These are wells without water, clouds that are carried with a tempest; to whom the mist of darkness is reserved for ever.
Parallel translations
- WEB These are wells without water, clouds driven by a storm; for whom the blackness of darkness has been reserved forever.
- BSB These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.
- NKJV These are wells without water, clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever.
- NASB These are springs without water and mists driven by a storm, for whom the black darkness has been reserved.
- NLT These people are as useless as dried-up springs or as mist blown away by the wind. They are doomed to blackest darkness.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995, 2020 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. lockman.org
Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.
Quick answer
These teachers are waterless springs and storm-driven mists, for whom deepest darkness has been reserved. It matters because they promise nourishment but deliver nothing and face certain judgment.
Overview
Peter pictures the false teachers as springs without water and clouds blown away by the wind, offering refreshment that never comes. Their emptiness contrasts with the living truth of the gospel. The 'blackness of darkness' reserved for them signals their final condemnation.
Cross-references & the web
Cross-references · 10
- Jude 1:12–13These are spots in your feasts of charity, when they feast with you, feeding themselves without fear: clouds they are without water, carried about of winds; trees whose fruit withereth, without fruit, twice dead, plucked up by the roots;
- Eph 4:14That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the sleight of men, and cunning craftiness, whereby they lie in wait to deceive;
- Jer 14:3And their nobles have sent their little ones to the waters: they came to the pits, and found no water; they returned with their vessels empty; they were ashamed and confounded, and covered their heads.
- Matt 25:30And cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
- Matt 22:13Then said the king to the servants, Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
- Matt 8:12But the children of the kingdom shall be cast out into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.
- 2 Pet 2:4For 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;
- Jude 1:6And 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.
- Job 6:14–17To him that is afflicted pity should be shewed from his friend; but he forsaketh the fear of the Almighty.
- Hos 6:4O Ephraim, what shall I do unto thee? O Judah, what shall I do unto thee? for your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.
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Original language
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