Map of Assyrian Attacks against Israel and Judah

The Assyrian invasions of the eighth century B.C. were the most traumatic political events in the entire history of Israel.

The brutal Assyrian style of warfare relied on massive armies, superbly equipped with the world's first great siege machines manipulated by an efficient corps of engineers.

Psychological terror, however, was Assyria's most effective weapon. It was ruthlessly applied, with corpses impaled on stakes, severed heads stacked in heaps, and captives skinned alive

The shock of bloody military sieges on both Israel and Judah was profound. The prophets of the Lord did not fail to scream out against their horror, while at the same time pleading with the people to see God's hand in history, to recognize spiritual causes in the present punishment.

Assyrian Campaigns of Tiglath-Pileser against Israel

Assyrian Campaigns of Shalmaneser V agaist Israel

Assyrian Campaigns of Sennacherib against Judah

From the NIV Study Bible