Charles Ellicott Commentary Isaiah 10:13

"For he hath said, By the strength of my hand I have done it, and by my wisdom; for I have understanding: and I have removed the bounds of the peoples, and have robbed their treasures, and like a valiant man I have brought down them that sit [on thrones]:" — Isaiah 10:13 (ASV)

For he says, By the strength of my hand ... —Another reproduction of the style of the royal inscriptions of Assyria. (Compare to Isaiah 37:10-13.)

I have removed the bounds of the people. —This practice has, of course, more or less characterized the conquerors of all ages in their attempts to merge independent nationalities into one great empire, but it was pursued more systematically by Assyria than by most others. To be “a remover of boundaries and landmarks” was the title in which an Assyrian king most exulted. (Compare to the inscription of Rimmon-nirari, in Smith’s Assyrian Discoveries, pp. 243-244; Records of the Past, xi. 3).

I have put down the inhabitants like a valiant man. —A better rendering is, I have put down those that sat firmly.

The Hebrew word for “valiant man” means primarily a “bull,” and then figuratively, a “mighty one,” as seen in Isaiah 34:7 and Psalms 22:12.

The fact that the bull appears so frequently in Assyrian monuments as a symbol of sovereignty makes it probable that the word is used in that symbolic sense here. In Psalms 78:25, the “mighty ones” to whom it is applied are those of the host of heaven, the angels of God.