An Empire Falls: Assyria Weakens
and is Overrun
Assyria weakened itself economically by continuous wars to
maintain its empire, including defending against invasions… The
Assyrians spent themselves expanding into Egypt and in quelling
the rebellions of Egyptian princes. Assyria was burdened by the
expense of maintaining its army. Soldiers had to be paid. Massive
numbers of horses had to be cared for and fed. Siege engines had to
be moved against rebellious cities.
Figure 1: Engraving on onyx of
Nebuchadnezzar II.
Egypt was able to break away from Assyrian rule. The Assyrians
were then weakened by conflicts over succession, by coups and civil
war. During these conflicts, cities in Canaan broke away from Assyrian control and Phoenicia began
ignoring Assyrian directives. Other petty kingdoms joined the rebellion against Assyria, and in 623 the
well-led Chaldean army drove north from around Sumer and expelled the Assyrians from Babylon.
With the independence of Egypt and Babylon, and a weakened Assyria, the new king of Judah, Josiah -the grandson of Manasseh -- declared Judah independent. The hereditary Yahweh priesthood, which had
suffered a loss of status during Assyrian domination, seized independence as an opportunity to advance its
cause.
The Assyrians Wiped Out, the Medes and Chaldeans Expand
Between Mesopotamia and the Caspian Sea, tribes of an Indo-European people called Medes had become
united under a single king... [The Median King] allied his army with the Chaldeans, who were now in
control of Babylon and Sumer. The Medes and Chaldeans attacked, and together they defeated the
Assyrians, overrunning Assyria's capital, Nineveh, in 612. Nineveh's walls were broken by the siege
engines that Assyria had introduced centuries before. A community that had existed for more than two
thousand years was obliterated. Those who escaped from Nineveh took refuge in Haran, and they fought
on, but they were defeated in 609. Such a terrible revenge was taken on the Assyrians that two hundred
years later the area was still sparsely populated. And the Assyrian empire was forgotten.
The Chaldeans Overrun Judah
The Hebrews continued to suffer the misfortune of living on a bridge of land between great, imperial
powers. The Chaldeans, under King Nebuchadnezzar II, saw Egypt as a rival to be reckoned with. Their
army went against the Egyptians in Syria. They drove the Egyptians back to Egypt, and while doing so
they conquered Judah. In 587, eleven years later, the people of Jerusalem rebelled against Chaldean rule,
and the Chaldeans responded by burning Jerusalem and tearing down its walls. Only remnants of the
temple that Solomon built remained, never to be rebuilt. The Chaldeans rounded up about forty thousand
from Judah as captives, including political leaders and high priests, and took them to their capital,
Babylon.
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