Thomas Aquinas

576. Second, the impossibility of escaping: and it shall come to pass, that he that shall flee from the noise of the fear, shall fall into the pit: as if to say, he will decide upon Scylla, wanting to avoid Charybdis: that which the palmerworm has left, the bruchus has eaten (Joel 1:4). And he assigns the cause: for tribulation will come to them from both heaven and from earth, and this is the flood-gates, that is, hidden channels through which water flows: the floodgates of heaven were opened (Gen 7:11).

Commentary on Isaiah ↗