Assur was not only supreme over the other gods, he was also, in fact, unlike them, without father or wife. Cotton is mentioned by Sennacherib (King, PSBA, December, 1909). After his death the Assyrian power declined; Pitru (Pethor, Numbers 22:5) fell into the hands of the Arameans and the road to the Mediterranean was blocked. Genesis 25:18And they dwelt from Havilah unto Shur, that is before Egypt, as thou goest toward Assyria: and he died in the presence of all his brethren. 10. The king, in fact, was the commander of an army, and this army was the Assyrian people. Originally, it is true, his feminine counterpart, Asirtu, the In 738 BC Tiglath-pileser put an end to the independent existence of the kingdom of Hamath, Menahem of Samaria becoming his tributary, and in 733 BC he commenced a campaign against Rezin of Damascus which ended in the fall of Damascus, the city being placed under an Assyrian governor. The earliest known to us are Auspia and Kikia, who bear Mitannian names. The great palace at Kouyunjik (Nineveh) was built by him. What does Assyria mean? Genesis 10:22The children of Shem: Elam, and Asshur, and Arphaxad, and Lud, and Aram. Babylon was rebuilt and made the second capital of the empire, Palestine became an obedient province, and Egypt was conquered (674 and 671 BC), while an invasion of the Cimmerians (Gomer) was repelled, and campaigns were made into the heart of both Media and Arabia. But the similarity of the name caused him to be also identified with the city of Asur, where he was worshipped, at a time when the cities of northern Babylonia came to be deified, probably under Hittite influence. But it differed from the religion of Babylonia in two important respects: (1) the king, and not the high priest, was supreme, and. Assur-nazir-pal was succeeded by his son Shalmaneser II (859-825 BC), who, instead of contenting himself, like his father, with mere raids for the sake of booty, endeavored to organize and administer the countries which his armies had subdued. Did Israel keep the Sabbath in captivity. 722 ( 2 Kings 17:1-6 2 Kings 17:24 ; 2 Kings 18:7 2 Kings 18:9 ). In later days commercial reasons had much to do with the efforts of the Assyrian kings to conquer eastern Asia Minor and the Mediterranean coast of Syria and Pal: under the Second Empire no pains were spared to obtain possession of the Phoenician cities and divert their commerce into Assyrian hands. As might be expected, education was confined to the upper classes, more especially to the priests and scribes. 2Kings 15:19 - 20, 29And Pul the king of Assyria came against the land: and Menahem gave Pul a thousand talents of silver, that his hand might be with him to confirm the kingdom in his hand. When Nineveh took the place of Assur as the capital of the kingdom, Ishtar, around whose sanctuary Nineveh had grown up, began to share with him some of the honor of worship, though her position continued to be secondary to the end. 2 Kings 18:26), and commercial documents written in cuneiform were provided with Aramaic dockets. List of empires from Babylon to End Time! 705), the son and successor of Sargon ( 2 Kings 18:13 ; 19:37 ; Isaiah 7:17 Isaiah 7:18 ); and then of Esar-haddon, his son and successor, who took Manasseh, king of Judah, captive, and kept him for some time a prisoner at Babylon, which he alone of all the Assyrian kings made the seat of his government ( 2 Kings 19:37 ; Isaiah 37:38 ). see HEBREW 'ashur All this district was embraced in the kingdom of Assyria which extended from Babylonia northward to the Kurdish mountains and at times included the country westward to the Euphrates and the Khabur. Nineveh, however, was captured and the revolt suppressed after two years' duration by another son, Samas-Ramman IV, who shortly afterward, on his father's death, succeeded to the throne (824-812 BC). In course of time, however, differences grew up between the spoken language and the language of literature, which had incorporated many Summerian words, and retained grammatical terminations that the vernacular had lost, though these differences were never very great. Assur, the old capital of the country, was still standing in the age of Cyrus, but it had become a small provincial town; as for Nineveh and Calah, their very sites were forgotten. 7 et seq. Mention is next made of Sennacherib (B.C. I. Geography. His son Hadad-nirari III (811-783 BC) was the next king, whose mother was Sammu-ramat (Semiramis). The royal sleeping-tent was accompanied by tents for cooking and dining. And the king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea: for he had sent messengers to So king of Egypt, and brought no present to the king of Assyria, as he had done year by year . Assur-bani-pal employed agents to ransack the libraries of Babylonia and send their contents to Nineveh, where his library was filled with scribes who busied themselves in copying and editing ancient texts. Nouns אשר ( 'esher ), אשר ( 'ashar) and אשר ( 'osher) mean happiness or blessedness. From the beginning of the Second Empire to the reign of Esar-haddon