“they will take you away with hooks, and the last of you with fish hooks.” This sounds like a metaphor or hyperbole, but it is historically accurate. The Assyrians were very cruel people, and the Assyrian monuments show the Assyrians leading strings of captives from Israel. Each captive had a hook or fishhook through their lips or tongue, and the hook was attached to a cord which then went to the next captive and so on, such that there were lines of captives being lead along on a line with hooks.