In darkness. — A common synonym for a dungeon. (See Isaiah 42:7; Isaiah 49:9, both of the exiles in Babylon; comp. Micah 7:8.)
This description, applicable to prisons in all ages but the most modern, was especially suitable for those of the ancients, who admitted no light at all; e.g., the Mamertine prison at Rome. Comp. Virgil, Æn. vi. 734:
“Neque auras
Dispiciunt clausæ tenebris et carcere cæco.”
In affliction and iron. — Both words are found also in Psalms 105:18, but distributed into the two clauses of the verse — hurt, iron. (Comp., too, Job 36:8, “bound in fetters and holden in cords of affliction.”) The LXX. and Vulg. have “in poverty and in iron.”