the bas-reliefs often remind us of embroidery in stone. See 'ashur. We'll send you an email with steps on how to reset your password. Meanwhile Tyre, which had rebelled, was forced to sue for peace, and ambassadors arrived from Gyges of Lydia asking for help against the Cimmerians. Down the Euphrates came the silver, copper and bronze of Asia Minor, together with horses. Glass was also manufactured. The army was reorganized and made irresistible, and a new administrative system was introduced, the empire being centralized at Nineveh and governed by a bureaucracy at the head of which was the king. After the Assyrians taunted Israel's God to stop them from taking the city, they suffered the worst military defeat in human history by losing 185,000 men in one night (2Kings 18 - 19)! In B.C. Nineveh had at that time already become a great resort of merchants, among whom the Semitic Arameans were the most numerous. 1915. Babylonia had fallen into decay and been forced to protect herself from the rising power of Assyria by forming an alliance with Mitanni (Mesopotamia) and Egypt, and subsequently, when Mitanni had been absorbed by the Hittites, by practically becoming dependent on the Hittite king. Assyria is always distinguished from Babylonia in the Old Testament, and not confounded with it as by Herodotus and other classical writers. Of the early history of the kingdom of Assyria little is positively known. The Assyrian capital of Nineveh fell in 612 after just three months of battle. His name became the basis for the term Assyria that references both the nation and the people living in the land. The apple of the North grew by the side of the palm-tree of the South. The Babylonians, together with the Medes and Scythians, overtook various Assyrian cities in 615. Normally, people with the name Assyria are energetic, courageous and determined. Nineveh was utterly destroyed, never again to be inhabited, and northern Babylonia passed into the hands of Nabopolassar, the viceroy of Babylon, who had joined the northern invaders. The road to the West was thus again secured for the merchants of Assyria. Furniture, Pottery and Embroidery. Various campaigns were carried on in the direction of Armenia and Comagene, the brutalities executed upon the enemy being described in detail by their conqueror. Meaning of Assyria. All kinds of vases, bowls and dishes were made of earthenware, but they were rarely decorated. Clothes, curtains and rugs, on the other hand, were richly dyed and embroidered, and were manufactured from wool and flax, and (in the age of the Second Empire) from cotton. The verb אסר ( 'asar) means to bind or tie up. These words are associated to the Assyrian thabu,'annu, remu. The scene is represented on the Black Obelisk found at Nimrud and now in the British Museum. There are four Hebrew words for love in the Old Testament Hebrew they are synonymous terms. 586) how completely Assyria was overthrown. 722. Assur-bani-pal was a munificent patron of learning, and the library of Nineveh owed most of its treasures to him, but extravagant luxury had now invaded the court, and the king conducted his wars through his' generals, while he himself remained at home. . The third period is that of Assur-bani-pal, when the overcrowding is avoided by once more leaving the background bare, while the animal and vegetable forms are distinguished by a certain softness, if not effeminacy of tone. \AMORITES\ (which see) and a non-Semitic people from the North called Mitannians. At the same time the land of Naphtali was annexed to Assyria, and Yahu- khazi (Ahaz) of Judah became an Assyrian vassal, while in 731 BC, after the murder of Pekah, Hoshea was appointed king of Israel (compare 2 Kings 15-17). Ezekiel (31) attests (about B.C. And the king of Assyria hearkened unto him: for the king of Assyria went up against Damascus, and took it, and carried the people of it captive to Kir, and slew Rezin. It is only the human-headed bulls and winged lions that can be called successful: they were set on either side of a gate to prevent the entrance of evil spirits, and their majestic proportions were calculated to strike the observer with awe (compare the description of the four cherubim in Eze 1). He corresponded with the Egyptian Pharaoh and married his daughter to the Bah king, thereby providing for himself a pretext for interfering in the affairs of Babylonia. And Menahem exacted the money of Israel, even of all the mighty men of wealth, of each man fifty shekels of silver, to give to the king of Assyria. Asshur, one of Shem's sons, settled in the general area of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers. Before that period Sennacherib states that Tiglath-pileser I reigned 418 years before himself. Egypt recovered its independence under Psammetichus, the founder of the XXVIth Dynasty (660 BC) who had received help from Lydia, but Babylonia was reconquered and Babylon after a long siege was starved out, Samas-sum-ukin burning himself in the ruins of his palace. Assyrian literature, moreover, was mainly derived from