Spiritualizing the influence of Egypt and Babylon has been done many times, I really cannot remember a sermon about the evils of Assyria. From my background studies I will say they were not nice and taking populations captives or razing whole cities to the ground was common, Assyria did it to Babylon twice.

Assyria/Ninevah and the Books of the Bible that cover that time period.

• 2 Kings (Jeremiah/Baruch) and 2 Chronicles (Ezra)
• Hosea, Amos
• Joel
• Isaiah, Micah
• Jonah
• Obadiah (mostly about Edom/Esau)
• Nahum
• Zephaniah
• Habakkuk
• Jeremiah/Lamentations – (This is continuing to Babylon and Persia.), Ezekiel, Daniel
• Haggai, Zechariah
• Ezra, (Malachi)
• Nehemiah
• Esther, Malachi  

This would be my order of reading for a timeline.

Kingdoms

There was history going on outside of Israel. Some of these major players are in the story of God’s People some are not. There were many other kingdoms that do not make it into Scripture, but they were there. This is just a list, their interactions and treaties were complex and changed through the years.

• Hittites
• Sea People (They pushed the Bronze Age kingdoms to end.)
• Egypt
• Assyria (Iron Age)
• Media/Elam
• Babylon
• Persia
• Celts Celtic Migrations | Encyclopedia.com
• Greece
• Rome