Teks -- Isaiah 24:17 (NET)

24:17 Terror, pit, and snare are ready to overtake you inhabitants of the earth!

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per frasa)

Wesley: Isa 24:17 - The snare

Great and various judgments, some actually inflicted, and others justly feared.

JFB: Isa 24:17

This verse explains the wretchedness spoken of in Isa 24:16. Jeremiah (Jer 48:43-44) uses the same words. They are proverbial; Isa 24:18 expressing that the inhabitants were nowhere safe; if they escaped one danger, they fell into another, and worse, on the opposite side (Amo 5:19). "Fear" is the term applied to the cords with feathers of all colors which, when fluttered in the air, scare beasts into the pitfall, or birds into the snare. HORSLEY makes the connection. Indignant at the treatment which the Just One received, the prophet threatens the guilty land with instant vengeance.

Clarke: Isa 24:17

Fear, and the pit "The terror, the pit"- If they escape one calamity, another shall overtake them

"As if a man should flee from a lion, and a bear should overtake him

Or should betake himself to his house, and lean his hand on the wall

And a serpent should bite him.

Amo 5:19

"For,"as our Savior expressed it in a like parabolical manner, "wheresoever the carcass is there shall the eagles be gathered together,"Mat 24:28. The images are taken from the different methods of hunting and taking wild beasts, which were anciently in use. The terror was a line strung with feathers of all colors which fluttering in the air scared and frightened the beasts into the toils, or into the pit which was prepared for them. Nec est mirum, cum maximos ferarum greges linea pennis distincta contineat, et in insidias agat, ab ipso effectu dicta formido. Seneca de Ira , 2:12. The pit or pitfall, fovea ; digged deep in the ground, and covered over with green boughs, turf, etc., in order to deceive them, that they might fall into it unawares. The snare, or toils, indago ; a series of nets, inclosing at first a great space of ground, in which the wild beasts were known to be; and then drawn in by degrees into a narrower compass, till they were at last closely shut up, and entangled in them. - L

For מכול mikkol , a MS. reads מפני mippeney , as it is in Jer 48:44, and so the Vulgate and Chaldee. But perhaps it is only, like the latter, a Hebraism, and means no more than the simple preposition מ mem . See Psa 102:6. For it does not appear that the terror was intended to scare the wild beasts by its noise. The paronomasia is very remarkable; פחד pachad , פחת pachath , פך pach : and that it was a common proverbial form, appears from Jeremiah’ s repeating it in the same words, Jer 48:43, Jer 48:44.

Calvin: Isa 24:17 - Fear, and the pit, and the snare // O inhabitant of the earth // For the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth are shaken

17.Fear, and the pit, and the snare The Prophet here discourses against the sins of the people. Formerly he declared that not only one nation, but very many and very distant nations, would have abundant grounds of thanksgiving. He now passes to another doctrine; for I think that these words ought to be separated from what goes before, because Isaiah again threatens the wicked, that they may know that amidst the highest prosperity of the Church they will be miserable. For the sake of cherishing their indifference, wicked men are accustomed rashly to apply the promises of God to themselves, though they do not at all belong to them; and therefore the prophets usually mingle threatenings with them. It is also possible that Isaiah delivered this discourse separately from the rest, and on a different occasion; for neither the prophets themselves nor other learned men divided the chapters. We have often seen different subjects joined together, and others divided which ought to have been joined, which was undoubtedly done through ignorance. However that may be, the Prophet returns to the wicked, and threatens against them severe and dreadful judgment.

This description of “fear, the pit, and the snare,” is intended to touch the feelings; for if he had said, in a single word, that destruction awaits the wicked, they would not have been greatly moved. But there is room for doubting if he addresses the Jews alone. For my own part, I should not be much inclined to dispute about this matter; but I think it is more probable that these threatenings related also to other nations, and even to the whole world, of which he had formally prophesied.

O inhabitant of the earth By “the world” we understand those countries which were known to the Jews, as we have already explained. The meaning is, “Thou art pressed by afflictions so diversified, that thou hast no means of escape.” Amos gives a similar description: “He who shall flee through dread of a lion shall meet a bear; and if he go into the house, when he leaneth on a wall, a serpent shall bite him.” (Amo 5:19.) Isaiah formerly said that lions would be sent against the Moabites who had escaped from the battle. (Isa 15:9.) God has an endless variety of scourges for punishing the wicked. It is as if he had said, “Know that you cannot escape the hand of God; for he has various methods by which he takes vengeance on their crimes, and thus overtakes those who had hoped to escape by a variety of contrivances. He who escapes from the battle shall be tormented with hunger; and when he is freed from hunger, he will meet some other calamity, as if nets had been laid on all sides to ensnare you.”

For the windows from on high are open, and the foundations of the earth are shaken This argument confirms what had been already said, that it is impossible for them to escape the vengeance of God, who has prepared for it a free course in heaven and in earth, from the utmost height of heaven down to the depths of the earth. Some think that he alludes (Gen 7:11) to the deluge; but, in my opinion, the meaning is simpler, that the wrath of God will be revealed above and below; as if he had said, “The Lord will arm heaven and earth to execute his vengeance against men, that wherever they turn their eyes, they may behold nothing but destruction.”

TSK: Isa 24:17 - and the pit

and the pit : Lev 26:21, Lev 26:22; 1Ki 19:17; Jer 8:3, Jer 48:43, Jer 48:44; Eze 14:21

Tafsiran/Catatan -- Catatan Kata/Frasa (per Ayat)

Poole: Isa 24:17

Great and various judgments, some actually inflicted, and others expected and justly feared, as the punishment of their last-mentioned treachery.

Haydock: Isa 24:17 - Snare // Opened

Snare. He alludes to the methods of taking wild beasts, Job xviii. 11. ---

Opened, as they were in the days of Noe[Noah]. (Calmet) ---

All sorts of misery hang over us.

Gill: Isa 24:17 - Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth.

Fear, and the pit, and the snare, are upon thee, O inhabitant of the earth. This is to be understood not of the land of Judea only, and the inhabitants of it, but of all the earth; Kimchi interprets it of the nations of the world, particularly the Greeks and Turks; but the whole world, and the inhabitants of it, are meant, as the following verses show. There is an elegant play on words in the Hebrew, which cannot well be expressed in English, in the words "pachad, pachath, pach", fear, pit, and a snare; which are expressive of a variety of dangers, difficulties, and distresses; there seems to be an allusion to creatures that are hunted, who flee through fear, and fleeing fall into pits, or are entangled in snares, and so taken. Before the last day, or second coming of Christ to judge the world, there will be great perplexity in men's minds, great dread and fear upon their hearts, and much distress of nations; and the coming of the Son of Man will be as a snare upon the earth; see Luk 21:25.