The Assyrians through Israel and Judah to Egypt

Populations had been growing in the Middle East to the 700s. Assyria's trade had expanded, and trade and the spoils of war had brought to Assyria more wealth than any other state. Its cities had become large, metropolitan centers. The Assyrians, however, remained as religious as other people, believing like others that disasters were caused by displeasing the gods. Assyrian women were veiled -- except for prostitutes, slave-women and unmarried priestesses, whom the law forbade to wear veils in public. Abortion was considered immoral and a crime against the state. A woman who willfully caused a miscarriage was impaled on a stake and left unburied. "Unnatural" sexual acts were forbidden and severely punished.

Returning to the Old Testament story, in 746 BCE, Jeroboam II of Israel died. His son and successor, Zechariah, ruled Israel for six months. Zechariah was assassinated and then Israel weakened itself with civil war, and this weakness made expanding southward more attractive for Assyria.

In 745, a military coup in Assyria brought to power a general who made himself king and called himself Tiglath-Pileser III. He decided to expand the realm of Assyria's god, Assur, and to win for himself more wealth. He created a new, permanent army, largely of well-trained and disciplined mercenaries -- an army unmatched in West Asia and North Africa. Tiglath-Pileser's army had iron weapons, siege machines that could break down city walls, and they had archers on horseback who could move fast in hilly terrain.

Tiglath-Pileser defeated tribes that had been menacing the Assyrians and other civilized communities. Waging total war, he extended Assyrian rule across Syria, expelling the Urartians and conquering Syria's Aramaean city-states, including King Ahab's old ally, Damascus. He destroyed cities, robbed and often deported whole populations, resettling them elsewhere in order to disunite them and put an end to their consciousness as a nation.

The Assyrians Overrun Israel

Remoteness from others was a blessing that had been denied the Israelites. In 733, Tiglath-Pileser's army conquered Gilead and Galilee. Bending to the realities of power, Israel recognized Assyria's domination and paid Assyria tribute. Assyria replaced the king of Israel with someone of their choosing: Hoshea. Then Hoshea rebelled against paying tribute to Assyria. Hoshea sent messengers to Egypt, hoping to win an alliance with Egypt. The worried kings of Tyre and Sidon also sought an alliance with Egypt. But before Hoshea could create any meaningful alliance, Assyria attacked.

Some Israelites fled before the invaders. For three years the Assyrians besieged Israel's capital, Samaria. In 721, Assyria -- under a new king -- conquered Samaria. Then Assyria conquered the whole of Israel. To keep the conquered from regaining power, and, as the Assyrians had done with other nations they had conquered, they deported and dispersed large numbers of people. The Assyrians took 27,000 Israelis away as slaves. Israel as a nation vanished.

Meanwhile, according to the archeologist Finkelstein, a "torrent of refugees" from Israel expanded Judah's population. Judah was now to be overrun by the Assyrians and to become an Assyrian vassal. It would be then, according to Finkelstein that "Judah emerges as a full blown, bureaucratic state." [note]

Israel Finkelstein and Neil Silberman,
David and Solomon, p. 27.

The Assyrians Overrun Judah and Egypt

According to the Old Testament, another Hebrew prophet who addressed the issue of Assyrian aggression was Isaiah -- a nobleman from Jerusalem. Isaiah joined the prophet Hosea in opposing alliances. He saw wisdom in pacifism rather than relying on arms. He believed that what mattered above all else was devotion to Yahweh. Like Hosea, Isaiah saw the Assyrians, in their drive through Israel, as the agents of Yahweh.

But the king of the Assyrians pushed his army beyond Israel and into Judah. The Assyrians laid waste to Judah's countryside and gathered before the walls of Jerusalem. They threatened to destroy Jerusalem unless the city paid a ransom. The city paid, and Jerusalem was spared.

According to Isaiah, the Assyrians as agents of Yahweh had suddenly come to an end. Isaiah quoted Yahweh as saying "I will save Jerusalem for my own sake and for my servant David's sake" (Isaiah 37:35). According to the Second Book of Kings, 19:36, Yahweh intervened against the Assyrians, sending an angel during the night into their camp and slaying 185,000 Assyrian soldiers in their sleep.

The impact of such a loss would have reversed Assyrian gains, but no description of events in Assyrian writings compatible with such an event has been found. And rather than suffering a reversal, the Assyrians were able to continue their rule over Judah. The great Assyrian army continued its victorious march southward. They occupied Egypt in 676, introducing iron to the region, and a few years later they sacked the city of Thebes. A weakened Egypt, meanwhile, had been invaded by Nubia. A Nubian had become pharaoh. The Assyrians defeated the Nubian pharaoh, and the Nubians withdrew to their homeland.

By 640 BCE, Assyria had extended its rule south along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers to the Persian Gulf, and they had extended their empire northeast into mountainous territory and south into Arabia. Assyria had created a great empire: all of Mesopotamia, Egypt, Cyprus, Syria and west of Kanesh in Asia Minor. They believed that they were enjoying the blessings of their great god, Assur.