And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel, I will search and take them out thence; and though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea, thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them:
Ver. 3. And though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel] In densis silvis, inter spelaea ferarum. In the thick woods among the dens of the wild beasts. Lawful enough it is in some cases to hide, as David did often and Elias, and Christ, and Paul, 2 Corinthians 11:32,33, and Athanasius, and various other saints. Tertullian was too rigid in condemning all kind of hiding in evil times. But to hide from God, who searcheth Jerusalem with lights, and to whom the darkness and the light are both alike, Psalms 139:12, to whom obscura clarent, muta respondent, silentium confitetur, this is base and bootless. Carmel shall not cover them, nor any other startinghole secure them from Divine justice. The poor Jews were pulled by the Romans out of privies and other underground places, where they had hid themselves, as Josephus writeth; and so were those Samaritans served by the Assyrians, who ferreted them out, and slaughtered them.
And though they be hid from my sight] As they think, but that cannot be; for he (like the optic virtue in the eye) sees all and is seen of none.
In the bottom of the sea] Which, how deep and troublesome soever, is to God a sea of glass like unto crystal, Revelation 4:6 : corpus diaphanum, a pervious, clear, transparent body such as he sees through, and hath the sole command of.
Thence will I command the serpent] For therre is that crooked serpent leviathan, Isaiah 27:1, there are also creeping things innumerable Psalms 104:26, to arrest wicked men as rebels and traitors to the highest majesty, and to drag them down to the bottom of bell. All elements and creatures shall draw upon them, as servants will do upon such as assault their lord Rebellisque facta est, quia homo numini, creatura homini, as Austin truly and trimly avoucheth.