The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, And his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold; And the sheen of their spears was like stars on the sea, When the blue wave rolls nightly on deep Galilee.
Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, That host with their banners at sunset were seen: Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
For the Angel of Death spread his wings on the blast, And breathed in the face of the foe as he passed; And the eyes of the sleepers waxed deadly and chill, And their hearts but once heaved, and for ever grew still!
And there lay the steed with his nostril all wide, But through it there rolled not the breath of his pride; And the foam of his gasping lay white on the turf, And cold as the spray of the rock-beating surf.
And there lay the rider distorted and pale, With the dew on his brow, and the rust on his mail: And the tents were all silent, the banners alone, The lances unlifted, the trumpet unblown.
And the widows of Ashur are loud in their wail, And the idols are broke in the temple of Baal; And the might of the Gentile, unsmote by the sword, Hath melted like snow in the glance of the Lord!
In 701 B.C. the Assyrians besieged Jerusalem. They had the strength of numbers, a multitude of conquered nations in their wake, and every military advantage to lead them to expect victory. Yet the day after their encampment outside the city walls, Jerusalem was unharmed, and the army was nowhere in sight. The Assyrians had been defeated without Jerusalem’s army ever having lifted a sword against them.
Two Kings
In 721 B.C, Assyria conquered the 10 tribes which comprised the Northern Kingdom of Israel. The people of these “Lost Tribes of Israel” were either killed or assimilated into other groups, and many of them embraced the cultures of other nations and turned to worshiping idols.Years later, in 701 B.C., Sennacherib, king of Assyria, laid siege to Jerusalem but faced opposition from Hezekiah, king of Judah. Unlike his father and other kings before him, Hezekiah introduced religious reforms to turn the people’s hearts back to God and to their covenant with him. In facing the threat from Sennacherib, Hezekiah trusted that God would deliver his people.
According to the account in the Book of Kings, Sennacherib’s messenger told Hezekiah that his resistance was foolish since other nations had prayed to their gods, but Assyria had conquered them all, including Arpad, Sepharvaim, Hena, and Ivvah. King Hezekiah, however, remained steadfast and refused to turn his back on God.
The opening line of the poem evokes the scriptural imagery of sheep used to describe the people of God, while the Assyrian army descends “like the wolf on the fold.” The anapestic tetrameter, a poetic meter with two unstressed short syllables followed by one long stressed syllable per line, mirrors the galloping of the horses’ hooves as the Assyrians ride onward to battle. The meter, combined with the phrasing of the poem, contributes to the sense that the poem is a rousing call to battle, to valor, and to victory—though not on the part of the Assyrians.
Like the leaves of the forest when Summer is green, That host with their banners at sunset were seen: Like the leaves of the forest when Autumn hath blown, That host on the morrow lay withered and strown.
The defeat of the Assyrian army takes place overnight, and strikingly enough for such a rapid defeat, the Assyrians are “unsmote by the sword.” Instead, they are killed as the Angel of Death breathes in the face of the foe. Breath is ordinarily a sign of life, which seems to point to how the Assyrians are defeated by God, who is the source of life itself as He stands with the Israelites, shepherding his people and acting as their shield.
The Might of the Gentile
Naturally, one wonders whether there was any evidence of this event outside of the biblical account. While Assyrian accounts don’t reference the event, Herodotus records such a loss on the part of the Assyrian army, which he attributes to a sudden infestation of mice and which other historians attribute the loss to a sudden plague, possibly brought on by the infestation:“Their enemies too came thither, and one night a multitude of fieldmice swarmed over the Assyrian camp and devoured their quivers and their bows and the handles of their shields likewise, insomuch that they fled the next day unarmed and many fell.” (Herodotus 2:141)
Whatever the means by which Jerusalem was spared, the event may serve to caution against becoming too prideful and reliant upon one’s own strength. The poem is an undoing of expectations: The king who is arrayed in royal colors (purple and gold) and who embodies earthly power is defeated by the weaker force. Victory goes not to the wolf but to the sheep.
Pride Goeth Before a Fall
Byron describes the Assyrian army with imagery of the peak of two seasons, summer and winter. At the height of its power, the army is likened to “when summer is green” and to the frigid snow in winter. However, even at the height of its power, the army is turned away from Jerusalem in a moment, “withered” or “melted like snow in the glance of the Lord” in the course of a single night, with a single glance.
All time belongs to the Lord, and Sennacherib’s downfall is that he does not recognize this fact. Formerly, God used him as an instrument of justice since Israel had abandoned divine statutes: The Northern Kingdom ignored God’s laws and his warnings to their ancestors, and they worshipped the false gods of countries near them.
The prophet Isaiah acknowledged that Sennacherib has been given earthly authority, and doesn’t rebuke him for having conquered the other nations. Instead, Sennacherib’s fault is that he doesn’t recognize the source of his power.
Byron notes that the Assyrians worship idols; the poet is saying that the battle is not only that of opposing nations, but also one between the God of Israel and the false idols of the Assyrians. Ashur, a god of the Assyrians, lies vanquished, and “the idols are broke in the temple of Baal.” Sennacherib’s gods, the same which the tribes of the Northern Kingdom had come to worship, are depicted as completely powerless, and the enemy camp lies devoid of all life and movement aside from wailing.
God raises up the people of Judah because they do not despair and, instead, trust in God’s will. Rev. Mike Schmitz, in the Bible in a Year podcast, notes that Hezekiah places Sennacherib’s letter before the altar of the Lord, which signifies that he places his burdens in the Lord’s hands and entrusts himself and his people to God.
Hezekiah himself cannot claim victory; he recognizes that, if it comes to pass, it’s only because God brings it about. Sennacherib comes to exemplify the proverb, “pride goes before a fall,” while the people of Judah endure, even in the face of impossible odds.
