2 Thessalonians 1:9

who shall be punishedwith everlasting destruction Rather, men who will pay the penalty of eternal destruction. In these awful words the Apostle describes the retribution designed for godless men and rejecters of the Gospel. His word for "penalty" (diké, the root of the words righteousand righteousnessin Greek) brings to a climax the idea of justicedeveloped in 2 Thessalonians 1:5; see note on "vengeance." But the clause while defining, qualifies the foregoing; for "who" is equal to such as, who with all like them. The threatening applies to the impious and malignant opposers who were seeking to crush the infant Church. Their sin corresponded to that which our Lord denounced as the sin against the Holy Spirit, the "eternal sin," the "blasphemy against the Spirit which shall not be forgiven" (Matthew 12:31-32; Mark 3:28-29, R. V.).

"Destruction," as applied to man and his destiny in the N.T., signifies perdition, ruin, the utter loss of blessedness. It is opposed to "salvation" in Hebrews 10:39; 2 Corinthians 2:15, &c.; and "eternal destruction" is the antithesis of eternal life." There is no sufficient reason for interpreting the destruction of the reprobate as signifying their annihilation, or extinction of being; they will be lostfor ever lost to God and goodness. Nor can we limit the range of the word eternalin its relation to this fearful doom; it removes all limits of time, and is the express opposite of temporary(2 Corinthians 4:18). Seventy-two times the Greek original of the adjective is found in the N.T.: forty-four of these examples are repetitions of the phrase "eternal life;" it is arbitrary to suppose that in the opposite combination "eternal" bears a restricted sense. Christ's judicial words in Matthew 25:46 bar all attempts to minimize the penal effect of the sentence of the Last Day; "eternal punishment," He says, and "eternal life." Comp. Philippians 3:19, "whose endis destruction."

from the presence of the Lord, and from the glory of his power Better, as in R. V., and without the comma, from the face of the Lord and from the glory of His might. Language borrowed from Isaiah 2, where it occurs thrice repeated, all but identically (Isaiah 2:10; Isaiah 2:19; Isaiah 2:21), in the prophet's picture of Jehovah's coming in judgement: "Enter into the rocks and hide yourselves in the earth from the face of the fear of the Lord and from the glory of His might, when He ariseth to shake the earth." The words of Revelation 6:15-16 are based on the same original: "They say to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb." The preposition here seems, however, after the word "destruction," to signify coming from, rather than shrinking fromthe face of the Lord. The sight of their Judge and His Almightiness, robed in fire and attended by His host of angels, will drive these wretched men, terror-stricken, into ruin. Their destruction proceeds "from the face of the Lord;" in His look the evildoers read their fate. So we can imagine it will be with the murderers of Jesus, and with malicious persecutors of His people. Comp. Psalms 34:16; Psalms 76:7, "The face of the Lord is against them that do evil:" "Who may stand in Thy sight, when once Thou art angry?"

While the destruction of the persecutors and the deliverance of the persecuted are contrasted in themselves (2 Thessalonians 1:6), they are identified in point of time. For justice will overtake the former