2 Peter 2:4
What does 2 Peter 2:4 mean?
A plain-English look at 2 Peter 2:4 in WEB alongside six other public-domain English translations, with cross-references and chapter context.
What 2 Peter 2:4 means
Peter’s first example shows that even exalted beings are not beyond judgment. When certain angels sinned, God did not spare them. He consigned them to gloomy confinement—pits of darkness—awaiting final judgment. Status and power do not exempt from accountability. If God deals so decisively with sin among angels, how much more will he confront human rebellion. This example is meant to sober the church: God’s government is real, his holiness unbending, and his judgments, though sometimes delayed, are certain and severe against willful defection.
Parallel translations
WEB
World English Bible · 2000For 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;
KJV
King James Version · 1611For 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;
ASV
American Standard Version · 1901For 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;
BBE
Bible in Basic English · 1949For if God did not have pity for the angels who did evil, but sent them down into hell, to be kept in chains of eternal night till they were judged;
YLT
Young's Literal Translation · 1862For if God messengers who sinned did not spare, but with chains of thick gloom, having cast <FI>them<Fi> down to Tartarus, did deliver <FI>them<Fi> to judgment, having been reserved,
DRA
Douay-Rheims (Challoner) · 1752For 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:
DBY
Darby Bible · 1890For ifGod spared not [the] angels who had sinned, but having cast them down to the deepest pit of gloom has delivered them to chains of darkness [to be] kept for judgment;
Context
This begins the chain of precedents that anchor Peter’s assurance of judgment. From the celestial realm (fallen angels), Peter will move to the ancient world in Noah’s time (v.5) and then to Sodom and Gomorrah (v.6–8). Together these episodes display both sides of God’s action—punishment and preservation—leading to the summarizing principle in verse 9: the Lord knows how to rescue the godly and reserve the unrighteous for the day of judgment.
v.3And in covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose sentence now from of old lingereth not, and their destruction slumbereth not.
v.4This passage
v.5and spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
Cross references
Related passages from across Scripture, drawn from the Treasury of Scripture Knowledge.
- Isaiah 14:12
How art thou fallen from heaven, O day-star, son of the morning! how art thou cut down to the ground, that didst lay low the nations!
- 2 Peter 2:11
whereas angels, though greater in might and power, bring not a railing judgment against them before the Lord.
- 2 Peter 2:5
and spared not the ancient world, but preserved Noah with seven others, a preacher of righteousness, when he brought a flood upon the world of the ungodly;
- Luke 8:31
And they entreated him that he would not command them to depart into the abyss.
- John 8:44
Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and standeth 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 thereof.
- Luke 10:18
And he said unto them, I beheld Satan fallen as lightning from heaven.
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