Assyrian conquests in the west and south were delayed for a time by a confederation organized in the days of Shalmaneser III (859–824 B.C.). The Assyrian Empire (853–605 B.C.)īy the middle of the ninth century B.C., Israel had been divided into its northern and southern kingdoms for more than a hundred years and powerful Assyria was on the move against its neighbors. The Elamites continued to exercise control over what is now southern Iran, while new peoples-notably the Medes and the Persians-were moving into the northern and central parts of that territory. Babylonia and Assyria shared the region of Mesopotamia. These included Philistia, Moab, Edom, the city-states of Phoenicia and Syria, and Israel under the kingship of Saul.

Thus, with the waning of Egyptian and Hittite power in the early part of the twelfth century B.C., a number of smaller nations were able to establish their independence in the area of Palestine. Not always a target for invasion itself, the land and its people were often the victims of armies passing through, marching in pursuit of the riches of Egypt.

Bordered on the west by the Great Sea (the Mediterranean) and on the east by the searing Arabian deserts, it lay directly on a virtual land bridge between Egypt and the lands of Mesopotamia and Asia Minor. Much of the fate of Israel was due to the position of its lands at the crossroads of the ancient world. During the period treated in the second half of the Old Testament course of study, Israel felt the powerful influences of several neighboring kingdoms and empires-especially the successive empires of Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, Greece, and Rome-each one pressing in, invading, conquering, exerting its own influence on the culture and institutions of Israel, affecting its political and social structure, testing its fortitude and obedience.

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