While Assyria may be only the tool of the Lord, they do not understand that it is the Lord's purpose behind them. The personified country, "he," understands only his own motives, which are to conquer nations and territories.
Historical Information: "By 732 B.C., as a result of this rebellion against the Assyrians, Israel was smashed to the ground, decimated by deportation, and beaten back into the southern corner of her kingdom. With the exception of Samaria, all her major cities were annexed by Assyria, and the countryside was divided into provinces over which Assyrian governors and officials exercised strict control.
The Assyrians controlled the whole of the Fertile Crescent from the Persian mountains to Asia Minor, and from the Mesopotamian plain through Lebanon to Palestine. Only Judah and a few other states remained independent, although they had to pay tribute or risk conquest. Samaria retained only a few square miles of farmland, and even though she was reduced to barely a city with her surrounding mountains and valleys." (Ludlow, 1982, p. 158-9.)