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This oracle is a testimony to the certainty of Yahweh’s plan. He swears it; it will be done. Assyria will be destroyed. Numerous themes from ch. 10 are restated here: V.25a—“I will crush the Assyrian in my land; on my mountains I will trample him down”—is reminiscent of the invasion up to the very gate of Jerusalem in 10:29-32. The references to the removal of the yoke and burden in v.25b alludes to 10:27. And of course the outstretched hand that cannot be turned back finds its antecedent in the refrain: “Yet for all this, his anger is not turned away, his hand is still upraised” (10:4; also 9:12, 17, 21). While the historical situation of this oracle is uncertain, it may well refer to the miraculous defeat of the Assyrian Sennacherib in 701 b.c.