nor will there be any escaping it, it will be inevitable: therefore "snares" are said to be "rained"; the wicked will be snared in the works of their own hands; they will be taken and held in the cords of their own sins; and full and deserved punishment will be inflicted on them, which will be very severe and terrible.
All that is dreadful in a storm is here expressed, even in a storm of fire. The word rendered "snares" is by some thought to be the same with Mymxp, "burning coals"; and may signify burning stones, hot thunderbolts; see Ps 18:13; "fire" may signify lightning, with its dreadful flashes, and which burn and consume in an instant; and "brimstone" the nauseous scent and smell, which always attend lightning and thunder, as naturalists observe : and the words for "an horrible tempest" signify a burning wind: so that they all serve to convey horrible ideas of the punishment of the wicked in hell.
The Targum calls them "showers of vengeance";[this shall be] the portion of their cup; which will be measured out to them in proportion to their sins, and which God, in righteous judgment, has appointed for them; and which they shall all drink of, and wring out the very dregs of it.
Senecae Nat. Quaest. l. 2. c. 21, 53. Plin. Nat. Hist. l. 35. c.