BIBLE PROPHECIES | THE ANCIENT DESTRUCTION OF ISRAEL (3)

1. The ancient destruction of Israel

a) The Assyrians conquered and destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel in about 722 BC (about 2700 years ago). The Babylonians destroyed Jerusalem in 586 BC (about 2600 years ago). Jerusalem and the Temple were later rebuilt but were destroyed again, this time by the Romans 70 AD. In 135 AD, the Romans again attacked and destroyed Jerusalem.

b) Bible prophecies are listed below.

2. Bible Prophecies

a) Israel would become a wasteland. 

Deuteronomy 29:23 New International Version (NIV) 

²³ The whole land will be a burning waste of salt and sulfur—nothing planted, nothing sprouting, no vegetation growing on it. It will be like the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboyim, which the Lord overthrew in fierce anger.

3. Written: As early as 1400 BC 

a) In Deuteronomy 29:23, the Bible said Israel would become a wasteland. This prophecy certainly was fulfilled. The land has been described many times as having been a sparsely populated wasteland, as recently as the late 1800s and early 1900s. 

b) American writer Mark Twain wrote this, in 1867, about the land of Israel, which at the time was called Palestine: "Palestine sits in sackcloth and ashes… the spell of a curse that has withered its fields and fettered its energies… Palestine is desolate and unlovely… It is a hopeless, dreary, heartbroken land."