I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen; he shall surely deal with him: I have driven him out for his wickedness.
I have therefore delivered him into the hand of the mighty one of the heathen. Here the literal supersedes the figurative.
He shall surely deal with him - according to his own pleasure, and according to the Assyrian's desert. The last Assyrian king has been ascertained by the inscriptions to have been 'Asshur-ebid-ilut,' the second in succession from Sennacherib's son, Esar-haddon, who planted the settlement in Samaria from Babylon, Cuthah, Ava, Hamath, and Sepharvaim (2 Kings 17:24). His father, Asshur-bani-pal, or Sardanapalus III, probably lost his life in defending Nineveh from the attack of the Scythians, 634 BC. Asshur-ebid-ilut was the builder of the southeast palace of Nimroud. The final destruction of Nineveh was by the Medo-Babylonian army under Cyaxares and Nabopolassar (G.V. Smith); to either of these the expression refers, "the mighty one of the pagan." Before this, Sardanapalus had been driven to destroy himself, his wives, and his treasures in one vast funeral pile kindled by his own hand; and Arbaces the Mede, and Belesis a Babylonian priest, took Nineveh, 877 BC, (Ctesias). The destroyer of Nineveh is called "The mighty one" ( 'eeyl (H410), a name of God), because he was God's representative and instrument of judgment (as Nebuchadnezzar subsequently was, Daniel 2:37-38).