These in the eyes would indicate blindness, since a thorn in the eye would blind the individual. Just so the enemy would put out the eyes of Israel’s understanding through idolatry.

These would be for driving the Israelites on in the way they would not want to go. But once in the trap they would be driven on as oxen under the yoke.

 Probably, rather, “a net and a snare” (see Ex. 23:33; Num. 33:55). The implication is that the ultimate evil results are covered over so that they are not observed. Corrupt society is insidious in its attractions. The snares and traps are placed first, and not till the victim is secure do the scourges and the thorns come. Corrupt men lead away the pure by guile. They instinctively conceal their worst elements while they reveal their best, and thus they deceive their prey. The very virtues of the pure sometimes help in the work of destruction. “Charity ... thinketh no evil,” and the innocent man is tempted to say of his seducers, “These men have been unfairly spoken of. They are better than the report circulated about them.”