Like an abominable branch. — The noun is the same as in Isaiah 11:1; Isaiah 60:21. The idea seems to be that of a scion or shoot which is mildewed and blasted, and which men fling away as loathsome.
As the raiment of those that are slain... — The image reminds us of the “garments rolled in blood “of Isaiah 9:5, gathered after the battle, and “cast forth” to be burnt. In such raiment, not in stately robes nor kingly grave-clothes, would the great ruler be found. To lie thus unburied, “a prey to dogs and vultures” (Homer, Iliad, i. 4), was, as with the Homeric heroes, the shame of all shames.
That go down to the stones of the pit. — By some critics these words are joined with the following verse: Those that go down ... with them thou shalt not be joined in burial, i.e., shalt have no proper sepulchre. As the passage stands, “the stones of the pit” represent the burial-place into which the carcases of the slain were indiscriminately thrown.