The spectacular record of failed prophecies:
Nineveh: Nahum, writing at a time when the Assyrian empire was disintegrating under the attacks of the Medes and Chaldeans , and after the Scythians had run amok through its territories, predictably prophesied the fall of Nineveh.
He says (Nah. 1:8): But with an overflowing flood [God] will make an end of his adversaries.
Nahum 2:6 says: The river gates are opened. The palace is in dismay.
These words have been taken by fundamentalist apologists as meaning that the Tigris river overflowed, undercutting part of the walls of Nineveh, which which collapsed. The Medes and Chaldeans poured in the gap.Thinking that his city was impregnable, King Sardanapalus was feasting and drinking. Thus, the Assyrians were caught by surprise and utterly destroyed. Sardanapalus had his horses and concubines killed on his funeral pyre where he sat resigned and was burned to death.
None of this is true. The Medes and Chaldaens forced an entry at the Halzi gate, one of the few gates to the city that was not on the Tigris River. Sardanapalus is a mythical figure. The actual Assyrian king, Sin-shar-iskin, younger son of Ashurbanipul, may have thrown himself on his funeral pyre in despair as the city was falling. However, the Assyrians were not taken by surprise, but went down fighting. Ashur-uballit, younger brother of Ashurbanipul, led some die-hard Assyrians out of Nineveh as it was falling. They fled to Harran, where Ashur-uballit was crowned king. The Medes drove him out of Harran. So, he crossed the Euphrates and joined up with the Egyptian forces under Pharaoh Necho. Nebuchadrezzar, crown prince of Chaldea, forced a crossing of the Euphrates and defeated the combined Egyptian - Assyrian force at Charchemish (605 BCE). At tis point Ashur-uballlit disappears from history.
Babylon: Isaiah 13:15 - 18 predicts the fall of Babylon, saying the people will be run through and fall by the sword. Their infants will be dashed in pieces before their eyes and their wives ravished. All this will be done by the Medes. Jeremiah 51:11 says that God is stirring up the kings of the Medes and Persians against Babylon, for his purpose is to destroy it. Both these prophecies are false. The city of Babylon welcomed the Persians under Cyrus as liberators and opened their gets to them, since the Babylonians hated the Chaldeans and saw them as usurpers. The city was taken without any bloodshed or destruction.
Egypt: Jeremiah 46:13 - 26 and Ezek. 30:10, 11 say that Nebuchadrezzar and the Chaldeans would invade and destroy Egypt, filling its land with the dead. This is false. Nebuchadrezzar was on the point of invading Egypt, but had to hasten back to Babylon to secure his accession when he got word that his father, King Nabopolasser, had died. He never did invade Egypt.
Tyre: Ezekiel 26:7 - 12 specifically states that Nebuchadrezzar would destroy the city of Tyre. This is false. Alexander the Great is the one who took the city.
