And they shall be gathered together, as prisoners are gathered in the pit, and shall be shut up in the prison, and after many days shall they be visited.
As prisoners are gathered in the pit - `in the dungeon;' literally, 'upon х `al (H5921)] the pit' or 'dungeon:' implying that the prisoners are let down from above into it. Image from captives thrust together into a dungeon against the day of judgment being pronounced upon them (cf. Jeremiah 39:5).
In the prison - i:e., as in a prison. This sheds light on the disputed passage, 1 Peter 3:19, where also the prison is figurative. The men of the world just before the flood were shut up in this earth as in a great prison house. They were seemingly at large, but were really, like the fallen angels now on earth, reserved in invisible chains of darkness, against the coming judgment (Jude 1:6). Christ by His Spirit in Noah came and preached to them. So in the latter day here foretold men shall be gathered together on earth as in a sunken dungeon, awaiting the visitation of judgment. The shutting up of the Jews in Jerusalem under Nebuchadnezzar, and again under Titus, was to be followed by a visitation of judgment. "Visited" is in a bad sense, namely, in wrath, as in Isaiah 26:14: cf. Isaiah 29:6; the punishment being the heavier in consequence of the delay. Perhaps a double visitation is intended-deliverance to the elect, wrath to hardened unbelievers. But Isaiah 24:23 plainly contemplates judgments on proud sinners symbolized by the "sun" and "moon."