World English Bible · Under Assyria
Isaiah 28
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Woe to the of pride of the drunkards of , and to the fading flower of his beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley of those who are overcome with ! Behold, has one who is mighty and strong. Like a storm of hail, a destroying storm, and like a storm of mighty waters overflowing, he will cast them down to the earth with his hand. The of pride of the drunkards of will be trodden under foot. The fading flower of his beauty, which is on the head of the fertile valley, shall be like the first-ripe fig before the summer, which someone picks and eats as soon as he sees it. In that day, of Armies will become a of and a of beauty to the residue of his people, and a of to him who sits in , and strength to those who the battle at the . They also reel with , and stagger with . The priest and the reel with . They are swallowed up by . They stagger with . They err in . They stumble in . For all tables are completely full of filthy vomit and filthiness. Whom will he teach knowledge? To whom will he explain the message? Those who are weaned from the milk, and drawn from the breasts? For it is precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little. But he will speak to this nation with stammering and in another language, to whom he said, "This is the . Give rest to the weary," and "This is the refreshing;" yet they would not hear. Therefore word will be to them precept on precept, precept on precept; line on line, line on line; here a little, there a little; that they may go, fall backward, be broken, be snared, and be taken. Therefore hear word, you scoffers, that rule this people in : "Because you have said, 'We have made a with , and we are in agreement with . When the overflowing scourge passes through, it won't come to us; for we have made lies our refuge, and we have hidden ourselves under falsehood.'" Therefore says, "Behold, I lay in for a foundation a stone, a tried stone, a precious of a sure foundation. He who believes shall not act hastily. I will make the , and the . The hail will sweep away the refuge of lies, and the waters will overflow the hiding place. Your with shall be annulled, and your agreement with shall not stand. When the overflowing scourge passes through, then you will be trampled down by it. As often as it passes through, it will seize you; for morning by morning it will pass through, by day and by night; and it will be nothing but terror to understand the message." For the bed is too short to stretch out on, and the blanket is too narrow to wrap oneself in. For will rise up as on Mount . He will be angry as in the valley of ; that he may do his work, his unusual work, and bring to pass his act, his extraordinary act. Now therefore don't be scoffers, lest your bonds be made strong; for I have heard a of from , of Armies, on the whole earth. Give ear, and ! Listen, and hear my speech! Does he who plows to sow plow continually? Does he keep turning the soil and breaking the clods? When he has leveled its surface, doesn't he plant the dill, and scatter the cumin , and put in the wheat in rows, the barley in the appointed place, and the spelt in its place? For his instructs him in right and teaches him. For the dill isn't threshed with a sharp instrument, neither is a cart wheel turned over the cumin; but the dill is beaten out with a stick, and the cumin with a . Bread flour must be ground; so he will not always be it. Although he drives the wheel of his cart over it, his horses don't grind it. This also comes out from of Armies, who is wonderful in , and excellent in .
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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