NINEVEH, THE CITY

Genesis 10:11-12, Out of that land went forth Asshur and builded Nineveh, and the city Rehoboth, and Calah,
And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same is a great city.

This is the first mention of the city of Nineveh. It is not mentioned again until the days of Jonah (Jonah 3:2 & 4:11), described as a great and populous city, the flourishing capital of the the Assyrian empire (2 Kings 19:36 and Isaiah 37:37). The Book of Nahum is mostly about the total destruction of Nineveh, the capital of the empire of Assyria. It was not mentioned again until Matthew 12:41 and Luke 11:32.

On the eastern or left bank of the Tigris River was found this "exceeding great city." It was some 30 miles and had a average width of 10 miles or more from the river back to the eastern hills. Now the whole extensive, immense area is nothing more than ruins. Centrally located on the great highway from the Mediterranean and the Indian Ocean it unites the East and the West, wealth flowed into it from many sources, so that it became the greatest of all ancient cities.

Signs of weakness began to show in the Assyrian empire around 633 B.C., the Medes attacked Nineveh, in the end, joined by the Babylonians and the Susianians, again attacked it, after it fell, the city was destroyed to the ground. This was the end of the Assyrian empire, its provinces was divided between the Medes and Babylonians. "After having ruled for more than six hundred years with hideous tyranny and violence, from the Caucasus and the Caspian to the Persian Gulf, and from beyond the Tigris to Asia Minor and Egypt, it vanished like a dream" (Nahum 2:6-11). it was God's doing, His judgement on Assyria's pride. (Isaiah 10:5-19).

The great Assyrian empire and its magnificent capital was almost a total blank 40 years ago. Vague memories indeed had survived of its power and greatness, but very little else was really known about it. Other cities which had perished, as Palmyra, Persepolis, and Thebes, had left ruins to mark their sites and tell of their former greatness; but of this city, imperial Nineveh, not a single sign seemed to remain, and the very place on which it had stood was only a matter of conjecture. In fulfillment of prophecy, God made "an utter end of the place." It became a "desolation."

In the days of the Greek historian Herodotus, 400 B.C., it had become a thing of the past; and when Xenophon the historian passed the place in the "Retreat of the Ten Thousand," the very memory of its name had been lost. It was buried out of sight, and no one knew its grave. It is never again to rise from its ruins.

At length, after being lost for more than two thousand years, the city was disentombed. A little more than 40 years ago the French consul at Mosul began to search the vast mounds that lay along the opposite bank of the river. The Arabs whom he employed in these excavations, to their great surprise, came upon the ruins of a building at the mound of Khorsabad, which, on further exploration, turned out to be the royal palace of Sargon, one of the Assyrian kings. They found their way into its extensive courts and chambers, brought forth from its hidden depths many wonderful sculptures and other relics of those ancient times.

Part two tomorrow.

God's blessing to each of you,
LJG

SOURCES: Kings James Bible, Easton's Bible Dictionary
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