complete verse (2 Peter 2:17)

Following are a number of back-translations of 2 Peter 2:17:

  • Uma: “As for those lying teachers, God has prepared a place for them that is pitch-black. They are like dry wells and like clouds driven by a big wind but that do not send down rain.” (Source: Uma Back Translation)
  • Yakan: “The deceiving teachers are like dry wells. They are also like clouds blown/carried by the wind. There is no use in/for their teaching and it does not give good to people. God has already prepared a dwelling place for them in great darkness.” (Source: Yakan Back Translation)
  • Western Bukidnon Manobo: “Now as for those people who teach lies, they are like a well that is dried up. They are like a cloud which the wind blows away for they are no good to anyone. God has prepared a very dark place for them in hell.” (Source: Western Bukidnon Manobo Back Translation)
  • Kankanaey: “These who are teaching what is not true, there is a darkest place that God has prepared for them to stay forever. Because they are compared to a spring that has dried-up or clouds that are blown-along by a swift wind.” (Source: Kankanaey Back Translation)
  • Tagbanwa: “These teachers of lies, they are worthless people. For what they are like is a spring blocked-off-inside and clouds which are useless for they are being driven by the wind. But they will be punished by God in the pitch-black darkness which he has already reserved (for them).” (Source: Tagbanwa Back Translation)
  • Tenango Otomi: “These men do not do any good whatever. You see a well without water, or a rain cloud that doesn’t rain, thus are their words. These will be punished in deep darkness forever.” (Source: Tenango Otomi Back Translation)

Translation commentary on 2 Peter 2:17

Verses 17-22 further describe the foolish teachers and stress their inevitable doom.

These is emphatic and refers to the false teachers, and this information can be included in translation (for example, Good News Translation “These men”). This verse has similarities with Jude 12-13; however, instead of “waterless clouds carried along by winds” (see Jude 12), Peter compares the false teachers to waterless springs and mists driven by a storm. This actually consists of two metaphors from nature, but each with the same message: there is a great difference between expectation and fulfillment. The word for “spring” includes “water” as one component of its meaning and refers to a living fountain. Many languages have words for a “spring,” but in some it will be necessary to describe it and say, for example, “a place where water pours out of the ground or rock.” Waterless indicates the actual state of the spring, which is contrary to what is really expected. So waterless springs may be expressed as “springs have no water” or “places where water should pour forth, but it doesn’t.”

The same is the case with the mists. There are several possible grounds of comparison that may be intended here.

1. Some have suggested that it is the ease with which the mists are blown away by the storm, indicating how easily the false teachers will be destroyed.

2. Another suggestion is that the focus here is the quality of darkness that characterizes the mist, and which therefore indicates obscurity and instability.

3. A further suggestion is that the focus here is on the function of mists: they are supposed to refresh the ground, especially during the dry seasons; but here instead they are driven (away) by a storm and therefore never get a chance to provide moisture. The word for storm indicates a whirlwind or a hurricane (or typhoon), characterized by violent winds.

This third possibility seems preferable, since it connects the second metaphor with the first. Both figures therefore indicate the uselessness and worthlessness of the false teachers, together with their teaching, despite all the promises that they have made. In certain languages mists driven by a storm may be translated as “clouds that suffer storm blow along,” “clouds that the storm or hurricane or typhoon drives along,” or “clouds that violent winds drive away.”

It should be noted that Revised Standard Version retains the metaphor form, that is, These are waterless springs …. It may be advisable and even necessary to change the metaphor into a simile (that is, “These … are like…”) as Good News Translation has done; it is important, however, to make sure that the impact of the passage is not lost if this is done.

Due to the wickedness of the false teachers, their punishment is certain. The nether gloom of darkness is a description of Sheol, the world of the dead. (For a further discussion of this term, see comments on Jude 13.) As in Jude 13, the passive construction here is a divine passive, with God as the unnamed agent, a fact made clear in Good News Translation. “Sheol” of course refers to a place below the earth; this may be relevant in some languages. However, in languages where this information is difficult to include, the element of “deep darkness” may be sufficient to describe the place where the false teachers are destined to go. Therefore for them the nether gloom of darkness has been reserved may also be rendered as “God has prepared a place for them in deepest darkness,” “God has prepared for them a place that is completely covered by thick darkness,” “… a place of darkness where there is no light at all,” or “the world of the dead which is covered by thick darkness.”

Quoted with permission from Arichea, Daniel C. and Nida, Eugene A. A Handbook on The Second Letter from Peter. (UBS Handbook Series). New York: UBS, 1980. For this and other handbooks for translators see here .

SIL Translator's Notes on 2 Peter 2:17

Paragraph 2:17–22

Peter continued to describe the wicked way that the false teachers behaved. Because they were so wicked, God was reserving a place in hell for them.

Peter used many metaphors and other figures of speech in this paragraph. This makes his words very vivid. You may not be able to use the same figurative language in your translation, but try to find other ways of making your translation as vivid as the original.

2:17

Peter compared the false teachers to two things: firstly, to springs of water which have dried up, and secondly, to mists or clouds which the wind drives away during a storm and so no rain falls. Both examples refer to events that disappoint people. In the same way the false teachers disappointed people, because their teachings were worthless. People expected to learn from a teacher how to live in the way God wanted them to, but instead these teachers taught them the wrong way.

2:17c

Blackest darkness: Because the false teachers did this, God had reserved a place in deep darkness for them. Use whichever words you have in your language to best explain how intense the darkness was.

© 2000 by SIL International®

Made available under the terms of a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License (CC BY-SA) creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0

All Scripture quotations in this publication, unless otherwise indicated, are from The Holy Bible, Berean Standard Bible. BSB is produced in cooperation with Bible Hub, Discovery Bible, OpenBible.com, and the Berean Bible Translation Committee.