Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 24:18

"And it shall come to pass, that he who fleeth from the noise of the fear shall fall into the pit; and he that cometh up out of the midst of the pit shall be taken in the snare: for the windows on high are opened, and the foundations of the earth tremble." — Isaiah 24:18 (ASV)

From the noise of the fear - A cry or shout was made in hunting, designed to arouse the game and drive it to the pitfall. The image here means that calamities would be multiplied throughout the land, and that if the inhabitants attempted to avoid one danger, they would fall into another.

And he that comes up out of the midst of the pit - This figure is also taken from hunting. It was possible that some of the stronger and more active wild animals driven into the pitfall would spring out and attempt to escape, yet they might be secured by snares or traps deliberately set for such an occurrence. So the prophet says that even if a few might escape the calamities that would at first threaten to overthrow them, they would still have no security. They would immediately fall into other dangers and be destroyed.

For the windows on high are open - This is evidently taken from the account of the deluge in Genesis 7:11: In the six hundredth year of Noah’s life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows (or flood-gates, Margin) of heaven were opened. The word ‘windows’ here (ארבות 'ărubôth) is the same that occurs in Genesis. It properly means a grate, a lattice, or a window, and then any opening, such as a sluice or floodgate. This term is applied to a tempest or a deluge because when the rain descends, it seems like opening sluices or floodgates in the sky. The sense here is that calamities had come upon the nation resembling the universal deluge.

And the foundations of the earth shake - An image derived from an earthquake—a figure also denoting far-spreading calamities.