Page 52 - Biblical Backgrounds student textbook

The economy of Assyria was based on a barter system. They did not have coinage, so items of value
were exchanged or traded, including gold or silver, copper, and bronze. Animals and grain were
exchanged for purchases. Most Assyrians were either farmers or in the military. Often, they would trade
with other countries, as desired the furniture and carved ivory of the Phoenicians.
The Assyrians and Israel
The Assyrians were a thorn in the side of Israel. Beginning in 733 BC under King Tilgath-pileser, Assyria
took the Northern Kingdom’s land and carried the inhabitants into exile (2 Kings 15:29). Later, beginning
in 721 BC, the Assyrian king Shalmaneser besieged Israel’s capital, Samaria, and it fell three years later (2
Kings 18:9-12). This event fulfilled Isaiah’s prophecy that God would use Assyria as the “rod of His anger”
(Isaiah 10:5-19); that is, the Assyrian Empire was implementing God’s judgment against the idolatrous
Israelites. The sovereign God takes full credit as the source of Assyria’s authority (compare Isaiah
7:18; 8:7; 9:11; and Daniel 4:17). Secular history records that in 703 BC Assyria under King
Sennacherib suppressed a major Chaldean challenge.

Given the Assyrian threat against Israel, it is understandable that the prophet Jonah did not want to
travel to Nineveh (Jonah 1:1-3). When he eventually arrived in the Assyrian capital, Jonah preached
God’s impending judgment. After hearing Jonah’s message, the king of Assyria and the entire city of
Nineveh repented, and God turned His anger away for a time (Jonah 3:10). The grace of God was
extended even to the Assyrians.

The military rulers, as in many other nations, could be a brutal breed. They ruled their empire and
subdued nations with absolute terror. Here is a quote from an ancient writing from an Assyrian military
officer:
“I destroyed, I demolished, I burned. I took their warriors prisoner and impaled them on stakes
before their cities. I flayed the nobles, as many as had rebelled, and spread their skins out on the
piles [of dead corpses]. Many of the captives I burned in a fire. Many I took alive; from some I cut
off their hands to the write, from other I cut off their noses, ears and fingers; I put out the eyes of
many of the soldiers."
I slew two hundred and sixty fighting men; I cut off their heads and made pyramids thereof. I slew
one of every two. I built a wall before the great gates of the city; I flayed the chief men of the rebels,
and I covered the wall with their skins. Some of them were enclosed alive in the bricks of the wall,
some of them were crucified on stakes along the wall; I caused a great multitude of them to be
flayed in my presence, and I covered the wall with their skins. I gathered together the heads in the
form of crowns, and their pierced bodies in the form of garlands."
(Time Frame 1500-600 BC by Time-Life Books) Assyrian War Bulletin (1000 BCE)
(http://www.public.iastate.edu/~cfford/342worldhistoryearly.html)
God used the pagan Assyrians to bring a horrendous judgment to Northern Israel. Many of the Minor
Prophets foretold of the impending doom to come to Israel because they refused to submit their lives to
Yahweh and willfully defied His commandments. They also predicted judgment which would come to
Assyria because their wickedness.

The prophet Nahum predicted Nineveh's destruction by the Babylonians and Medes which came in 612
BC, and the famous city was never rebuilt. In the New Testament Jesus commended the inhabitants of
Nineveh for repenting at the preaching of Jonah, while condemning the Jewish leaders for resisting His
own message.

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