Assyria, in her unrealistic pride, boasted, in the person of her king, that her princes were the equivalent of kings, so great was their authority. She assumed that the cities of Judah were the same as the cities of other nations, namely, without Yahweh"s special concern and protection. She mistakenly thought that Judah"s God was just another god (cf. 2 Kings 18:33-35). Therefore she planned to do to Judah and Jerusalem just as she had done to other nations and their great cities. In each of the three pairs of cities listed ( Isaiah 10:9), the first is farther southwest than the second. The prophet portrayed the Assyrian king as thinking: "I took this one that is closer to me, so I can take that other one that is farther from me."[source]