Kefa II 2:8

8 —For that tzaddik, living among them day after day, was tortured in his nefesh hayesharah (honest soul) by the darchei mufkarim (the ways of lawless ones) that he saw and heard

Kefa II 2:8 Meaning and Commentary

2 Peter 2:8

For that righteous man dwelling among them
Which is sometimes the lot of good men, to their great sorrow and grief, ( Psalms 120:5-7 ) ( Isaiah 6:5 ) . Upon mentioning those words in ( Genesis 13:12 Genesis 13:13 ) "and pitched his tent towards Sodom", but the men of Sodom were wicked, &c. says R. Eleazar ^F9;

``he is a righteous man that dwells between two wicked men, and does not learn their works;''

and such an one was Lot, whatever they are elsewhere pleased to say of him: "in seeing and hearing"; the Vulgate Latin version reads this in connection with the word "righteous", thus, "in seeing and hearing he was righteous": he could not bear to see their filthy actions, and hear their obscene language, but turned away from them, and shut his eyes, and stopped his ears, by which he appears to be a righteous and good man; though rather this belongs to what follows, seeing their wicked practices, and hearing their filthy talk:

vexed his righteous soul from, day today with their unlawful deeds;
either "they vexed" him, as the Vulgate Latin and Ethiopic versions read; or rather "he vexed" himself; he fretted and teased himself, and became exceeding uneasy, and was put upon a rack and tortured, as the word signifies, continually, with their wicked actions; see ( Psalms 119:158 ) .

---

FOOTNOTES:

F9 T. Bab. Yoma, fol. 38. 2.

Kefa II 2:8 In-Context

6 And if Hashem judged the cities of S’dom and Amora, reducing them to ashes by a churban catastrophe, making them a mofet (an example) for the ones intending to be resha’im;

7 And if Hashem delivered Lot, a tzaddik distressed by the hitnahagut (conduct) of the mufkarim (lawless 2:8,10; 3:17) walking in darchei zimah (the ways of licentiousness)

8 —For that tzaddik, living among them day after day, was tortured in his nefesh hayesharah (honest soul) by the darchei mufkarim (the ways of lawless ones) that he saw and heard

9 —Then Hashem knows how to rescue the chasidim from trial and how to preserve the anshei resha (men of wickedness) for punishment for the Yom HaDin,

10 Especially the ones going after the basar (flesh) in ta’avah (lust) producing tum’a (defilement) and the ones despising kol samchut (Mt 28:18). Bold and selfwilled, these have no yirat Shomayim and therefore commit Chillul Hashem as they slander the glorious ones,