Who were the Assyrians?

by Matt Wright | 19 May 2022 | Assyrians, Featured Articles, Old Testament

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?

Assyrian artwork from the Nimrud palace, depicting archers behind a protective shield (c. 728 BC).

Historical Overview

Assyria emerged as a unified kingdom in the 14th century BC, around the time that Abraham migrated to Canaan (Gen 12). The Assyrian heartland was a slice of real estate centred on Ashur (in modern Iraq). This small dominion, however, did not satisfy Assyrian royals.

The remains of Ashur in the 1930s, including a ziggurat (stepped temple structure) in the central background.

Under a succession of kings (starting with Ashur-uballit I in 1363-1328), Assyria exploded outward and defeated many neighbouring states. Arameans, Babylonians, Hittites and Hurrians each fell in clashes with Assyria. Nevertheless, Assyria could not maintain a stranglehold on the region. By the time David and Solomon reigned in Israel (c. 1010-930 BC), Assyria had lost much of its power and influence. The Assyrians were pressed back toward their heartland, and the Israelites pushed northward to the Euphrates River.

It was in 934 BC (likely after Solomon became idolatrous; see 1 Kings 11) that Assyria began to revive. Ashur-Dan II claimed the Assyrian throne, and proceeded to rebuild the nation’s military and economy. By the time that Pul (Tiglath-pileser III) became king in 744 BC, Assyria was ready to dominate the Near East. Pul and his successors brutally conquered multiple states (including Israel’s Northern Kingdom) in a far-reaching series of military campaigns.

At its peak, Assyria ruled most of the Fertile Crescent between the Persian Gulf and Egypt.

Subdued by Assyria in 722 BC, the northern Israelites were deported as far as Halah, Gozan, and the territory of the Medes (2 Kings 17:6). Such widespread dispersions were standard Assyrian practice. They aimed to disconnect conquered peoples from their land and transform them more or less into Assyrians.

Judah’s Struggle with Assyria

With the Northern Kingdom of Israel obliterated, Assyria was suddenly at Judah’s doorstep. In 701 BC, King Sennacherib of Assyria invaded. His army tore through Judah (likely after Judah’s King Hezekiah stopped paying him tribute; see 2 Kings 18:14). According to Sennacharib’s own records, 46 of Judah’s walled cities were overwhelmed:

As for Hezekiah the Judahite, who did not submit to my yoke: forty-six of his strong, walled cities, as well as the small towns in their area, which were without number, [I defeated] by levelling with battering-rams and by bringing up siege-engines, and by attacking and storming on foot, by mines, tunnels, and breeches … 200,150 people, great and small, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, cattle and sheep without number, I brought away from them and counted as spoil.

Description of the invasion from Sennacharib’s Prism

One of the best-documented battles took place at Lachish. The city of Lachish, located in the Judean foothills guarding a major route to Jerusalem, was the second most important metropolis in Judah. It was not an easy city to conquer. Perched on a hill, surrounded by two layers of thick walls and a large, six-chambered gate, Lachish was well placed to repel enemy attacks.

A depiction of Lachish, Judah’s second most important city. (Image: Wellcome Library, London / Wellcome Images, CC BY 4.0.)

However, the Assyrians were patient and ruthless in siege warfare. Rather than attack the well-fortified gate structure, they gradually built a siege ramp up to a weaker part of the wall. This siege ramp – a conglomerate of stones brought in by hand – can still be seen at Lachish today.

The Assyrian siege ramp at Lachish. (Photo by Wilson44691, CC BY-SA 3.0.)

After the ramp was formed, Assyrian siege equipment was pushed up it and unleashed on the city wall. Lachish’s defenders could do little more than watch and fire arrows. Inevitably, the city fell.

Sennacherib was so proud of this victory that great reliefs were commissioned to adorn his palace walls in Nineveh. These reliefs depict the Assyrian army as a relentless, and quite unstoppable, war machine (an image the king would have enjoyed reflecting on). The people of Lachish, meanwhile, are shown in various states, from frantically firing arrows, to being impaled, to walking out of the city ready for deportation.

A depiction of the battle at Lachish, from Sennacherib’s Nineveh palace. (Photo: Mike Peel, CC BY-SA 4.0.)

Once Sennacherib’s army had subdued Lachish, he turned his attention to Jerusalem. King Hezekiah had already prepared the city for a long siege, building an underground tunnel to bring water from a safe location into Jerusalem. This tunnel was an engineering marvel for its time, excavated by hand tools from both ends, winding for a considerable distance, and then meeting in the middle. Hezekiah’s tunnel can still be walked through to this day.

Hezekiah’s tunnel. (Photo: Ian Scott, CC BY-SA 2.0, cropped.)

Hezekiah’s tunnel could help the city withstand a protracted siege. However, neither party would have enjoyed the prospect of a long siege. Sennacherib, on his part, tried fear tactics early on. He sent boastful messengers to the city wall, attempting to discourage the residents, and perhaps prompt them to surrender:

Hear the words of the great king, the king of Assyria! [Which gods] have been able to save their lands from me?

Isaiah 36:13, 20 NIV

Rather than surrender, however, Hezekiah cried out for God’s help (Isa 37:14-20). Yahweh responded by decimating the Assyrian army in the night (v. 36). Sennacherib and the remainder of his men fell back to Assyria.

The Decline and Fall of the Empire

Sennacherib was assassinated after his return home (fulfilling the prophecy of Isaiah; see 2 Kings 19:7, 37). Nonetheless, Assyria remained a powerful force for about 70 more years. It was after the death of King Ashurbanipal (627 BC) that the empire finally began to crumble. Judah (which had been subject to Assyria) broke free under King Josiah, while Babylon, led by Nebopolasser, also shook off the Assyrian yoke.

It was the independent Babylonians who proved to be Assyria’s final undoing. With Median assistance, Babylon conquered the once-mighty city of Nineveh in 612 BC, before crushing the last pocket of Assyrian resistance in 605 BC.

Assyrian Culture

As might be expected, war held a significant place in Assyrian culture. Every man in the empire was viewed as a potential warrior, and Assyrian kings were remembered by their people as good or bad based on their military success. Even sport in Assyria was military-focussed: archery, javelin-throwing, and hunting were all popular.

Libraries were another key ingredient in Assyrian culture. The expansion of library collections was seen as a core responsibility of the king, and there was even a god of libraries in the Assyrian pantheon (Nabu). Most cities in Assyria had their own library, brimming with scholarly works and literary pieces.

Overall then, the Assyrians could be considered a study in contrasts. On the one hand, they were a warlike and brutal society, a havoc-wreaking instrument of God’s judgement (Isa 37:26). However, they were also a cultured people who appreciated literature. Without doubt, Assyria was a complex civilisation that left its stamp on history.

References and Further Reading:

Lowery, Daniel DeWitt. “Assyria,” in The Lexham Bible Dictionary. Edited by John D. Barry. Bellingham: Lexham Press, 2016.

Smith, Gary V. “The Assyrians.” Pages 15-20 in Baker Illustrated Bible Background Commentary. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2020.