Jude 1:7

1:5-7 Outward privileges, profession, and apparent conversion, could not secure those from the vengeance of God, who turned aside in unbelief and disobedience. The destruction of the unbelieving Israelites in the wilderness, shows that none ought to presume on their privileges. They had miracles as their daily bread; yet even they perished in unbelief. A great number of the angels were not pleased with the stations God allotted to them; pride was the main and direct cause or occasion of their fall. The fallen angels are kept to the judgment of the great day; and shall fallen men escape it? Surely not. Consider this in due time. The destruction of Sodom is a loud warning to all, to take heed of, and flee from fleshly lusts that war against the soul,

The cities about them Admah and Zeboim. Deuteronomy 29:23; Hosea 11:8. Giving themselves over to fornication (ἐκπορνεύσασαι) Rev., more strictly, having given, etc. Only here in New Testament. The force of ἐκ is out and out; giving themselves up utterly. See on followed, 2 Peter 1:16. Going after (ἀπελθοῦσαι ὀπίσω) The aorist participle. Rev., having gone. The phrase occurs Mark 1:20; James and John leaving their father and going after Jesus. "The world is gone after him" (John 12:19). Here metaphorical. The force of ἀπό is away; turning away from purity, and going after strange flesh. Strange flesh Compare 2 Peter 2:10; and see Romans 1:27; Leviticus 18:22, Leviticus 18:23. Also Jowett's introduction to Plato's "Symposium ;" Plato's "Laws," viii., 836, 841; Dllinger, "The Gentile and the Jew," Darnell's trans., ii., 238 sq. Are set forth (πρόκεινται) The verb means, literally, to lie exposed. Used of meats on the table ready for the guests; of a corpse laid out for burial; of a question under discussion. Thus the corruption and punishment of the cities of the plain are laid out in plain sight. As an example (δεῖγμα) Only here in New Testament. From δείκνυμι, to display or exhibit; something, therefore, which is held up to view as a warning.

Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire (πυρὸς αἰωνίου δίκην ὑπέχουσαι) Rev., rightly, substitutes punishment for vengeance, since δίκη carries the underlying idea of right or justice, which is not necessarily implied in vengeance. Some of the best modern expositors render are set forth as an example of eternal fire, suffering punishment. This meaning seems, on the whole, more natural, though the Greek construction favors the others, since eternal fire is the standing term for the finally condemned in the last judgment, and could hardly be correctly said of Sodom and Gomorrah. Those cities are most truly an example of eternal fire. "A destruction so utter and so permanent as theirs has been, is the nearest approach that can be found in this world to the destruction which awaits those who are kept under darkness to the judgment of the great day" (Lumby). Suffering (ὑπέχουσαι). Only here in New Testament. The participle is present, indicating that they are suffering to this day the punishment which came upon them in Lot's time. The verb means, literally, to hold under; thence to uphold or support, and so to suffer or undergo.

Even as Sodom and Gomorrha, and the cities about them in like manner, {g} giving themselves over to fornication, and going after {h} strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire. (g) Following the steps of Sodom and Gomorrah. (h) Thus he sets forth their horrible and wicked perversions.

Jude 1:7 . Τούτοις ) [in a manner like] to these , the ungodly, who are doomed to undergo a like punishment.— ἐκπορνεύσασαι ) giving themselves to fornication . For the simple verb πορνεύω , זנה , the Septuagint often has ἐκπορνεύω . But here the word is peculiarly adapted to a lust still more abominable.— ἀπελθοῦσαι — ἑτέρας , going away after—other) unnatural lusts.—[ πρόκεινται , are set forth, lie before our eyes) The cities therefore were situated, not in the Dead Sea, but upon the shore.—V. g.]— δεῖγμα — δίκην , an example—punishment) These are put in apposition; the punishment, which they endure, is an example of eternal fire, as Cassiodorus says: for the punishment of those cities is not itself eternal: Ezekiel 16:53 ; Ezekiel 16:55 . Comp. 2 Peter 2:6 .

The cities about them; Admah and Zeboim, Jeremiah 49:18 Hosea 11:8 . In like manner, as Sodom, and Gomorrah did, likeness of sin inferring likeness of punishment. Strange flesh; margin, other flesh; he means male flesh, which is other than what God appointed for that use they made of it; or, as we render it, strange flesh, i.e. that which is strange, improper, and unfit for such an end. It is the description of the unnatural filthiness of the Sodomites, Genesis 19:5 : see Romans 1:26,27 . Are set forth for an example, suffering the vengeance of eternal fire: eternal fire may be joined either: 1. With example, and the words thus placed, are set forth for an example of eternal fire, suffering vengeance; and the meaning is, that the vengeance they suffered in being destroyed by fire, is an example, or type, of eternal fire, that of hell: or: 2. With vengeance, according to our reading; and then the sense is, they are set forth for an example, ( viz. to those that after should live ungodly, 1 Peter 2:6 ), suffering the vengeance of eternal fire; the vengeance they suffer is an example to deter others from the like wickedness. This fire is called eternal, either because of the still continuing effects of it, or rather, because it was a type or representation of the fire of hell, and to those miserable Sodomites the very beginning of it, they being brought by these temporal flames into everlasting burnings.

