O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation.
O Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, and the staff in their hand is mine indignation - rather, 'What, ho х howy (H1945), God by this particle summoning the Assyrian to fulfill His will; but Maurer, Woe to the] Assyrian! He is the rod and staff of mine anger (my instrument in punishing, Jeremiah 51:20; Psalms 17:13) In their hands is mine indignation' (Horsley, after Jerome). But the English version accords better with the Hebrew accents, which disjoin "and the staff," etc., from "mine anger." For "and," the margin, 'though,' may be substituted. Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of mine anger, though the staff (the power to strike) in their hands is mine indignation - i:e., though I have put into the Assyrians' hands the execution of mine indignation against my people, yet they shall not escape unpunished, inasmuch as they execute the decrees of God, not for the glory of God, but for their own lust of conquest, and as they attribute the glory of their successes to their idols.