Isaiah describes a coming day when human pride is brought low and the LORD alone is exalted (Isaiah 2:11-12). The passage lists lofty things that will be humbled and shows people hiding in fear of the LORD’s majesty (Isaiah 2:17-21).
In Isaiah 2:10–11, the speaker commands people to seek hiding places—rock and dust—because an overwhelming dread is coming “from before” Yahweh and from the splendor of his royal greatness. The point is not that hiding will solve the problem, but that Yahweh’s appearing will feel unbearable. These lines sit inside a larger unit that contrasts Zion’s hoped-for future with Judah’s present moral and social collapse. After a vision of nations streaming to learn Yahweh’s ways Isaiah 2:2–4, the tone turns to indictment: Judah is full of foreign practices, wealth, weapons, and self-made objects of devotion.
Isaiah 2:10–11 presents Yahweh’s approach as overwhelming. The language pairs “terror” with “the glory of his majesty,” so the same event is both frightening and dazzling. The command to go into rock and dust depicts people reacting as if they need the lowest, most hidden places.
A careful answer keeps the immediate passage, the book's argument, and the whole-Bible storyline together, so the question is answered in context instead of as a detached idea.
Start with Isaiah 2:11-12, then read the surrounding section so the answer stays connected to the passage's flow.
11The lofty looks of man shall be brought low, and the haughtiness of men shall be bowed down, and Yahweh alone shall be exalted in that day.
12For there shall be a day of Yahweh of Hosts on all that is proud and haughty, and on all that is lifted up; and it shall be brought low;