2 Timothy 4:14

14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord will render to him according to his works:

2 Timothy 4:14 Meaning and Commentary

2 Timothy 4:14

Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil
This seems to be the same person that was at Ephesus in the tumult, when the apostle was there, ( Acts 20:33 Acts 20:34 ) and whom he afterwards delivered to Satan, along with Hymenaeus, for blasphemy, ( 1 Timothy 1:20 ) . It was very likely he had lately been at Rome, though now returned to Ephesus, and had done great injury to the apostle's character, and had reproached and reviled him as a man of bad principles and practices; his business is mentioned, to distinguish him from any other of that name, and to show the insolence of the man, that though he was an illiterate person, and in such a mean station of life, yet took upon him to resist the apostle and his doctrine.

The Lord reward him according to his works;
which may be considered either as an imprecation upon him, as knowing him to be a wicked blasphemer, and a reprobate person; and which arose, not from private resentment, and on account of the private injury he had done to him; but from a pure zeal for the glory of God, and the honour of his name, without mingling his own spirit and passions with it: or as a prophecy, or declaration of what would be; and so the Alexandrian copy, and the Vulgate Latin and Syriac versions, read, "the Lord will render to him"

2 Timothy 4:14 In-Context

12 But Tychicus I sent to Ephesus.

13 The cloak that I left at Troas with Carpus, bring when thou comest, and the books, especially the parchments.

14 Alexander the coppersmith did me much evil: the Lord will render to him according to his works:

15 of whom do thou also beware; for he greatly withstood our words.

16 At my first defence no one took my part, but all forsook me: may it not be laid to their account.