After Israel’s exile, there was a scare also for Judah with the Assyrians’ intent to humble the southern kingdom (the invasion in 701 b.c.). Finally, after administering justice to Jerusalem, insolent Assyria would also be punished. The Assyrian Empire, which had plucked unprotected eggs out of the nest of nations, had altered the borders of the nations more than any previous empire. And Judah could hardly make a peep or do anything about it.
“I Will Punish the Fruit of the Stout Heart of the King of Assyria”
Doom is pronounced.Note the irony that Israel’s mortal enemy, Assyria, is being used to punish her. Just as the Lord used Lamanites as a scourge against the Nephites to humble them, get them to repent, and keep them in remembrance of him, so he would use the Egyptians, then the Assyrians, then the Babylonians (the Lord even called Nebuchadnezzar “my servant”; Jeremiah 27:6), and later the Romans and others to scourge his people for the same reasons in the Old World. Assyria would punish unfaithful Israel, but Assyria would also be punished. “Behold, the judgments of God will overtake the wicked; and it is by the wicked that the wicked are punished” (Mormon 4:5).