John Calvin 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 have fainted. He describes more fully the lamentable and wretched condition of the Church when he says that her children are prostrate. A mother cannot be visited with any grief more bitter than to have her children slain before her eyes—not just one or two of them, but so great a number as to fill the roads with the slaughter.

As a wild bull in a net. The metaphor is taken from bears or other wild animals, by which he means that even the strongest of them have, as it were, been caught in snares.

Full of the indignation of Jehovah. By this expression, he distinctly states that none of these events are accidental, so that they should not suppose that any of them has happened by chance, or accuse the Lord of cruelty for having punished them severely; because his judgment is just and righteous.

This is what he means when he says that this punishment has proceeded from the rebuke of the Lord. Yet we must bear in mind his purpose, which I have already mentioned: believers should not throw away the hope of grace, even though innumerable calamities prompt and urge them to despair.