The footnote of Isaiah 10:5 renders this verse in parallel form:
Assyria is the rod of my anger,
and my wrath is a staff in their hand.
The description in Isaiah 1:2–3 portrays Judah as a disobedient child; here the parent (the Lord) punishes the child with a whipping, and Assyria is the stick he uses. 56
“To take the spoil, and to take the prey” is related to the symbolic name Isaiah and his wife gave their son, Maher-shalal-hash-baz (2 Nephi 18:1–3). Assyrians did conquer and plunder Israel, but Assyria did not see itself as an instrument in God’s hands; it boasted in its own power to overthrow many nations.