Jon 1:2; 3:2
Nineveh (Heb. Nînewêh; Assir. Ninua and Ninâ; Hit. Ninuwa; Gr. Nineue, Nineui; etymology and meaning uncertain). City on the eastern bank of the Tigris, by the mouth of a small tributary now known as Khosr (opposite modern city of Mosul; (fig 383), founded by Nimrod (Gen 10:11). Map XI, B-5 Excavations have shown remains going back to very ancient times.However, its early history is obscure, because during the 1st millennium Assyria seems to have played only a minor role, while other cities, such as Assur and Cala, were important as capitals of the country. The patron saint of Nineveh was Ishtar, to whom Manishtusu of Akkad built a temple in the 23rd century BC The cult of this goddess became very popular among the Horites and the Hittites, and even reached Egypt. Shalmaneser I (c 1274-c 1244 BC) built the 1st palace at Nineveh, although he kept the city of Assur as the seat of his government, some 80 km to the south, later kings added public buildings to it, and some, such as Ashurnasirpal II (884-859 BC) and Shalmaneser III (850-824 BC), set in she his residence during parts of his reign. It was probably in the time of Adad-nirari III (810-782 BC) that Jonah preached his message of warning in the streets of Nineveh, and as a result of the temporary repentance of its inhabitants the predicted destruction of the wicked city was postponed (Jon_1-4 ; cf 2Ki 14:25). Nineveh’s most glorious period began with Sennacherib (705-681 BC). From that time it was the undisputed capital of the country until its destruction in 612 BC. He built a great platform within the city and built his palace on it. He built a 2nd palace in another part of it, rebuilt the fortification system and beautified the 15 access gates, whose names we know from a cuneiform text. His son Esar-haddon (681-669 BC) added a new palace, and so did Ashurbanipal (669-627? BC), the great lover of books, who installed in his palace the first great private library that we have record (now preserved in the British Museum), and which gave us more information about the ancient world than any single discovery ever made in Bible lands. Ashurbanipal’s successors, Asur-etililani and Sin-shar-ishkun (although it is possible that the 2 names belonged to the same person), were not strong enough to keep the empire intact, and soon went on the defensive under attack. of Nabopolassar, who established himself as king of Babylon (626 BC) and of the Medes. In 614 BC, Assur fell to them, as probably also Cala, and 2 years later (612 BC) the combined forces of Babylon and the Medes laid siege to Nineveh, which had not seen hostile armies for centuries. After 3 months, the city fell, and Sin-shar-ishkun died with all his retinue in the flames of his own palace, which, according to the Greek sources, he himself set on fire. This is how the prophecies began to be fulfilled 842 383. Map of ancient Nineveh. 843 of Nahum (Nah_2 and 3) and that of Zephaniah (Sof. 2:13-15), who predicted the fate of Nineveh. The great city was not only totally destroyed, but in a short time it was completely forgotten. When Xenophon with his armed forces passed near his ruins 2 centuries later, he could not even learn the name of the great metropolis that had flourished there. For many centuries no one knew where Nineveh had been, even though, over time, some visitors to Assyria made correct suggestions when they saw the huge mounds of ruins across the river from Mosul. Modern excavations have solved the mystery of Nineveh’s location. In an effort to discover the site, Frenchman Emile Botta began excavations in 1842 on the mound of the ancient city, but when he saw little result from his efforts, he went to Khorsabad, ancient Dur-Sharrukin, and discovered the palace of Sargon. , thinking that he had found Nineveh. Austen Henry Layard began excavating Nimrûd, the ancient Cala, in 1845, also thinking that it was above the ancient Assyrian capital. Both men were wrong. Only later, when Layard turned his attention to Kuyunjik, one of the ruin mounds within the confines of the historic city, did the temples and palaces of Sennacherib and Ashurbanipal of the real Nineveh begin to appear. Layard and Hormuzd Rassam were the most successful archaeologists, unearthing countless treasures from mounds of rubble and earth. Later, Ross, Loftus, and George Smith worked on the site, and in the 20th century, Budge, King, Thompson, Hutchinson, and Mallowan made possible the publication of a book entitled A Century of Nineveh Exploration (by R. Campbell Thompson and R.W. Hutchinson). However, all the work was limited to Kuyunjik, one of the 2 mounds in the ancient city; the other, the hill of Neb§ Yunus (fig. 287), on which stands a modern village with a mosque believed by Muslims to be the tomb of the prophet Jonah (hence inviolable), has hardly been touched by archaeologists. The ruins of Esar-haddon’s palace are known to be below but are inaccessible to them. Several of the original ancient city gates have recently been restored and, along with parts of one of the excavated palaces, are the only remaining