus" occurs neither in the Old nor in the New Testament, it probably is the same as Gehenna. (See Note on Matthew 5:22.) . . .

Verse 4. - For if God spared not the angels that sinned; rather, angels when they sinned ; there is no article. St. Peter is giving proofs of his assertion that the punishment of the ungodly lingereth not. The first is the punishment of angels that sinned. He does not specify the sin, whether rebellion, as in Revelation 12:7; or uncleanness, as apparently in Jude 1:6, 7, and Genesis 6:4. Formally, there is an anacoluthon here, but in thought we have the apodosis in verse 9. But cast them down to hell. The Greek word, which is found nowhere else in the Greek Scriptures, is ταρταρώσας, "having cast into Tartarus." This use of a word belonging to heathen mythology is very remarkable, and without parallel in the New Testament. (The word τάρταρος occurs in the Septuagint, Job 40:15. Compare also the Septuagint rendering of the name of Job's daughter Keren-Happuch, Ἀμαλθαίας κέρας, the horn of Amalthaea; and the word σειρῆνες in Isaiah 43:20.) Apparently, St. Peter regards Tartarus not as equivalent to Gehenna, for the sinful angels are "reserved unto judgment," but as a place of preliminary detention. Josephus, quoted by Professor Lumby in the 'Speaker's Commentary,' speaks of the oldest heathen gods as fettered in Tartarus, ἐν Ταρτάρῳ δεδεμένους ('Contra Apion,' 2:33). And delivered them into chains of darkness. The Revised Version "pits" represents the reading of the four oldest manuscripts; but the variations in two of them (the Sinaitic and Alexandrine have σειροῖς ζόφοις), and the fact that σειρός seems properly to mean a pit for the storage of corn, throw some doubt upon this reading. The other reading σειραῖς, cords, may possibly have arisen from the parallel passage in Jude 1:6, though the Greek word for "chains" is different there. The chains consist in darkness; the pits are in darkness, Παρέδωκε, delivered, is often used, as Huther remarks, with the implied idea of punishment. It is simpler to connect the chains or pits of darkness with this verb than (as Fronmuller and others) with ταρταρώσας, "having cast them in bonds of darkness into Tartarus" (comp. Wisd. 17:2, 16, 17). To be reserved unto judgment; literally, being reserved; but the readings here are very confused. St. Jude says (verse 6) that the sinful angels are reserved "unto the judgment of the great day." Bengel says, "Possunt autem in terra quoque versari mancipia Tartari (Luke 8:31; Ephesians 2:2; etc.) sic ut bello captus etiam extra locum captivitatis potest ambulare." But in the case of a mystery of which so little has been revealed, we are scarcely justified in assuming the identity of the angels cast into Tartarus with the evil spirits who tempt and harass us on earth.

Parallel Commentaries ...


Greek
For
γὰρ (gar)
Conjunction
Strong's 1063: For. A primary particle; properly, assigning a reason.

if
Εἰ (Ei)
Conjunction
Strong's 1487: If. A primary particle of conditionality; if, whether, that, etc.

God
Θεὸς (Theos)
Noun - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 2316: A deity, especially the supreme Divinity; figuratively, a magistrate; by Hebraism, very.

{did} not
οὐκ (ouk)
Adverb
Strong's 3756: No, not. Also ouk, and ouch a primary word; the absolute negative adverb; no or not.

spare
ἐφείσατο (epheisato)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Middle - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 5339: To spare, abstain, forbear. Of uncertain affinity; to be chary of, i.e. to abstain or to treat leniently.

[the] angels
ἀγγέλων (angelōn)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Plural
Strong's 32: From aggello; a messenger; especially an 'angel'; by implication, a pastor.

when they sinned,
ἁμαρτησάντων (hamartēsantōn)
Verb - Aorist Participle Active - Genitive Masculine Plural
Strong's 264: Perhaps from a and the base of meros; properly, to miss the mark, i.e. to err, especially to sin.

but
ἀλλὰ (alla)
Conjunction
Strong's 235: But, except, however. Neuter plural of allos; properly, other things, i.e. contrariwise.

cast [them] into hell,
ταρταρώσας (tartarōsas)
Verb - Aorist Participle Active - Nominative Masculine Singular
Strong's 5020: To thrust down to Tartarus or Gehenna. From Tartaros; to incarcerate in eternal torment.

delivering [them]
παρέδωκεν (paredōken)
Verb - Aorist Indicative Active - 3rd Person Singular
Strong's 3860: From para and didomi; to surrender, i.e yield up, intrust, transmit.

in chains
σειραῖς (seirais)
Noun - Dative Feminine Plural
Strong's 4577: A chain. Probably from suro through its congener eiro; a chain.

to be held
τηρουμένους (tēroumenous)
Verb - Present Participle Middle or Passive - Accusative Masculine Plural
Strong's 5083: From teros; to guard, i.e. To note; by implication, to detain; by extension, to withhold; by extension, to withhold.

in gloomy darkness
ζόφου (zophou)
Noun - Genitive Masculine Singular
Strong's 2217: Darkness, murkiness, gloom. Akin to the base of nephos; gloom.

until [their]
εἰς (eis)
Preposition
Strong's 1519: A primary preposition; to or into, of place, time, or purpose; also in adverbial phrases.

judgment;
κρίσιν (krisin)
Noun - Accusative Feminine Singular
Strong's 2920: Decision; by extension, a tribunal; by implication, justice.


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NT Letters: 2 Peter 2:4 For if God didn't spare angels when (2 Pet. 2P iiP ii Pet)
2 Peter 2:3
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