Isaiah 31:9

"And his rock shall pass away by reason of terror, and his princes shall be dismayed at the ensign, saith Jehovah, whose fire is in Zion, and his furnace is in Jerusalem."

Cheyne was of the opinion that word "rock" as it appears here must mean "a person."[16] Banes seemed to be just as confident that it referred to certain fortifications by which Sennacherib had protected his line of March (and return) from Egypt, writing: "Perhaps the Assyrian monarch had many such places which he regarded as perfectly secure, both in the limits of his own kingdom, and on the line of march to Judaea."[17] Hailey preferred the view that "the rock" was the king of Assyria, or the pagan gods of Assyria.[18] We think it makes little or no difference what it was; the big point is that: whatever the Assyrians relied upon, it was of no avail whatever, when the lightning stroke of God's judgment fell upon them.

The reference to furnace and fire in the last part of Isaiah 31:9, "Suggests that any nation that dares attack Jerusalem will perish in the Lord's fiery furnace."[19]