Because you have raged against me and your arrogance has reached my ears, I will put my hook in your nose and my bridle in your mouth; I will turn you back on the way by which you came.' — the oracle promises divine judgment through humiliation: the LORD will put a 'hook in your nose and bridle in your mouth'—language of animal control, reducing the great king to a beast led by divine will. The promise to 'turn you back on the way by which you came' indicates forced return to Assyria. The oracle thus promises not Sennacherib's death in battle but his humiliating subjugation to divine control and forced retreat.

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