(22) Let a cry be heard from their houses.—i.e., let their city be taken by the enemy and the people suffer all the outrage and cruelty which their heathen invaders can inflict. What these were, the history of all wars, above all of Eastern wars, tells us but too plainly (2Kings 8:12; Hosea 13:16). Some of them, prisoners impaled or flayed alive, are brought vividly before our eyes by the Assyrian sculptures.

The “snares” are those of the bird-catcher (Psalm 140:5; Psalm 142:3).

18:18-23 When the prophet called to repentance, instead of obeying the call, the people devised devices against him. Thus do sinners deal with the great Intercessor, crucifying him afresh, and speaking against him on earth, while his blood is speaking for them in heaven. But the prophet had done his duty to them; and the same will be our rejoicing in a day of evil.The sack of the city follows with all the horrible cruelties practiced at such a time. 22. cry—by reason of the enemy bursting in: let their houses be no shelter to them in their calamities [Calvin].

digged … pit—(Jer 18:20; Ps 57:6; 119:85).

That is, Let the enemy break into their houses, which are, in an ordinary course of providence, men’s castles and sanctuaries, and cause such shrieks as use to be heard in such cases, for their malicious seeking my life by all secret practices.

Let a cry be heard from their houses,.... A shrieking of women and children, not only for the loss of husbands and parents, but because of the entrance of the enemy into the city, and into their houses, to take away their lives and their substance; as follows:

when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them; or an army, as the Targum; either the Chaldean army, or rather the Roman army:

for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet: and therefore it was a just retaliation, that a troop or army should suddenly come upon them, and seize their persons and substance; though Kimchi understands it, as before, of poison, which they would have given him; but Jarchi, of a suspicion and vile calumny they raised of him, that he was guilty of adultery with another man's wife; a "whore" being called a "deep ditch" by the wise man, Proverbs 23:27; and so it is in the Talmud (h).

(h) T. Bab. Kama, fol. 16. 2.

Let a cry be heard from their houses, when thou shalt bring a troop suddenly upon them: for they have digged a pit to take me, and hid snares for my feet.