Sennacherib’s army had taken stronger cities than Jerusalem. He had no reason to think he would not be successful as he approached the city. So when he arrives just north of the city, he shakes ‘his hand against’ Jerusalem. But Isaiah had a message for this boastful ax and shaking rod:
’This is the word that the Lord hath spoken concerning him; the virgin the daughter of Zion hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.
Whom hast thou reproached and blasphemed? And against whom hast thou exalted thy voice, and lifted up thine eyes on high? even against the Holy One of Israel.
…therefore I will put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips, and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest…
Therefore thus saith the Lord concerning the king of Assyria, He shall not come into this city, nor shoot an arrow there, nor come before it with shield, nor cast a bank against it. By the way that he came, by the same shall he return.’ (2 Kgs. 19:21-33)