And they shall look unto the earth
As persons in distress, upwards and downwards, backwards and forwards, on the right hand and on the left, particularly into the land of Judea; a land that used to flow with milk and honey, a land of light, plenty, and prosperity: and behold trouble and darkness;
adversity, and miseries of all kinds, expressed by a variety of words; and even words fail to express the tribulation of these times, which were such as were not from the beginning of the world, ( Matthew 24:22 ) : dimness of anguish;
or "fleeing from affliction" F5, multitudes everywhere fleeing from one place to another, to avoid the calamities coming upon them, ( Matthew 24:16-20 ) : and [they shall be] driven to darkness;
when they endeavour to escape one calamity, they shall be driven and fall into another; the whole land shall be full of nothing else.