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19 gods as part of their headgear. In one instance an enemy "was blinded by the brightness from the god-head." In another, "Ishtar. who dwells in Arbela, clad in Divine Fire and sporting the Radiant vrei ae ne ee ore ce) Headwear, rained flames upon Arabia." The Old Testament, too, refers to such a Weapon of Brilliance that could blind. When the Angels (literally, emissaries) of the Lord came to Sodom prior to its destruction, the populace at- tempted to break down the door of the house in which they were resting. So the Angels "smote the people at the entrance of the house with blindness . . . and they were unable to find the door- ween" way." As Assyria rose to supremacy, even extending its rule over Lower Egypt, its kings, in the words of the Lord through his prophet Isaiah, forgot that they were only an instrument of the Lord: "Ho Assyria, the whip of mine anger! My wrath is the rod in their hands; against impious nations I send them; upon people who have crossed me I charge them." But the Assyrian kings went be- yond mere punishment; "rather, it is in its heart to annihilate and wipe out nations not few." This went beyond the intention of the God; therefore, the Lord Yahweh announced, "I shall hold to ac- count the king of Assyria, on account of the fruits of the growing haughtiness of his heart." The biblical prophecies predicting the downfall of Assyria in- deed came true: As invaders from the north and cast were joined by rebellious Babylonians from the south, Ashur, the religious capi- tal, fell in 614 B.C., and Nineveh, the royal capital, was captured and sacked two years later. The great Assyria was no more. The disintegration of the Assyrian empire was seized by vassal kings in Egypt and Babylonia as an opportunity to attempt the res- toration of their own hegemonies. The lands between them were once again the cherished prize, and the Egyptians, under the Pha- raoh Necho, were quicker in invading these territories. In Babylonia, Nebuchadnezzar II—as recorded in his inscrip- tions—was ordered by the god Marduk to march his army west- ward. The expedition was made possible because "another god," the one who held the original sovereignty over the area, "has not desired the cedar land" anymore; and now "a foreign enemy was wwe dt an ruling and robbing it." In Jerusalem the word of the Lord Yahweh through his prophet Jeremiah was to side with Babylon, for the Lord Yahweh—calling The Wars of Man