“Assyria
will fall by no human sword;
a sword, not of mortals, will devour them.
They will flee before the sword
and their young men will be put to forced labor.
Their stronghold will fall because of terror;
at the sight of the battle standard their commanders will panic,”
declares the Lord,
whose fire is in Zion,
whose furnace is in Jerusalem.” Isaiah 31:8-9
They will flee before the sword
and their young men will be put to forced labor.
Their stronghold will fall because of terror;
at the sight of the battle standard their commanders will panic,”
declares the Lord,
whose fire is in Zion,
whose furnace is in Jerusalem.” Isaiah 31:8-9
Assyria
was named after its original capitol city Assur, which would be in Northern
Iraq today. Later, Nineveh became its
capitol around 700 BC. Assyria grew in
power starting in 2600 BC and slowly grew to take over the area where, today,
you would find the modern nations of Iraq, Syria, Egypt, Lebanon, Israel,
Jordan, Kuwait, Bahrain, and Cyprus, together with large swathes of Iran, Saudi
Arabia, Turkey, Sudan, Libya, Armenia, Georgia and Azerbaijan. As Assyria rose, they contained Babylon who
tried to usurp Assyria’s power.
From 740 to 722 BC, Assyria eventually devastated the
northern kingdom of Israel, harassing Judah (the southern nation and its two
tribes) and its king Hezekiah (Isaiah 36) but never defeating it. Then, in the battle of Nineveh in 612 BC,
Babylon defeated Assyria and became the world power.
Isaiah
was written around 740 BC to 686 BC, predicting
Assyria’s defeat. During Isaiah’s time
nobody would ever believe Assyria could be destroyed because it rose to such incredible
power. Only God could know that.