The Assyrians inspired fear…and eloquence
by chuckofish
Over the weekend while doing some research I came across Isaiah’s poetic warning to the Philistines about an impending Assyrian attack and it was so perfect it gave me chills:
“Wail, O gate; cry, O city; melt in fear, O Philistia, all of you! For smoke comes out of the north, and there is no straggler in his ranks.” Isaiah 14.31-32.
Assyrian soldiers from the palace of Sennacherib at Nineveh -- 7th century BC
I’d run away, wouldn’t you? It’s better than Byron’s “The Assyrian came down like the wolf on the fold, and his cohorts were gleaming in purple and gold”, don’t you think? Byron’s too flowery and no Assyrian army ever wore purple and gold. Isaiah gets it just right. I can see why he was an effective prophet!
dual personalities 
I also like a few verses earlier where he says, “I will turn her into a place for owls and into swampland; I will sweep her with the broom of destruction,” declares the LORD Almighty. The tablet is great too–no CG enhancement needed for those calves!
Did you just make a Brad Pitt joke? 🙂
Yes I did.
Still, Byron probably did better than most other Romantic poets would have. Can you perhaps imagine Bysshe’s rendition?
It beggars the imagination. Still, Percy might have pulled something appropriately Ozymandias like. But Isaiah nailed it, not once but many times. How about this one:
“And look now, swiftly and rapidly he (=Assyria) comes; There is no one among him who is weary or stumbles,Or slumbers or sleeps.” (5:26b-27a) It must have seemed that way to the poor Israelites anyway.
It’s a cinch though that both Byron and Shelley had read their Isaiah and gotten a few ideas…
Very true, very true!