“And that they may recouer themselues out of the snare of the deuill, who are taken captiue by him at his will.”
1611 King James Version (KJV)
2:26 Who - At present are not only captives, but asleep; utterly insensible of their captivity.
2Ti 2:26 And [that] they may recover. They are in "the snare of the devil", taken captive at will. The only hope is that in the providence of God they "may recover" themselves (the idea is, to "return to soberness", Revised Version, margin), repent, and acknowledge the truth. Men are commanded to "Repent", Mt 3:2 Ac 2:38, etc., but here God is alluded to as "peradventure" giving repentance. The meaning is made clear by comparing with Ac 11:18: "Then hath God also the Gentiles granted repentance unto life". The meaning there is that God has granted to the Gentiles the privilege of repentance, even as unto the Jews. So Paul's idea here is that God, peradventure, may grant these, though sinning so grievously, opportunities for repentance, instead of delivering them over to hardness of heart.