Jude 1:7

The cities about them. Admah and Zeboim. Deuteronomy 29:23; Hosea 11:8.

Giving themselves over to fornication [ε κ π ο ρ ε υ σ α σ α ι]. Rev., more strictly, having given, etc. Only here in New Testament. The force of ejk is out and out; giving themselves up utterly. See on followed, 2 Peter 1:16. Going after [α π ε λ θ ο υ σ α ι ο π ι σ ω]. 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 ajpo 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," 8, 836, 841; Dollinger, "The Gentile and the Jew," Darnell's trans., 2, 238 sq.

Are set forth [π ρ ο κ ε ι ν τ α ι]. 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 [δ ε ι γ μ α]. Only here in New Testament. From deiknumai, to display or exhibit; something, therefore, which is held up to view as a warning.

Suffering the vengeance of eternal fire [π υ ρ ο ς α ι ω ν ι ο υ δ ι κ η ν υ π ε χ ο υ σ α ι]. Rev., rightly, substitutes punishment for vengeance, since dikh 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 [υ π ε χ ο υ σ α ι]. 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.