Hell [is] naked before him, and destruction hath no covering.
Ver. 6. Hell and destruction are before him] Here beginneth a magnificent and stately description of the majesty of God; and, 1. From his omniscience; 2. From his omnipotence. For the first, "Hell and destruction are before him." Not the grave only, but the nethermost hell, that most abstruse part of the universe, and most remote from heaven, God's court. Of hell we know nothing save only what the Scripture saith of it in general, that there is a hell, and that the pains of it are endless, easeless, and remediless, &c., but God only knoweth who are in hell, and who is yet to be hereafter hurled into it. It is the saints' happiness that to them there is no such condemnation, Romans 8:1, that over them this second death hath no power, Revelation 20:6. That if hell had already swallowed them up (as they sometimes when deserted feel themselves to be in the very suburbs of it), it could no better hold them than the whale's stomach could do Jonah. Luke 22:31, "Satan hath desired to have thee"; sc. to hell, but that he shall never have; for they are the redeemed of the Lord, saved from the wrath to come, and may triumphingly sing, Death, where is thy sting? Hell, where is thy victory? &c.
And destruction hath no covering] That is, hell, the place of destruction, the palace of King Abaddon (so the devil is called, Rev 9:11), and so hell is called in this text, because thereinto are thrust all that are destined to destruction, all the brats of fathomless perdition, such as was Judas the traitor, who went to his place, and all wicked ones, who shall surely be turned into hell, with all those that forget God, Psalms 9:17. This place is not covered, saith Ferus here, but open to God, for whomsoever he will cast thereinto.