And they shall waste the land of Assyria with the sword, and the land of Nimrod in the entrances thereof: thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land, and when he treadeth within our borders.
And they shall waste - literally, eat up: following up the metaphor of shepherds (cf. Numbers 22:4, "Now shall this company lick up all that are round about us, as the ox licketh up the grass of the field;" Jeremiah 6:3).
And the land of Nimrod - Babylon (Micah 4:10; Genesis 10:10); or including Assyria also, to which he extended his borders (Genesis 10:11).
In the entrances thereof - the passes into Assyria (2 Kings 3:21, "in the borders"). The margin and Jerome, misled by a needless attention to the parallelism "with the sword," translate [biptaacheyhaa], 'with her own naked swords;' as in Psalms 55:21 the Hebrew is translated, "drawn swords:" but "in the entrances" of Assyria answers to "within our borders;" moreover, the Hebrew here is masculine, whereas the Hebrew for sword х chereb (H2719)] is feminine. As the Assyrians invade our borders, so shall their own borders or "entrances" be invaded.
Thus shall he deliver us from the Assyrian, when he cometh into our land - `He ... he:" Messiah shall deliver us when the Assyrian shall come.