Albert Barnes Commentary 2 Peter 2:3

"And in covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose sentence now from of old lingereth not, and their destruction slumbereth not." — 2 Peter 2:3 (ASV)

And through covetousness. This shows one of the things that influenced them—a thing which, like licentiousness, usually exerts a powerful influence over the teachers of error. The religious principle is the strongest that is implanted in the human heart; and men who can obtain a livelihood in no other way, or who are too unprincipled or too indolent to labor for an honest living, often become public teachers of religion, and adopt the kind of doctrines that will likely give them the greatest power over the purses of others. True religion, indeed, requires its friends to devote all that they have to the service of God and to the promotion of His cause; but it is very easy to pervert this requirement, so that the teacher of error will take advantage of it for his own aggrandizement.

Shall they with feigned words. Greek: formed, fashioned; that is, those which are formed for the occasion—feigned, false, deceitful. The idea is that the doctrines they would defend were not maintained by solid and substantial arguments, but that they would use plausible reasoning made up for the occasion.

Make merchandise of you. This means they treat you not as rational beings, but as a bale of goods, or any other article of traffic. That is, they would endeavor to make money from them, and regard them only as suited to promote that object.

Whose judgment. Whose condemnation (Jude 1:1–4).

Now for a long time does not linger. Greek: “of old; long since.” The idea seems to be that justice had long been attentive to their movements and was on its way to their destruction. It was not a new thing—that is, there was no new principle involved in their destruction; but it was a principle that had always been in operation, which would certainly be applicable to them, and for a long time justice had been impatient to do the work it was accustomed to do. What had occurred to the angels that sinned (2 Peter 2:4), to the old world (2 Peter 2:5), and to Sodom and Gomorrah (2 Peter 2:6), would occur to them; and the same justice that had overthrown them might be regarded as on its way to effect their destruction .

And their damnation does not slumber. Their condemnation (See 1 Corinthians 11:29), yet here referring to future punishment. “Mr. Blackwell observes that this is a most beautiful figure, representing the vengeance that will destroy such incorrigible sinners as an angel of judgment pursuing them on the wing, continually approaching nearer and nearer, and in the meantime keeping a watchful eye upon them that he may at length discharge an unerring blow.” —Doddridge. It is not uncommon to speak of ‘sleepless justice;’ and the idea here is that however justice may have seemed to slumber or to linger, it was not really so, but that it had an ever-watchful eye on them and was on its way to do what was right in regard to them. A sinner should never forget that there is an eye of unslumbering vigilance always upon him, and that everything that he does is witnessed by one who will yet render exact justice to all men. No man, however careful to conceal his sins, however bold in transgression, or however unconcerned he may seem to be, can hope that justice will always linger, or destruction always slumber.