Assyria was one of the greatest empires of the ancient world, centered in northern Mesopotamia, on the banks of the Tigris River, where northern Iraq lies today. According to Genesis, it was there that some of humanity’s first great cities were built.
Its best known capital, Nineveh, was the destination of the prophet Jonah’s mission. Over the centuries, the empire grew until it became the greatest military power in the ancient Near East.
It was this power that destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 BC and deported much of the ten tribes to Assyrian lands, an exile from which that people never returned as an organized nation.
The prophets of Israel saw in this the hand of God: Assyria was the instrument of his discipline against an unfaithful people. But the same God who used Assyria also promised to judge it for its cruelty and pride, a promise fulfilled when the empire fell, about a century later.
