The previous verses applied also to the evil empire Babylon. Now the scene changes back to her infamous predecessor. In the year 701 b.c., Assyria attacked Judah and succumbed to catastrophe by the hand of the Lord himself (Isaiah 36–37). Isaiah’s vision of historical events is like the panoramic vision of John the Revelator in that both move back and forth through periods without too much concern for strict chronology.
The alternate parallelisms of verses 26–27 attest that God’s punishing hand will inevitably fall on Assyria and on all other rebellious nations.