Albert Barnes Commentary Isaiah 51:20

"Thy sons have fainted, they lie at the head of all the streets, as an antelope in a net; they are full of the wrath of Jehovah, the rebuke of thy God." — Isaiah 51:20 (ASV)

Your sons — Jerusalem is here represented as a mother. Her sons, that is, her inhabitants, had become weak and prostrate everywhere, and were unable to afford consolation.

They lie at the head of all the streets — The ‘head’ of the streets is the same as what in Lamentations 2:19 and Lamentations 4:1 is called ‘the top of the streets.’ The head or top of the streets undoubtedly denotes the beginning of a way or street, the corner from which other streets diverge. These would be public places where many would naturally assemble and where, in time of a siege, they would be driven together.

This is a description of the state produced by famine. Weak, pale, and emaciated, the inhabitants of Jerusalem, in places of public gathering, would lie prostrate and inefficient, unable to meet and repel their foes. They would be overpowered by famine, as a wild bull is ensnared in a net and rendered incapable of any effort. This undoubtedly refers to the famine that would be produced during the siege by the Babylonians.

The state of things under the siege has also been described by Jeremiah:

Arise, cry out in the night;
In the beginning of the watches pour out thine heart before the Lord;
Lift up thy hands toward him for the life of thy young children,
That faint for hunger at the top of every street.
The young and old lie on the ground in the streets,
My virgins and my young men are fallen by the sword;
Thou hast slain them in the day of thy anger;
Thou hast killed, and not pitied. (Lamentations 2:19–21)

The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of
His mouth for thirst;
The young children ask bread, and no man breaketh it unto them;
Those who fed delicately are desolate in the streets;
Those who were brought up in scarlet embrace dunghills. (Lamentations 4:4–5)

As a wild bull in a net — The word rendered here ‘wild bull’ is תוא tô'. Gesenius supposes it is the same as תאו t'ô—a species of gazelle, so called from its swiftness.

Aquila, Symm., and Theod. render it here, Ὀρυξ Oruch—‘Oryx;’ Jerome also renders it Oryx—‘a wild goat’ or stag.

The Septuagint renders it, Σευτλίον ἡμίεφθον Seutlion hēmiephthon—‘a parboiled beet!’ The Chaldee, ‘As broken bottles.’

Bochart (Hieroz. i. 3. 28) supposes it means a species of mountain-goat and demonstrates that it is common in the East to take such animals in a net.

Lowth renders it, ‘Oryx.’ The streets of Hebrew towns, like those of ancient Babylon and of most modern Oriental cities, had gates which were closed at night, and on some occasions of conflict and danger. A person then wishing to escape would be arrested by the closed gate and if he was pursued, would be taken much like a wild bull in a net. It was formerly the custom, as it is now in Oriental countries, to take wild animals in this manner.

A space of ground of considerable extent—usually in the vicinity of springs and brooks, where the animals were in the habit of resorting morning and evening—was enclosed by nets into which the animals were driven by horsemen and hounds. When enclosed there, they were easily taken.

Such scenes are still represented in Egyptian paintings (see Wilkinson’s Ancient Egyptians, vol. iii, pp. 2-36), and such a custom prevailed among the Romans. Virgil represents Aeneas and Dido as going to a wood for the purpose of hunting at break of day, and the attendants as surrounding the grove with nets or toils.

Venatum Aeneas, unaque miserrima Dido,
In nemus ire parant, ubi primos crastinus ortus
Extulerit Titan, radiisque retexerit orbem.
His ego nigrantem commixta grandine nimbum,
Dum trepidant alae, saltusque indagine cingunt,
Desuper infundam, et tonitru caelum omne ciebo. (Aeneid iv. 117 and following)

The idea here is plain. It is, that as a wild animal is secured by the toils of the hunter, and rendered unable to escape, so it was with the inhabitants of Jerusalem suffering under the wrath of God. They were humbled, and prostrate, and powerless, and were, like the stag that was caught, entirely at the disposal of him who had thus ensnared them.