The Kings of Assyria

The Tigris and Euphrates rivers run roughly parallel to each other for over a thousand miles, southeast into the Persian Gulf. The land between the rivers is called Mesopotamia (Greek for "between the rivers") and has been the home of high level civilizations for 5000 years. It was out of one of these kingdoms that Abram left Ur and wandered east into Canaan (Genesis 11:27-31.) Around 900 BC one of the world's first empires, the Neo-Assyrian Empire, consolidated power in northern Mesopotamia. Some of the first historical details about Israel and Judah, external to the Bible, come from records of the Neo-Assyrian empire. 

Just after Solomon's kingdom had finished dividing in two, Adad-nirari II expanded Assyrian control to the north and west and is viewed as the first of the Neo-Assyrian kings. Around 850 BC, the domain of Shalmaneser III extended into Aram-Damascas and brought him into conflict with the notorious King Ahab of Israel, husband of Jezebel. Both the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser and the Kurkh Monoliths boast of Shalmaneser's power over the dynasty of Omri in Israel.  

For a century the dark storm clouds of Assyria hung off to the northwest of Israel. The empire was always a potential threat to Israel (for example, the book of Jonah describes a prophetic visit to Nineveh, a major city of Assyria) and the empire was available (said the prophets) as a punishment for the idolatry of Israel and Judah.

In 745 BC, Tiglath-Pileser III grabbed the throne and quickly moved east to consolidate territories and north to develop control of regions along the Silk Road. Beginning in 743, Tiglath-Pileser moved west and for the next decade focused on controlling the Levant, all the way to the Mediterranean Sea. (A map of his empire is here.) In 733 he took control of Israel and apparently made Ahaz of Judah pay tribute. At that point he turned his attention back to his southeast. In 729 BC he conquered Babylon and so, for a time, the Assyrian and Babylonian empires were one.

Tiglath-Pileser's son Shalmaneser V only reigned for about five years but is most likely the one who completed the destruction of the northern kingdom, removing most of the people from the land in 722 BC. Shalmaneser was succeeded by Sargon II, who gained the throne in a palace coup. Sargon extended the domination over Babylon before being killed in battle to the far north in Anatolia.

Sargon's son, Sennacherib, moved the Assyrian capital to Nineveh. Around 700 BC, Sennacherib began a western campaign that conquered much of Canaan and invaded Judah. The Assyrian army, during the reign of Hezekiah of Judah attacked Lachish to the west of Jerusalem and eventually conquered it in a siege. The Assyrian army then camped out around Jerusalem. That conflict is described in 2 Kings 18-19 and 2 Chronicles 32. The Asyrian annals record Hezekiah paying tribute to Sennacherib but Jerusalem is not conquered. In 681 BC, Sennacherib is murdered by one of his sons in a temple in Nineveh.

After the murder of Sennacherib, another son, Esarhaddon, took control of the kingdom and the murdered fled. Esarhaddon led the Assyrian Empire to its greatest height, even conquering Egypt in 671 BC. But after Esarhaddon, the power of the Assyrian Empire began to wane and there were increasingly common conflicts with its vassal state of Babylonia and the kingdom of Media. (The prophet Nahum describes the coming destruction of Assyria; see Nahum 1-3.) 

We will look at the downfall of Assyria in  another post.

The growth of the Neo-Assyrian Empire spread the Aramaic language throughout the Ancient Near East (ANE.) Aramaic was most likely the common language of the Jews after the Babylonian exile.

For a list of Assyrian kings, see this Wikipedia page.