Isaiah 10:5

O Assyrian Ho Asshur, the name both of the people and its national god. The god being little more than the personified genius of the nation, we might almost venture to suppose that he is here directly addressed and is the speaker in Isaiah 10:8 ff. But the word is never used of the god in the O.T.

the rod of mine anger the instrument with which Jehovah chastises the nations, cf. Jeremiah 51:20.

and the staff … indignation lit. "and a staff, it is in their hand, my indignation," an absolutely refractory clause. Driver (Tenses§ 201, 1, Obs.) translates "and a staff is it in their hand, [viz.] mine indignation." But to say in one line that Assyria is the rod of Jehovah's anger and in the next that His indignation is a staff in theirhand is awkward in the extreme. Better a "flat tautology" than that, although the objection is meaningless as applied to a synonymous parallelism. It is best to omit the words "it is in their hand" as a gloss and render and the staff of mine indignation.