Browse the Bible a while, and you may encounter the Assyrians. A proud, nation-crushing people, who devoured Israel in 722 BC like an after-dinner mint. So who were the Assyrians? Where did they hail from? What were their cultural distinctives? And how did their civilization come to ruin?

Divine encouragement set against a backdrop of Hebrew despair, Exod 6:1-13 is a statement of God’s mercy. Countering the pervading disillusionment of Moses and the enslaved Israelites, God provided reassurance centred on his identity as Yahweh. He noted his nature as...