Assyria's Downfall

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  1. Nahum 1-3

    Matan Al Haperek

    Rabbi David Sabato

    Sefer Nahum opens with a psalm of praise which focuses on the power of God to avenge His enemies. It begins with descriptions of the attribute of justice and of the disaster (2-3). In the continuation (4-14), the fall of Assyria is described. Three pesukim (7, 12 and 13) which describe the redemption of Israel are interspersed in the description of the fall.

    Perek 2: After the general description in perek 1, perek 2 is dedicated to a detailed description of the downfall of Assyria. The perek opens with the news of the victory and the salvation of Judah (1-3). The middle of the perek consists of a detailed description of the sights and sounds from the conquest of Nineveh (4-11). The last section describes the fall of Assyria using an image of the lion as the king of the beasts who is removed from his greatness (12-14).

    Perek 3: This perek tells of the sins of Nineveh which caused their downfall. In the beginning, Nahum presents the reader with rabidly changing images and sounds from the conquest of Nineveh (2-3). In pesukim 4-7 we have a new image of Nineveh as a harlot and in the continuation (8-10) the prophet compares the fate of Nineveh to the fate of No Amon which was recently destroyed. He continues to mock Nineveh and compares Assyria to a swarm of locusts (11-17). The perek ends with the world gloating over the defeat of the king of Assyria (18-19). 

  2. Sefer Melachim II: Archaeology

    Nachliel Selavan | 41 minutes

    Sefer Melachim II takes place in Iron Age II, a period of tremendous geopolitical upheaval and change in the region. It is an era called “the era of mass deportations” and one which can be termed “the Age of Empires”. The main shift is from regional kingdoms or city states, which are local, powerful players, to Empires, which are administrative innovations which enable a largest territorial dominion the world has ever seen. Beyond the power of Egypt, Assyria became the iron fist which terrorized and held together the Near East. 

    Assyria was responsible for the mass-deportations which destroyed nations and ethnicities, deliberately mixing them up to prevent future rebellions. Check out TED Ed video for elaboration: The rise and fall of the Assyrian Empire https://youtu.be/7pa54hWROpQ.

    The wrath of Assyria has destroyed the 10 Tribes - the entire Kingdom of Israel - which is now gone. 

    With the decline of Assyria who over-extended themselves, there is a power vacuum, in which King Yoshiyahu is able to gain some power, which he quickly loses when meddling with foreign affairs - attempting to block Pharaoh Necho II at Megiddo - on his way to the Battle of Carchemish (605 BCE). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Carchemish

    Babylon wins this battle, and is now the new world power. Babylon eventually destroys the Kingdom of Yehuda and exiles them to Babylon, in two shifts, leaving Gedaliyahu ben Ahikam as governor - who is hastily killed. But there is a relatively happy ending to this Exile, as we prosper in Babylon, and eventually return to rebuild the Temple.

     

    Archaeology Snapshot is a discussion on the location, timeline, main characters and highlights from history and archaeology, for each Sefer in Tanach.