Jude 1:7-8 . Even as Sodom and Gomorrha — See on 2 Peter 2:6-9 ; and the cities about them — These were Admah and Zeboim. The four are mentioned Deuteronomy 29:23 ; Zoar, the fifth city in the plain of Sodom, was spared, at the request of Lot, for a place of refuge to him and his family. In like manner — Τον ομοιον τουτοις τροπον , in a manner like to these; that is, either like to these wicked teachers, or like to the inhabitants of these wicked cities, Sodom and Gomorrah; giving themselves over to fornication — The word is applicable to any sort of uncleanness; and going after strange flesh — Giving themselves up to unnatural lusts; are set forth for an example — To other presumptuous sinners; suffering the vengeance of eternal fire — Having their lovely and fruitful country turned into a kind of hell upon earth. The meaning is, The vengeance which they suffered is an example, or type, of eternal fire. Likewise — Ομοιως μεν τοι , in like manner, indeed; these filthy dreamers — So our translators render the word ενυπνιαζομενοι , an epithet which the persons described undoubtedly deserved. The word, however, only signifies dreamers; or rather, persons cast into a deep sleep, namely, into a state of ignorance and insensibility, of negligence and sloth, with respect to spiritual and eternal things; sleeping and dreaming all their lives. Defile the flesh — Their own bodies, which ought to be sacred, together with their spirits, to the service of God.

Despise dominion — Those that are invested with it by Christ, and made by him the overseers of his flock; or, he may mean that they despised their civil rulers; and speak evil of dignities — Of persons in the most honourable stations. The Jews, fancying it sinful to obey the heathen magistrates, despised both them and their office. The ungodly teachers, of whom Jude speaks, carried the matter still further; they reviled all magistrates whatever, as enemies to the natural liberty of mankind.

7 . the cities about them, in like manner … going after strange flesh ] The words describe the form of evil for which the cities of the plain have become a byword of infamy. In saying that this sin was like that of the angels, it is clearly implied that in the latter case also there was a degradation of nature, such as is emphasized in the words that “the sons of God went in unto the daughters of men” ( Genesis 6:4 ). Impurity, and not simply or chiefly pride, as in the mediæval traditions represented in the poems of Cædmon and Milton, is thought of as the leading feature in the fall of the angels ( Book of Enoch , c. 9). suffering the vengeance of eternal fire ] The words imply a reference to something more than the natural phenomena of the Dead Sea region. The fire which had destroyed them is thought of as being still their doom, as permanent as the “eternal fire” of Matthew 25:41 . For “vengeance,” which admits of a bad as well as a good meaning, it might be better to read “just punishment.”

7. Even as—Alford translates, "I wish to remind you (Jude 5) that." Sodom, &c.—(2Pe 2:6). giving themselves over to fornication—following fornication extraordinarily, that is, out of the order of nature. On "in like manner to them" (Greek), compare Note, see on [2667]Jude 6. Compare on spiritual fornication, "go a whoring from thee," Ps 73:27. going after strange flesh—departing from the course of nature, and going after that which is unnatural. In later times the most enlightened heathen nations indulged in the sin of Sodom without compunction or shame. are set forth—before our eyes. suffering—undergoing to this present time; alluding to the marks of volcanic fire about the Dead Sea. the vengeance—Greek, "righteous retribution." eternal fire—The lasting marks of the fire that consumed the cities irreparably, is a type of the eternal fire to which the inhabitants have been consigned. Bengel translates as the Greek will admit, "Suffering (the) punishment (which they endure) as an example or sample of eternal fire (namely, that which shall consume the wicked)." Eze 16:53-55 shows that Sodom's punishment, as a nation, is not eternal. Compare also 2Pe 2:6.

Even as Sodom and Gomorrha - Notes, 2 Peter 2:6 . And the cities about them - Admah and Zeboim, Genesis 14:2; Deuteronomy 29:23; Hosea 11:8. There may have been other towns, also, that perished at the same time, but these are particularly mentioned. They seem to have partaken of the same general characteristics, as neighboring towns and cities generally do. In like manner - "In a manner like to these," (τὸν ὅμοιον τούτοις τρόπον ton homoion toutois tropon.) The Greek word "these," is in the plural number. There has been much diversity in interpreting this clause. Some refer it to the angels, as if it meant that the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah committed sin in a way similar to the angels; some suppose that it refers to the wicked teachers about whom Jude was discoursing, meaning that Sodom and Gomorrah committed the same kind of sins which they did; some that the meaning is, that "the cities round about Sodom and Gomorrah" sinned in the same way as those cities; and some that they were punished in the same manner, and were set forth like them as an example. I see no evidence that it refers to the angels, and if it did, it would not prove, as some have supposed, that their sin was of the same kind as that of Sodom, since there might have been a resemblance in some respects, though not in all.

I see no reason to believe, as Macknight holds, that it refers to "false teachers," since that would be to suppose that the inhabitants of Sodom copied their example long "before" the example was set. It seems to me, therefore, that the reference is to the cities round about Sodom; and that the sense is, that they committed iniquity in the same manner as the inhabitants of Sodom did, and were set forth in the same way as an example. Going after strange flesh - Margin: "other." The reference seems to be to the unusual sin which, from the name Sodom, has been called "sodomy." Compare Romans 1:27. The meaning of the phrase "going after" is, that they were greatly addicted to this vice. The word "strange, or other," refers to that which is contrary to nature. Doddridge, however, explains it, "going after strange and detestable gratifications of their pampered and indulged flesh." Are set forth for an example - They furnish a warning against all such conduct, and a demonstration that punishment shall come upon the ungodly. The condemnation of any sinner, or of any class of sinners, always furnishes such a warning. See the notes, 2 Peter 2:6.