Albert Barnes Commentary 2 Peter 2:8

"(for that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed [his] righteous soul from day to day with [their] lawless deeds):" — 2 Peter 2:8 (ASV)

For that righteous man dwelling among them. The Latin Vulgate renders this, "For in seeing and hearing he was just," meaning that he maintained his uprightness, or that he did not become contaminated by the vices of Sodom. Many expositors have supposed that this is the correct rendering; but the most natural and the most common explanation is that which is found in our version. According to that, the meaning is that, compelled as he was while living among them to see and hear what was going on, his soul was constantly troubled.

In seeing and hearing. Seeing their open acts of depravity and hearing their vile conduct. The effect this had on the mind of Lot is not mentioned in Genesis, but nothing is more probable than the statement Peter makes here. Whether this statement was founded on tradition, or whether it was a suggestion of inspiration to Peter's mind, cannot be determined.

The words rendered seeing and hearing may refer to the act of seeing or to the object seen. Wetstein and Robinson suppose that they refer here to the latter, and that the sense is that he was troubled by what he saw and heard. The meaning is not materially different.

Those who live among the wicked are compelled to see and hear much that pains their hearts, and it is well if they do not become indifferent to it, or contaminated by it.

Vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds. Tortured or tormented his soul—ebasanizen. (Compare to Matthew 8:6, 29; Luke 8:28; Revelation 9:5; Revelation 11:10; Revelation 14:10; 20:10, where the same word is rendered tormented.) The use of this word seems to imply that there was something active on Lot's part that produced this distress on account of their conduct. He was not merely troubled as if his soul were passively acted upon, but there were strong mental exercises of a positive kind. These perhaps arose from anxious solicitude about how he might prevent their evil conduct, from painful reflections on the consequences of their deeds to themselves, from earnest pleadings in their behalf before God, or from reproofs and warnings of the wicked.

At all events, the language indicates that he was not a mere passive observer of their conduct. This, it would seem, was from day to day; that is, it was constant. There were doubtless reasons why Lot remained among such a people and why, when he might so easily have done it, he did not move to another place.

Perhaps one purpose of his remaining was to endeavor to do them good, as it is often the duty of good people now to reside among the wicked for the same purpose. Lot is supposed to have resided in Sodom—then probably the most corrupt place on earth—for sixteen years. We have in that fact an instructive demonstration that a good person may maintain the life of religion in his soul when surrounded by the wicked, and an illustration of the effects the conduct of the wicked will have on a person of true piety when he is compelled to witness it constantly. From the record made of Lot, we may learn what those effects will be and what is evidence that one is truly pious who lives among the wicked.

1. He will not be contaminated by their wickedness or conform to their evil customs.
2. He will not become indifferent to it, but his heart will be more and more affected by their depravity (Luke 19:41; Acts 17:16).
3. He will have not only constant, but growing solicitude in regard to it—solicitude that will be felt every day: He vexed his soul from day to day. It will not only be at intervals that his mind will be affected by their conduct, but it will be an habitual and constant thing. True piety is not fitful, periodical, and spasmodic; it is constant and steady. It is not a jet that occasionally bursts out; it is a fountain always flowing.
4. He will seek to do them good. We may suppose that this was the case with Lot; we are certain that it is a characteristic of true religion to seek to do good to all, however wicked they may be.
5. He will secure their confidence. He will practice no improper arts to do this, but it will be one of the usual results of a life of integrity that a good person will secure the confidence of even the wicked. It does not appear that Lot lost that confidence, and the whole narrative in Genesis leads us to suppose that even the inhabitants of Sodom regarded him as a good man. The wicked may hate a good person because he is good; but if a person lives as he should, they will regard him as upright, and they will give him the credit for it when he dies, if they should withhold it while he lives.