Isaiah 24:22

“And they shall be gathered together, &c.] First to the battle of the great day of God Almighty at Armageddon, (<661614>Revelation 16:14,16) (<661919>Revelation 19:19) and there being overcome and taken, they shall be gathered together [as] prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison; in the prison or the grave, and in hell; as captives are, till such time as something is determined and ordered what to be done with them: and after many days shall they be visited; or punished, that is, after the thousand years are ended, when the wicked dead will be all raised; after the battle of Gog and Magog, when Satan, the beast, and false prophet, and all their adherents, shall…”

“in the pit--rather, "for the pit" [HORSLEY]. "In the dungeon" [MAURER]. Image from captives thrust together into a dungeon. prison--that is, as in a prison. This sheds light on the disputed passage, Pe1 3:19, where also the prison is figurative: The "shutting up" of the Jews in Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar, and again under Titus, was to be followed by a visitation of mercy "after many days"--seventy years in the case of the former--the time is not yet elapsed in the case of the latter. HORSLEY takes "visited" in a bad sense, namely, in wrath, as in Isa 26:14; compare Isa 29:6; the punishment being the heavier in the fact of the delay. Probably a double visitation is intended, deliverance…”

“And they shall be gathered together - That is, those who occupy posts of honor and influence in the ecclesiastical and civil polity of the land. “As prisoners.” Margin, as in the Hebrew, ‘With the gathering of prisoners.’ The reference is to the custom of collecting captives taken in war, and chaining them together by the hands and feet, and thrusting them in large companies into a prison. In the pit - Margin, ‘Dungeon.’ The sense is, that he rulers of the land should be made captive, and treated as prisoners of war. This was undoubtedly true in the captivity under Nebuchadnezzar. The people were assembled; were regarded as captives; and were conveyed together to a distant land. And shall be…”

“Gathered - By God's special providence, in order to their punishment. And thus the unbelieving Jews were generally gathered together at Jerusalem, to their solemn feast, when Titus came and besieged, and destroyed them. Shut up - As malefactors, which are taken in several places, are usually brought to one common prison. After - After the apostate Jews shall have been shut up in unbelief, and in great tribulations for many ages together, they shall be convinced of their sin in crucifying the Messiah, and brought home to God and Christ by true repentance. Isaiah 24:23”

“24:22 put in prison . . . punished: See also 2 Pet 2:4; Rev 9:2, 11; 17:8.”

“they shall: Isa 24:17, Isa 2:19; Jos 10:16, Jos 10:17, Jos 10:22-26 as prisoners are gathered: Heb. with the gathering of prisoners pit: or, dungeon shall they: Jer 38:6-13; Zac 9:11 visited: or, found wanting Isaiah 24:23”

“Isa 24:22 announces the preliminary punishment of both angelic and human princes: 'asēphâh stands in the place of a gerundive, like taltēlâh in Isa 22:17. The connection of the words 'asēphâh 'assir is exactly the same as that of taltēlâh gâbēr in Isa 22:17 : incarceration after the manner of incarcerating prisoners; 'âsaph, to gather together ( Isa 10:14; Isa 33:4), signifies here to incarcerate, just as in Gen 42:17. Both verbs are construed with ‛al, because the thrusting is from above downwards, into the pit and prison (‛al embraces both upon or over anything, and into it, e.g., Sa1 31:4; Job 6:16; see Hitzig on Nah 3:12). We may see from Pe2 2:4 and Jde 1:6 how this is to be…”