Midrasch zu Jeschijahu 9:3

“All this I have seen and taken to my heart, for every action that is performed beneath the sun, when man had authority over man, it was to his detriment” (Ecclesiastes 8:9).
“All this I have seen…when man had authority over man, it was to his detriment” – there are times when it is to the detriment of the ruler, and there are times when it is to the detriment of the ruled. Rabbi Elazar said: You have one incur liability by means of another only if he is a person of the same stature, as it is stated: “When man had authority [over man].”³¹The ruler persecutes another person, and is subsequently punished for his misdeeds. God arranges it such that the person he persecutes was himself deserving of punishment.
Rabbi Yonatan said: Even a rod and even a strap incur liability by means of that person, as it is stated: “For the yoke of its burden…like the day of Midian” (Isaiah 9:3); like the day of judgment [din].³²Although these are inanimate objects, if they are used to make a person suffer they will eventually be destroyed (Etz Yosef). Rabbi Ḥama bar Guryon said: , even non-fruit trees, are destined to give an account and a reckoning. The Rabbis derive it from this [verse]: “For is the tree of a field a man?” (Deuteronomy 20:19) – just as a man is destined to give an account and a reckoning, so too, non-fruit trees are destined to give an account and a reckoning.³³Although the simple reading of the verse is that this phrase is a rhetorical question, it can also be translated as a statement: “For the tree of a field is a man.” Thus, the midrash views the verse as alluding to a similarity between a tree and a man.