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:
Though they hide themselves in the top of Carmel - where the forests, and, on the west side, the numerous caves furnished hiding-places (Amos 1:2; Judges 6:2; 1 Samuel 13:6).
Though they be hid from my sight in the bottom of the sea - though they hide themselves in the bottom of the Mediterranean, which flows at the foot of mount Carmel, forming a strong antithesis to it.
Thence will I command the serpent, and he shall bite them - the sea-serpent, a term used for any great water monster (Isaiah 27:1, "the dragon that is in the sea"). The symbol of cruel and oppressive kings (Psalms 74:13-14, "Thou didst divide the sea by thy strength; thou breakest the heads of the dragons in the waters"). Pliny's statement as to the venom of the water serpents found in the Red Sea, the Indian and the Pacific Oceans, is confirmed by modern research (Pliny, 'Natural History,' 29: 4, 22).