Behind | The Brutality of the Assyrians

The Assyrians were brutal in behavior and art. Here they are putting their enemies, literally, “under their feet.”

In addition to showing an Assyrian battering ram and archers, this also shows bodies strewn on the ground (bottom left) and a series of men impaled (top middle). 

This relief sculpture of the battle of Lachish portrays Assyrians preparing to “flay” the skin off Judean prisoners after their defeat.

The Assyrians depicted floating Egyptian corpses on the walls of King Ashurbanipal’s palace (648–631 BC). The flooding of Nineveh would begin its downfall in 612 BC. 

The Assyrians built their empire with a combination of terrorizing methods for conquest, humiliation and subjugation. They would cut out the tongues and eyes of captives and stack dismembered corpses at the gates of conquered cities. As Nahum wrote, “Many slain, a mass of corpses, and countless dead bodies” (3:3 NASB). This is the empire against which Nahum is delivering his message from YHWH: They will soon be judged by the God who used them to judge the Northern Kingdom of Israel.