Assyria Is a Rod Whose Arrogance Is Judged

Assyria is a hired rod that mistakes itself for the woodsman

O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation. I will send him against an hypocritical nation, and against the people of my wrath will I give him a charge, to take the spoil, and to take the prey, and to tread them down like the mire of the streets. Howbeit he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so; but it is in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few.

The empire has a limited assignment against a corrupt people. Its own intention is unlimited conquest. For he saith, Are not my princes altogether kings? Is not Calno as Carchemish? Hamath as Arpad? Samaria as Damascus? The hand that found the kingdoms of the idols will, the king thinks, find Jerusalem. Ancient Assyria stays ancient. The name is not a mask for a modern ethnicity, colony, or rival state.

The axe is not allowed to boast against the one who hews

Shall the axe boast itself against him that heweth therewith? Shall the saw magnify itself against him that shaketh it? Therefore the Lord, the Lord of hosts, will send among his fat ones leanness, and under his glory he shall kindle a burning like the burning of a fire. The light of Israel shall be for a fire, and his Holy One for a flame, and it shall burn the thorns and briers in one day, consume the glory of his forest and of his fruitful field, soul and body, and the rest of the trees of his forest shall be few, that a child may write them.

After the assigned work, imperial boasting and forest-like troop strength meet fire and reduction. The LORD's use of an empire is not colonial permission, not collective punishment for later peoples, and not political demonization of whoever a reader now hates.