Judgment on Assyria

Assyria is identified as the instrument of God's anger and sent against a profane nation to seize spoil and trample the people like mud. Yet the empire does not understand itself as a servant; instead it thinks in terms of conquest and self-glory, boasting that its commanders are like kings and that city after city, with all its gods, has already fallen into its hand.

W⁵oe to Assyria, the rod of My anger; ⁶I will send him against a godless nation; ⁷But this is not his intention; ⁸“Are not all my commanders kings?” he says. ⁹“Is not Calno like Carchemish? ¹⁰As my hand seized the idolatrous kingdoms ¹¹and as I have done to Samaria and its idols,

When the Lord has completed His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will then turn to punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his proud heart and lofty eyes. Assyria's boast that it conquered by its own wisdom is answered with biting imagery: an axe cannot exalt itself above the one who swings it, and a rod cannot command the arm that lifts it.

¹²So when the Lord has completed all His work against Mount Zion and Jerusalem, He will say, “I will punish the king of Assyria for the fruit of his arrogant heart and the proud look in his eyes. ¹³For he says: ¹⁴My hand reached as into a nest ¹⁵Does an axe raise itself above the one who swings it?

Because Assyria has gloried in itself, the Lord GOD of Hosts will send wasting weakness into its strength and kindle a consuming fire beneath its splendor. The Light of Israel will burn through its forests and fruitful land until only a few trees remain, so reduced that a child could count them.

¹⁶Therefore the Lord GOD of Hosts will send a wasting disease ¹⁷And the Light of Israel will become a fire, ¹⁸The splendor of its forests and orchards, ¹⁹The remaining trees of its forests will be so few