World English Bible · Under Assyria
Isaiah 23
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The burden of . Howl, you ships of ! For it is laid waste, so that there is no house, no entering in. From the land of it is to them. Be still, you inhabitants of the coast, you whom the merchants of that pass over the sea have replenished. On great waters, the of the , the harvest of , was her revenue. She was the market of nations. Be , ; for the sea has spoken, the of the sea, saying, "I have not travailed, nor given birth, neither have I nourished young men, nor brought up virgins." When the report comes to , they will be in anguish at the report of . Pass over to ! , you inhabitants of the coast! Is this your joyous city, whose antiquity is of ancient days, whose feet carried her far away to travel? Who has planned this against , the giver of , whose merchants are princes, whose traders are the honorable of the earth? of Armies has planned it, to stain the pride of all , to bring into contempt all the honorable of the earth. Pass through your land like , daughter of . There is no restraint any more. He has stretched out his hand over the sea. He has shaken the kingdoms. has ordered the of strongholds. He said, "You shall rejoice no more, you oppressed virgin daughter of . Arise, pass over to . Even there you will have no rest." Behold, the land of the . This people didn't exist. The founded it for those who in . They set up their towers. They overthrew its palaces. They made it a . Howl, you ships of , for your is laid waste! It will come to pass in that day that will be forgotten seventy years, according to the days of one king. After the end of seventy years it will be to like in the song of the . Take a harp; go about the city, you that has been forgotten. Make sweet melody. Sing many songs, that you may be remembered. It will happen after the end of seventy years that will visit . She will return to her wages, and will play the with all the kingdoms of the world on the surface of the earth. Her merchandise and her wages will be to . It will not be treasured nor laid up; for her merchandise will be for those who before , to eat sufficiently, and for durable clothing.
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The world at this moment · Under Assyria, 745 BC to 612 BC ›
Assyria at full stretch, deporting whole populations as policy. The northern kingdom is destroyed in 722 BC and Judah survives as a tribute-paying vassal.
- Assyria
- The first empire to run mass deportation as ordinary administration: move the leadership somewhere else, settle strangers in their place, and the province stops being a nation. It worked. Samaria fell in 722 BC and the northern tribes did not come back. Assyria also advertised its cruelty deliberately, carving flayings and impalements on palace walls where envoys would see them, because terror is cheaper than garrisons.
- Judah
- Survives by paying. Hezekiah rebels, Sennacherib takes forty-six Judean towns and besieges Jerusalem in 701 BC, and the city holds. The Assyrian account boasts of shutting Hezekiah up like a bird in a cage and pointedly does not claim to have taken the city, which is one of the more interesting silences in ancient records.
- Egypt
- The splintered reed of a staff that Assyria's field commander mocks Judah for leaning on. It promises help and cannot deliver, and Isaiah spends decades saying so. Assyria eventually invades and sacks Thebes.
- Further afield
- Greece is in its archaic period, founding colonies from Spain to the Black Sea. Rome is under kings. Assyria's own libraries are collecting the literature of Mesopotamia, which is how Gilgamesh survived to be read again in the nineteenth century.
All of Isaiah