Judah had relied upon Assyria (see 2 Chronicles 28:16), yet Assyria was going to strike her down. Part of the tragedy of the human condition is that we have a terrible tendency to rely on those who will hurt us. Nations make alliances with those who will overrun them, women have relationships with men who will abuse them (and vice versa in some cases). We trust in financial institutions that will exploit us. The One we should rely upon is the Lord, and Him alone.
Everything God does is geared towards teaching us to trust in Him. Many Israelites would die, but a remnant would return and trust in Him.
God then instructs the people not to fear the Assyrians. Remember earlier that God had told Isaiah (chapter 8) not to "fear what they fear". Isaiah needed to have this himself before he could teach the people not to fear Assyria. The disaster would end when the Lord's anger came to an end. We need to remind ourselves here that the anger spoken of here is not uncontrolled rage, but God's righteous judgment upon Israel's sin.
Assyria would seem to be on the verge of victory, having conquered much of the land. She would seem to be a mighty nation, but then she would be defeated. We will read of this later in chapters 36-39.
If we want to truly understand a situation we need to look to the Lord, if we want to find a way through a situation we need to trust in Him.
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