ancient structures in Nineveh. Those who wish to see the objects that once beautified this marvelous city must go to the museums of Europe, but those who want to see with their own eyes the literal fulfillment of the OT prophecies regarding this metropolis can do so by simply wandering over the heaps. covered in dust from that ancient capital. The size of Nineveh is known beyond any doubt, because the city walls are still clearly visible. Its ruins form long, low hills, with depressions where the gates once stood (fig 384). The total length of the old walls was about 12 km. The area enclosed by them, rather triangular, was about 664 ha (fig 383). If we grant about 42 m2 per person, the old population within the walls can be estimated at about 160,000 inhabitants; many would also have lived outside the city. Some consider the number of 120,000 people who “do not know between their right hand and their left hand” (Jon 4:11) to be a reference to children who could not tell the difference between the two hands, and have calculated that the population of the city had at least 600,000 inhabitants. This number seems too large for the size of the city that we know. It seems best to think of the expression in v 11 as metaphorical, indicating that the entire population possessed only an imperfect knowledge of the difference between good and evil. Jon 3:3’s statement that Nineveh was “an exceedingly large city, three days’ journey” probably means that it would take a man 3 days to go through all the streets and stop to preach in enough places to reach the entire population within its walls. Also the passage that states that “Jonah began to enter the city one day’s journey and preached” (v 4), can hardly mean that he walked a whole day before beginning to give his warning message. He can simply point to his first day on the job. Therefore, it is not necessary to resort to the assumption that ancient Nineveh included the cities of Dur-sharrukin (now Khorsabad), about 19 km northeast of Nineveh, and Cala (now Nimrûd), about 32 km to the south. These were never part of the capital, as far as is known; each had its own administration and its own protective wall, and they were separated from each other by many miles of cultivated fields. But Nineveh was still a very large city by the standards of the time. Bib.: A. Parrot, Nineveh and the Old Testament (New York, 1955). 384. Ruins of the city walls of ancient Nineveh as seen from the east.
Source: Evangelical Bible Dictionary
one of the largest cities in Mesopotamia, capital of the kingdom of Assyria, founded by Nimrod. Located to the east of the Tigris River from 704 until its destruction by the Neo-Babylonians and the Medes in 612 BC. CN is considered haughty and abject, a symbol of pagan power and sumptuousness, So 2, 15. Its inhabitants numbered more than one hundred and twenty thousand, Jon 4, 11. The prophets Nahúm, 1, 9-3, 19, and Zephaniah, 2, 13-15, announced its destruction. Jonah was disappointed and irritated to see that the inhabitants of N. were repentant and that God did not destroy the city as he had previously determined, Jon 3 and 4.
Digital Bible Dictionary, Grupo C Service & Design Ltda., Colombia, 2003
Source: Digital Bible Dictionary
One of the oldest cities in the world, founded by Nimrod (Gen 10:11-12), a great-grandson of Noah, and which remained until 612 BC. JC Nineveh was situated on the banks of the Tigris and was the capital of the great Assyrian Empire. From the time of David to that of Hezekiah and Manasseh, Nineveh and its kings held sway. God sent Jonah to warn the people of Nineveh of impending judgment (Jon 3:4), but God granted Nineveh a temporary reprieve from his judgment of almost 200 years. Approx. in the year 623, Cyaxares, king of the Medes, made his first attack against Nineveh, and this was probably the occasion of Nahum’s prophecy. His book is undated, but in 3:8 Thebes (Hebrew ‘Not Amon’) is spoken of in the past tense (it was destroyed in 663 BC) and the destruction of Nineveh as future, of so it must have been written around this time.
Nineveh was excavated (largely by Botta and Layard from AD 1843 to 1845), and among its earth-covered ruins has been discovered the great palace of Sargon with its marvelous library of cuneiform scripts and the still striking ornamentation. of its walls. Because the name Sargon was not included in some of the old king lists, Isa 20:1 was mocked by some of the scholars (around 1840), when Sargon king of Assyria sent him out. It is said that when Botta sent to Berlin some ancient bricks with the name Sargon baked in the mud, the ‘scholars’ said that he had forged the bricks!
Source: Hispanic World Bible Dictionary
The hunter and city builder Nimrod appears in Gen 10:11 as the father of Nineveh. The text could point to a founding king of cities, whose image became a dominating deity of dragons; and the dragon is the Tigris. Nineveh stood on the eastern bank of the middle Tigris.
In the cycle of biblical stories, Nineveh appeared around the year 1350 BC, when it was conquered by the Assyrians; Under the…