2 Peter 2:16

2 Peter 2:16

14 having eyes full of¹ adultery and that cannot cease from sin, enticing unstable souls. ^aThey have a heart trained in covetous practices, and are accursed children.

15 They have forsaken the right way and gone astray, following the way of ^aBalaam the son of Beor, who loved the wages of unrighteousness;

16 but he was rebuked for his iniquity: a dumb donkey speaking with a man’s voice restrained the madness of the prophet.

17 ^aThese are wells without water,¹ clouds carried by a tempest, for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness² forever.

Deceptions of False Teachers

18 For when they speak great swelling words of emptiness, they allure through the lusts of the flesh, through lewdness, the ones who¹ have actually escaped from those who live in error.

Commentaries:

Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown

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was rebuked—Greek, "had a rebuke," or conviction; an exposure of his specious wickedness on his being tested (the root verb of the Greek noun means to "convict on testing").

his—Greek, "his own": his own beast convicted him of his own iniquity.

ass—literally, "beast of burden"; the ass was the ordinary animal used in riding in Palestine.

dumb—Greek, "voiceless-speaking in man's voice"; marking the marvellous nature of the miracle.

forbade—literally, "hindered." It was not the words of the ass (for it merely deprecated his beating it), but the miraculous fact of its speaking at all, which withstood Balaam's perversity in desiring to go after God had forbidden him in the first instance. Thus indirectly the ass, and directly the angel, rebuked his worse than asinine obstinacy; the ass turned aside at the sight of the angel, but Balaam, after God had plainly said, Thou shalt not go, persevered in wishing to go for gain; thus the ass, in act, forbade his madness. How awful a contrast—a dumb beast forbidding an inspired prophet!

**Other Jamieson, Fausset, and Brown entries containing 2 Peter 2:16:**

Numbers 22:28
Numbers 22:28
2 Peter 2:1
Revelation 2:6

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