Hast thou not heard long ago [how] I have done it, [and] of ancient times that I have formed it? now have I brought it to pass, that thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities [into] ruinous heaps.
Ver. 25. Hast thou not heard?] Here God himself taketh Sennacherib in hand, and schooleth him concerning the divine providence and decree whereby he was now sent against a "hypocritical nation, a people of God's wrath, to take the spoil," &c. "Howbeit he meant not so, neither did his heart think so; but it was in his heart to destroy and cut off nations not a few." Isa 10:6-7
That thou shouldest be to lay waste fenced cities.] This is all done by my determinate counsel, ordering the world's disorders to mine own glory, and the good of my people. Tamerlane was wont to say, Ira De; ego sum, et orbis vastitas. Attilas called himself Metum mundi et flagellum Dei. Sennacherib was God's scourge, and the sword in his hand. Isa 10:5