Because thy rage against me, and thy tumult is come up into
mine ears
. The rage which Sennacherib expressed both by Rabshakeh, and in his letter against Hezekiah and his people, is taken by the Lord as against himself; so great was his care of them, and concern for them; and indeed there was a great deal of blasphemy belched out against himself; and so the Syriac version renders the next word, translated "tumult", "thy blasphemy"; though that may rather intend the blustering noise that Rabshakeh made, or the noise of the Assyrian army, the chariots and horsemen, and the multitude of the soldiers, which was not only heard by the Jews, and was terrible to them, but was taken notice of by the Lord, who had it in derision; hence he adds: therefore will I put my hook in thy nose, and my bridle in thy lips;
comparing Sennacherib to leviathan, or the great whale, or to some very large and unruly fish, not easily caught and managed; see ( Job 41:1 ) ( Ezekiel 29:3 Ezekiel 29:4 ) , or to a bear, or buffalo, in whose noses men put iron rings, and lead them about at pleasure; and also to a horse or mule, which are managed by the bit and bridle; signifying hereby the strength, fierceness, and fury of the Assyrian monarch, and the power of God to restrain him, which he could easily do: and I will turn thee back by the way by which thou camest;
from Jerusalem, the same way he came to it, to his own land again, and so he did, ( Isaiah 37:37 ) .