Isaiah 10:15 - Joseph Benson’s Commentary on the Old and New Testaments

Shall the axe boast itself, &c. How absurd is it for thee, who art but an instrument in God's hand, to blaspheme thy Lord and Master, who has as great power over thee as a man hath over the axe wherewith he heweth? As if the rod, &c. See the margin; or, as if the staff, &c. Should forget that it was wood, and should pretend, or attempt, to lift up itself Either without, or against the man that moveth it. As if it were no wood Literally translated, it is, As if the staff should lift up no wood; that is, should lift up man, who is very different from wood: as if the staff should lift the man instead of the man lifting the staff. In this way does the prophet refute the vain boasts of the Assyrian, and teach him, that, “in all his counsels, motions, and works, he was but the minister of the Divine Providence; incapable of doing any thing without the divine will and permission; and therefore his boasting was to be considered in no other light than as if the axe, or saw, or rod, should magnify themselves against him who handled them, and should ascribe to themselves that effect which was only caused by the mover.”