10:12 When God finished using Assyria as His rod to punish Mt. Zion and Jerusalem, He would punish Assyria too for her arrogance and haughtiness (not for her ignorance of God's sovereignty). The prose form of this verse, which serves as a climax in a long section of poetry, makes this major point stand out all the more clearly.
"God's sovereignty and man's responsibility are always in perfect balance in the Word of God. Even though we are not able to reconcile these paradoxical facts, we can believe both because the Bible teaches both. God is sovereign in His universe; and at the same time man is fully accountable to God for all his acts."128
10:13-14 Assyria, again personified (cf. vv. 8-11), manifested arrogance and haughtiness by boasting that all her victories were the result of her own strength and intelligence (cf. Rom. 1:19-21). She felt, as many nations have, including Nazi Germany, that she was superior and therefore had the right to determine the fates of inferiors. She had a right to steal from others who could not or would not defend themselves.
10:15 It is illogical, the prophet pointed out, for the impersonal instrument of judgment to exalt itself over the person who wields it.
10:16 Because of Assyria's pride, sovereign Yahweh of armies would defeat this mighty foe. Isaiah described her fall as resulting from a wasting disease and a consuming fire.129
10:17-18 The Assyrians were jumping into a fire by invading Jerusalem. The fire would come from the light of Israel, namely, her holy God (cf. 8:12-15). This fire would consume the small and the great in Assyria, from the lowly thorns to the beautiful garden plants to the mighty trees of the forest.
10:19 The remaining trees (leaders) would be so few that a small child would be able to count them.
In 701 B.C. the Assyrians besieged Jerusalem and God slew 185,000 of them in one night (37:36-37). The Babylonians felled the Assyrian Empire in 609 B.C.130
