I will kindle a fire. — The change of person is full of significance. Jehovah Himself kindles the fire which is to destroy the temples of the gods of Egypt, and the Chaldæan king is but His instrument.
As a shepherd putteth on his garment. — The words may point simply to the easiness of the conquest. To take possession of the whole country will be as quick and light a matter as when the shepherd takes up his garment at night and wraps it round him. Possibly (as Hitzig suggests) there may be a reference to the fact that when the shepherd so wraps himself he turns the fleecy coat which he wears inside out (the “pellibus inversis” of Juvenal, Sat. xiv. 136). So, the prophet may suggest, shall the conqueror turn the whole land upside down. (Comp. 2 Kings 21:13).