Jonah 1:2

Nineveh On the E. bank of the Tigris, the capital of the ancient kingdom and empire of Assyria, and "the most magnificent of all the capitals of the ancient world." The building of it is mentioned as early as Genesis 10:11. In the time of Jonah it appears to have been at the zenith of its glory.

that great city See note on c. Jonah 3:3, and Note B.

NOTE B. NINEVEH

It is evidently the design of the writer of this Book to give prominence to the vast size of Nineveh. when he speaks of it, it is with the constant addition, "the great city," (Jonah 1:2; Jonah 3:2; Jonah 4:11), and the addition is justified by the statements that it was "great to God," that it was a city "of three days" journey," and that it contained "more than sixscore thousand persons unable to discern between their right hand and their left, and also much cattle" (Jonah 4:11). In seeking to verify this description and to identify, with some reasonable degree of probability, the Nineveh of Jonah, we have first to determine what is meant by the expression "a city of three days" journey." It has been held that the "three days" journey" describes the time that would be occupied in traversing the city from end to end; along "the -high street" representing the greatest length or -the diameter" of the town, which ran from one principal gate to the opposite extremity." (Kalisch.) But unless we are prepared to regard the "figures given in the text" as "the natural hyperboles of a writer who lived long after the virtual destruction of the city, and who, moreover, was anxious to enhance the impressiveness of his story and lesson, by dwelling on the vastness of the population whose fate depended on their moral regeneration" (Ib.), we shall find it difficult to accept the gratuitous assumption that Nineveh is here described as a city "about fifty-five English miles in diameter," with a "high street" fifty-five miles long. Nor is it more satisfactory to suppose that by a city of three days" journey is meant a city which it would require three days to go all over. No intelligible idea of size could possibly be conveyed by such a definition. Adopting, then, the more reasonable view that the "three days" journey" refers to the circumference of the city, and estimating a day's journey at about twenty miles, we have Nineveh here described as comprising a circuit of about sixty miles. Whether this large area was inclosed by continuous walls we cannot certainly say. One ancient writer, indeed, (Diodorus Siculus) asserts that it was, and that the walls were "100 feet high, and broad enough for three chariots to drive abreast upon" (Dict. of Bible, Article Nineveh); and he, moreover, gives the dimensions of the city as an irregular quadrangle of about 60 miles in circuit. But without relying too much upon his testimony, which may be regarded as doubtful, we may conclude that an area such as has been described was sufficiently marked out to be known and spoken of as the city of Nineveh. This vast area was not, however, completely covered as in the case of our own cities, with streets and squares and buildings. That was a feature unusual, and almost unknown, in the ancient cities of the East. It was perhaps the feature which, belonging to Jerusalem by virtue of the deep ravines by which it was surrounded, and which "determined its natural boundaries," and prevented its spreading abroad after the fashion of other oriental cities, called forth the surprise and admiration of the Jews after their return from Babylon. "Jerusalem," they exclaim, "(unlike Babylon where we so long have dwelt) is built as a city which is compact together." Like Babylon, Nineveh included not only parks and paradises, but fields under tillage and pastures for "much cattle" (Jonah 4:11) in its wide embrace. The most probable site of the city thus defined will be seen by reference to the accompanying plan. It lies on the eastern bank of the Tigris in the fork formed by that river and the Ghazr Su and Great Zab, just above their confluence. The whole of this district abounds in heaps of ruins. Indeed, "they are found," it is said, "in vast numbers throughout the whole region watered by the Tigris and Euphrates and their confluents, from the Taurus to the Persian Gulf." "Such mounds," it is added, "are especially numerous in the region to the east of the Tigris, in which Nineveh stood, and some of them must mark the ruins of the Assyrian capital." (Dict. of the Bible.) Four of these great masses of ruins, which will be found marked on the plan, Kouyunjik, Nimrud, Karamless, Khorsabad, form together an irregular parallelogram of very similar dimensions to those mentioned in the text. From Kouyunjik (lying opposite Mosul) on the Eastern bank of the Tigris, a line drawn in a S. E. direction, parallel to the course of the river, to Nimrud is about eighteen miles. From Nimrud, in a northerly direction, to Karamless is about twelve. The opposite sides of the parallelogram, from Karamless to the most northerly point Khorsabad, and from Khorsabad to Kouyunjik again, are about the same. These four vast piles of buildings, with the area included in the parallelogram which they form, are now generally identified with the site of the Nineveh which Jonah visited. For fuller particulars the reader is referred to Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Article Nineveh, and to the well-known works of Mr Layard and Professor Rawlingson.