This is a remarkable statement to come from an Assyrian. Had he heard of the messages of Isaiah in which he prophesied that the Lord would use Assyria to bring judgments upon Israel and Judah (see Isa. 7:17-24; 10:5-12)? Whatever the case, he sought to create the impression that resistance against Assyria was useless, that he had been given a divine commission to bring about the destruction of Judah and that the doom of the southern kingdom was inevitable.