Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.
Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians. God, in righteous retribution, turned their objects of trust into the instruments of their punishment-Pul, Tiglath-pileser, Esarhaddon, and Shalmaneser (2 Kings 15:19; 2 Kings 15:29; 2 Kings 17:3; 2 Kings 17:6; 2 Kings 17:24; Ezra 4:2; Ezra 4:10). 'It was their sin to have sought after such lovers, and it was to be their punishment that these lovers should become their destroyers' (Fairbairn).