Yahweh quotes the king, showing his pride and boastfulness. Yahweh will punish this lack of humility. When Yahweh asks “shall the ax boast itself against him that heweth therewith?” he refers to Assyria as a tool. Just as the ax is the tool of the woodsman, so Assyria is only Yahweh’s tool and therefore has no right to boast. Likewise the image is of the rod (seen as a weapon) that cannot use itself or the staff that cannot raise itself up “as if it were no wood,” meaning that the staff, being an inanimate object, cannot act as though it were animate, with life and will of its own. These events occur because Yahweh is behind them.