Because thy rage against me and thy tumult is come up into mine ears, therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest.
I will put my hook in thy nose - or I have put, etc. People in the East lead their large and turbulent beasts by a bridle fastened to a ring, which is put through the cartilage of the animal's nose (Job 41:1-2). The Assyrians often strung a number of war-captives in that way, with their hands bound behind them, and rings fastened in their nostrils (cf. Ezekiel 19:4; Ezekiel 19:9; Ezekiel 29:3-4) (Rawlinson, 'On the Cuneiform Inscriptions,' p. 76). Sometimes the ring was passed through the lip ('Nineveh and its Remains,' 2:, 376).