Babylonia. Apart from the native documents, the only trustworthy sources for the chronology (as for the history) of Assyria are the Old Testament records. The Assyrians were Semites ( Genesis 10:22 ), but in process of time non-Semite tribes mingled with the inhabitants. The Assyrian language was Semitic, and differed only dialectically from Semitic Babylonian. In character the Assyrians were cruel and ferocious in war, keen traders, stern disciplinarians, and where religion was concerned, intense and intolerant. ASHERAH (which see) of the Old Testament, had stood at his side, and later literary pedants endeavored to find a wife for him in Belit, "the Lady," or Ishtar, or some other Babylonian goddess, but the attempts remained purely literary. Leaving a portion of his army to continue the siege, "he advanced through the province east of Jordan, spreading fire and sword," and became master of Philistia, and took Samaria and Damascus. Shalmaneser I (1300 BC), accordingly, devoted himself to crippling the Hittite power and cutting it off from communication with Babylonia. Nothing more was done until 1873-75 when George Smith resumed excavations on the site of Assur-bani-pal's library; this was followed in 1877-79 by the excavations of Rassam, who discovered among other things the bronze gates of Balawat. Shalmaneser's campaigns were not confined to the West. W.B. No pains, in fact, were spared to make the army both in equipment and discipline an irresistible engine of war. In B.C. Since the historians wrote under the influence of the view of Hebrew history taken by the Prophets, Assyria is regarded by them from the prophetic point of view. 738, in the reign of Menahem, king of Israel, Pul invaded Israel, and imposed on it a heavy tribute ( 2 Kings 15:19 ). Salem Media Group. Proud member Assyria), its region and its empire -- Asshur, Assur, Assyria, Assyrians. Asshur, Assur, Assyria, Assyrians . Under him the Second Empire reached the acme of its power and prosperity. VIII. The writing material was clay, upon which the cuneiform characters were impressed with a stylus while it was still moist: the tablet was afterward baked in the sun or (in Assyria) in a kiln. For the history of his reign, see Cedar wood was brought from Mount Amanus, and there was already trade, through Syria, with the Mediterranean. And Ahaz took the silver and gold that was found in the house of the LORD, and in the treasures of the king's house, and sent it for a present to the king of Assyria. Please enter your email address associated with your Salem All-Pass account, then click Continue. Hence too, the military revolutions, which, as in the kingdom of Israel, resulted in changes of dynasty and the seizure of the throne by successful generals. So the king of Assyria turned back, and stayed not there in the land . A few years later the Assyrian king Bel-kudur-uzur lost his life in battle against the Babylonians, and a new dynasty appears to have mounted the Assyrian throne. Another early sanctuary of Ishtar was at Urbillu, Arbailu or Arbela, East of the Upper Zab. In stature the Assyrians were of average modern European height, and were powerfully built. A revival came under Assur-nazir-pal III (884-860 BC) who rebuilt CALAH (which see) and established the seat of the government at Nineveh, where he erected a palace. Assyria was aptly described by the prophet Nahum as a "lair of lions" and the capital Nineveh, as "the city of bloodshed" - Nahum 2: 11, 12; 3: 1." Article Images Copyright © 2021 Getty Images unless otherwise indicated. Assyria (Asshur) Bible Meaning: A step. The result was that his son-in-law was murdered, and Assur-uballid sent troops to Babylonia who put the murderers to death and placed the grandson of the Assyrian king on the Babylonian throne. Nouns אשור ( ashur) and אשר ( … Elam remained to be dealt with, and an Assyrian army made its way to Susa, which was leveled to the ground, the shrines of its gods profaned and the bones of its ancient kings torn from their graves. In the bas-reliefs discovered at Nineveh three periods of artistic progress may be traced. The term "Jew" is derived from the name of Jacob 's fourth son, Judah--Yehudah, in the Hebrew—and may have originally applied only to Judah 's descendents, who comprised one of the twelve tribes of Israel.On his deathbed, Jacob assigned Judah the role of leader and king—a prophesy that was fulfilled in 869 BCE when all twelve tribes submitted to the reign of King David of the tribe of Judah. The people of Assyria. The combination of the attributes of the warrior-god, who was the peculiar god of the commander of the army, with the deified city to which the army belonged, caused Assur to become the national deity of a military nation in a way of which no Babylonian divinity was capable. In his later days, when too old to take the field himself, his armies were led by the turtannu or commander-in-chief, and a rebellion, headed by his son Assur-danin-pal (Sardanapalus) broke out at home, where Nineveh and Assur were jealous of the preference shown for Calah.