But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.

But this is a people robbed and plundered; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison-houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.

But this is a people that is robbed and wasted: they are all the snare of young men, and they are hid in the houses of prisons: they are made a prey, and there is none to deliver them: a spoil, and there is none that saith: Restore.

But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and hidden in prison-houses; they are become a prey, and none delivereth, a spoil, and none saith, Restore.

But this is a people robbed and pillaged; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison-houses; they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, Restore.

And this is a people seized and spoiled, Snared in holes, all of them, And in houses of restraint they were hidden, They have been for a prey, And there is no deliverer, A spoil, and none is saying, 'Restore.'

But this is a people robbed and spoiled; they are all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivers; for a spoil, and none said, Restore.

But this is a people whose property has been taken away from them by force; they are all taken in holes, and shut up in prisons: they are made prisoners, and no one makes them free; they are taken by force and no one says, Give them back.

But this same people has robbed and laid waste. All their youth are a snare, and they have been hidden in houses of confinement. They have become victims; there is no one who may rescue them. They have been plundered; there is no one who may say, "Restore."

At hic populus direptus est ac conculcatus; illaqueandi in carceribus omnes, et in speluncis abscondentur. Erunt in direptionem, nec erit qui liberet; in praedam, nee quisquam dicet, Redde.

But this people. Isaiah now declares that it is through their own fault that the people are miserable and appointed to destruction, because they reject God, who would otherwise have been inclined to do good to them, and because they deliberately set aside all remedies, and wish for death, as is commonly the case with men who are past hope. Thus he excuses God in such a manner as to bring a heavy accusation against the people, because they have rejected him by their ingratitude, and have abused his fatherly kindness. Yet, as I remarked a little before, he mentions these things, not so much for the sake of excusing God, as of bringing a bitter complaint, that his countrymen have leagued to their destruction; because, as if on set purpose, they have precipitated themselves into many calamities. If, then, we see the Church, at the present day, in a ruinous and revolting condition, we ought to ascribe it to our iniquities and transgressions, by which we do not suffer God to do good to us. The copulative v (vau) is rendered by some therefore; but I have preferred to translate it but; for it states a contrast to that desire by which the Lord declared that he was prompted to defend his people, if they had permitted it. I choose to interpret hphch (hapheach) as a gerundial participle, about to be snared; for he speaks of a nation which was about to be led into captivity. As to vhvrym, (bahurim,) I think that two words, instead of one, are here used to signify in dens; for to translate the word young men, appears to me to be at variance with the context. They shall be made a spoil. They who interpret this as relating to the whole human race, who have no Savior but Christ, (John 8:36,) adduce nothing that corresponds to the Prophet's meaning; for he simply declares that the people shall perish without hope of deliverance, because they rejected the grace of God. Let us infer from this what must befall us, if we do not in due time embrace the grace of God offered to us. We shall certainly deserve to be deprived of all aid, to be exposed as a prey and a spoil, and utterly to perish.

