Ezekiel 23:9

Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians, upon whom she doted.

Wherefore I have delivered her into the hand of her lovers, into the hand of the Assyrians. God, in righteous retribution, turned their objects of trust into the instruments of their punishment-Pul, Tiglath-pileser, Esarhaddon, and Shalmaneser (; ; ; ; ; ; ). 'It was their sin to have sought after such lovers, and it was to be their punishment that these lovers should become their destroyers' (Fairbairn).