Assyria … Elam … Meshech and Tubal … Edom … the leaders of the north and the Sidonians: In the past, these nations filled people with fear. Now they are described as weak shadows of what they once were. Their power is gone, and they exist in a place without joy or purpose.
Assyria had been defeated by the Babylonians and the Medes between 627 and 609 BC. After that time, it was no longer a great world power.