But this is a people robbed and spoiled - The Jewish people, though highly favored, have been so unmindful of the goodness of God to them, that he has given them into the hand of their enemies to plunder them. This is to be conceived as spoken after the captivity, and while the Jews were in exile. Their being robbed and spoiled, therefore, refers to the invasion of the Chaldeans, and is to be regarded as spoken propheticly of the exiled and oppressed Jews while in Babylon.
They are all of them snared in holes - This passage has been variously rendered. Lowth renders it, 'All their chosen youth are taken in the toils;' following in this the translation of Jerome, and rendering it as Le Clerc and Houbigant do. The Septuagint read it, 'And I saw, and the people were plundered and scattered, and the snare was in all their private chambers, and in their houses where they hid themselves;' - meaning, evidently, that they had been taken by their invaders from the places where they had secreted themselves in their own city and country. The Chaldee renders it, 'All their youth were covered with confusion, and shut up in prison.' The Syriac, 'All their youth are snared, and they have hid them bound in their houses.' This variety of interpretation has arisen in part, because the Hebrew which is rendered in our version, 'in holes' (בחוּרים bachûrı̂ym) may be either the plural form of the word בצוּר bachûr ("chosen, selected"); and thence "youths" - selected for their beauty or strength; or it may be the plural form of the word חוּר chûr, "a hole" or "cavern," with the preposition בּ (b) prefixed. Our translation prefers the latter; and this is probably the correct interpretation, as the parallel expression, 'they are hid in prison-houses,' seems to demand this. The literal interpretation of the passage is, therefore, that they were snared, or secured in the caverns, holes, or places of refuge where they sought security.
And they are hid in prison-houses - They were concealed in their houses as in prisons, so that they could not go out with safety, or without exposing themselves to the danger of being taken captive. The land was filled with their enemies, and they were obliged to conceal themselves, if possible, from their foes.
And none saith, Restore - There is no deliverer - no one who can interpose, and compel the foe to give up his captives. The sense is, the Jewish captives were so strictly confined in Babylon, and under a government so powerful, that there was no one who could rescue them, or that they were so much the object of contempt, that there were none who would feel so much interest in them as to demand them from their foes.

They are all of them snared in holes "All their chosen youths are taken in the toils" - For הפח hapheach read הופחו huphachu, in the plural number, hophal; as החבאו hochbau, which answers to it in the following member of the sentence. Le Clerc, Houbigant. הפח huppach, Secker.

But this [is] a people (z) robbed and plundered; [they are] all of them snared in holes, and they are hid in prison houses: they are for a prey, and none delivereth; for a spoil, and none saith, (a) Restore.
(z) Because they will not acknowledge this blessing from the Lord, who is ready to deliver them, he permits them to be spoiled by their enemies through their own fault and incredulity.
(a) There will be no one to comfort them , or to will the enemy to restore that which he has spoiled.

But this is a people robbed and spoiled,.... The Jewish people, who shut their eyes against the clear light of the Gospel, and turned a deaf ear to Christ, and to his ministers, rejected him, and persecuted them; these were robbed and plundered by the Roman soldiers of all their riches and treasures, when the city of Jerusalem was taken:
they are all of them snared in holes; such of them as escaped and hid themselves in holes, and caverns, and dens of the earth, were laid in wait for and taken, and dragged out, as beasts are taken in a pit, and with a snare. Josephus (b) says, some the Romans killed, some they carried captive, some they searched out lurking in holes underground, and, breaking up the ground, took them out and slew them:
and they are hid in prison houses; being taken by their enemies out of their holes, they were put in prisons, some of them, and there lay confined, out of which they could not deliver themselves:
and they are for a prey, and none delivereth; when they were taken by the Chaldeans, and became a prey to them, in a few years they had a deliverer, Cyrus, but now they have none:
for a spoil, and none saith, restore; there is none to be an advocate for them; no one that asks for their restoration; for almost seventeen hundred years (a) they have been in this condition, and yet none of the kings and princes of the earth have issued a proclamation for their return to their own land, as Cyrus did; and no one moves for it, either from among themselves or others.
(a) Written about 1730 A. D. The Jews in 1948 once again became a nation. Editor. (b) De Bello Jude. l. 7, c. 9. sect. 4.

holes--caught by their foes in the caverns where they had sought refuge [BARNES]. Or bound in subterranean dungeons [BARNES].
prison-houses--either literal prisons, or their own houses, whence they dare not go forth for fear of the enemy. The connection is: Notwithstanding God's favor to His people for His righteousness' sake (Isaiah 42:21), they have fallen into misery (the Babylonish and Romish captivities and their present dispersion), owing to their disregard of the divine law: spiritual imprisonment is included (Isaiah 42:7).
none saith, Restore--There is no deliverer (Isaiah 63:5).

But - But not withstanding this respect which God hath to his people, he hath severely scourged you for your sins. Hid - They have been taken in snares made by their own hands, and by God's just judgment cast into dungeons and prisons. None - None afforded them help.