2 Peter 2:17

Verse 17. These are wells without water.

These teachers, although they profess to teach much of profit, in fact have no instruction to impart; they promise much, but the disappointment is great.

Clouds that are carried with a tempest.

Clouds are supposed to contain rain, and, when such appear, descending showers are expected, but the clouds are quickly driven away as by a tornado blast, and none whatever falls upon the parched earth. So with these teachers and wicked men, not a spray of enlightenment ever strays from their polluted lips. Dr. Macknight uses such expressive words in relation to these apostolic similes that I here transcribe them: "There being few wells and little rain in the eastern countries, it was a grievous disappointment to a thirsty traveler to come to a well that had no water. The husbandman was equally disappointed to see clouds arise which gave the prospect of rain, but, ending in a tempest, instead of refreshing, destroyed the fruits of the earth. By these comparisons the ostentation, hyprocrisy, levity and perniciousness of false teachers are set forth in the strongest colors."

To whom the mist of darkness is reserved forever.

In announcing the doom of these apostates, the Holy Spirit seems to struggle with our human vernacular in order to give us a conception of the doom of these wicked ones. Where the Common Version says, "Mist of darkness," the Revised Version, Syriac and Dr. Macknight say: "Blackness of darkness." This is their dreadful doom forever.