The king of Assyria was given a specific charge from the Lord—‘to take the spoil’ (of Israel) and ‘to take the prey’ (prisoners), ’and to tread them down like the mire of the streets.’ In this venture, the king of Assyria was acting as a tool in the Lord’s hand. It was not the Lord’s doing to have him destroy all the other neighboring nations. The phrase, ’he meaneth not so, neither doth his heart think so’, means that the will of the king of Assyria was not the same as the will of his Maker. Sennacherib did not understand that the Lord had planned for him to capture only Israel. Instead, his plan was to conquer as many people as he could, ’nations not a few,’ and to destroy them completely. He even falsely assumed that the Lord had sent him to destroy the kingdom of Judah, ’The Lord said to me, Go up against this land, and destroy it’ (2 Kings 18:25).