Nineveh in Fausset's Bible Dictionary
Nimrod builded Nineveh (Genesis 10:11); Herodotus (i. 7)
makes Ninus founder of Nineveh. and grandson of Belus
founder of Babylon; which implies that it was from Babylon,
as Scripture says, that Nineveh's founder came. Nin is the
Assyrian Hercules. Their mythology also makes Ninus son of
Nimrod. Jonah is the next Scripture after Genesis 10 that
mentions Nineveh. (See JONAH.) Sennacherib after his host's
destruction "went and dwelt at Nineveh" (2 Kings 19:36).
Jonah (Jonah 3:3) describes it as an "exceeding great city
of three days' journey" round (i.e. 60 miles, at 20 miles
per day) with 120,000 children "who knew not their right
hand from their left" (Jonah 4:11), which would make a
population in all of 600,000 or even one million. Diodorus
Siculus (ii. 3), agreeing with Jonah's "three days'
journey," makes the circumference 55 miles, pastures and
pleasure grounds being included within, from whence Jonah
appositely (Jonah 4:11) mentions "much cattle." G. Smith
thinks that the ridges enclosing Nebi Yunus and Koyunjik
(the mounds called "tels" opposite Mosul) were only the
walls of inner Nineveh, the city itself extending beyond to
the mound Yarenijah.
The parallelogram in Assyria covered with remains
has Khorsabad N.E.; Koyunjik and Nebi Yunus (Nineveh in the
narrow sense) near the Tigris N.W.; Nimrud and Athur between
the Tigris and Zab, N.W.; and Karamles at a distance inward
from the Zab S.E. From Koyunjik to Nimrud is 18 miles; from
Khorsabad to Karamles 18; from Koyunjik to Khorsabad 13 or
14; from Nimrud to Karamles 14. The length was greater than
the breadth; so Jonah 3:4 "entered into the city a day's
journey." The longer sides were 150 furlongs each, the
shorter 90 furlongs, the whole circuit 480 or 460 miles.
Babylon had a circuit of only 385 miles (Clitarchus in Diod.
ii. 7, Strabo xvi. 737). The walls were 100 ft. high, with
1,500 towers, and broad enough for three chariots abreast.
Shereef Khan is the northern extremity of the collection of
mounds on the eastern bank of the Tigris, and is five and a
half miles N. of Koyunjik. There is also an enclosure, 5,000
yards in circuit, once enclosed by a moat at Selamivah three
miles N. of Nimrud. Nimrud in inscriptions is called Kalkhu
or Calah in Genesis 10:11; Khorsabad is called Sargina from
Sargon. At Kileh Sherghat is the presumed original capital,"
Asshur," 60 miles S. of Mosul, on the right or western bank
of the Tigris.
Sennacherib first made Nineveh the capital. Nineveh
was at first only a fort to keep the Babylonian conquests
around. It subsequently, with Rehoboth, Ir, Calah, and
Resen, formed one great city, "Nineveh" in the larger sense.
Thothmes III of Egypt is mentioned in inscriptions as
capturing Nineveh. Phraortes the Mede perished in attempting
to do so (Herodotus i. 102). Cyaxares his successor, after
at first raising the siege owing to a Scythic invasion
(Herodotus i. 103, 106) 625 B.C., finally succeeded in
concert with the Babylonian Nabopolassar, 606 B.C., Saracus
the last king, Esarhaddon's grandson, set fire to the palace
and perished in the flames, as Ctesias states, and as the
marks of fire on the walls still confirm. So Nahum 3:13;
Nahum 3:15, "fire shall devour thy bars." Charred wood,
calcined alabaster, and heat splintered figures abound.
Nahum (Nahum 2) and Zephaniah (Zephaniah 2:13-15) foretold
its doom; and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 31) shortly after attests the
completeness of its overthrow, as a warning of the fatal
issue of pride, Isaiah 10:7-14; Diodorus (ii. 27) says
there...
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