Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 2:20

"In that day men shall cast away their idols of silver, and their idols of gold, which have been made for them to worship, to the moles and to the bats;" — Isaiah 2:20 (ASV)

In that day — That is, in the time when God would come forth to inflict punishment. Probably the day to which the prophet refers here was the time of the captivity at Babylon.

A man will cast ... — That is, all who have idols, or who have been trusting in them. Valuable as they may be—made of gold and silver; and much as he may now rely on them or worship them, yet he will then see their vanity and will cast them into dark, obscure places or holes, where moles and bats are.

To the moles — פרות לחפר lachepor pērôth. Probably this should be read as a single word, and it is usually interpreted “moles.” Jerome interprets it as mice or moles, from חפר châphar—“to dig.” The word is formed by doubling the radical letters to give intensity. Similar instances of words being divided in the Hebrew, which are nevertheless to be read as one, occur in (2 Chronicles 24:6); (Jeremiah 46:20); (Lamentations 4:3); and (Ezekiel 27:6).

The mole is a well-known animal with exceedingly small eyes, that burrows underground, lives in the dark, and subsists on roots. The bat lives in old ruins and behind the bark of trees, and flies only in the night. They resemble each other and are used here in connection because both dwell amidst ruins and in obscure places; both are regarded as animals of the lowest order; both are of the same genus, and both are almost blind.

The sense is, therefore, that the idols which had previously been so highly venerated, would now be despised, and cast into obscure places, and amidst ruins, as worthless; see Bochart’s Hieroz., P. i., Lib. iii., p. 1032. Ed. 1663.

And to the bats — ‘The East may be termed the country of bats; they hang by hundreds and thousands in caves, ruins, and under the roofs of large buildings. To enter such places, especially after rain, is most offensive. I have lived in rooms where it was sickening to remain on account of the smell produced by those creatures, and from which it was almost impossible to expel them. The creature's appearance, its sunken diminutive eye, its short legs (with which it cannot walk), its leather-like wings, its half-hairy, oily skin, its offensive droppings that fall every now and then to the ground, and its preference for darkness for food and sport—all these things make it one of the most disgusting creatures to the people of the East. No wonder, then, that its name is used by Hindus (as by the prophet) as an epithet of contempt.

‘When a house ceases to please the inhabitants on account of being haunted, they say, Give it to the bats. “Alas! alas! my wife and children are dead; my houses, my buildings, are all given to the bats.” People ask, when passing a tenantless house, “Why is this habitation given to the bats?”’ — Roberts. The meaning is that the man would throw his idols into such places as the bats occupy—he would so see their vanity and so despise them as to throw them into old ruins and dark places.