614. Ninevite Conviviality

Narrator: Chris Genthree
Nahum 1:10  •  1 min. read  •  grade level: 11
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Henderson’s translation is more graphic: “thoroughly soaked with their wine.” The prophet here has reference to the drinking habits of the Ninevites, of which the monuments give abundant illustration. Rawlinson says: “In the banquet scenes of the sculptures it is drinking, and not eating, that is represented. Attendants dip the wine-cups into a huge bowl or vase, which stands on the ground and reaches as high as a man’s chest, and carry them full of liquor to the guests, who straightway fall to a carouse.... Every guest holds in his right hand a wine-cup of a most elegant shape, the lower part modeled into the form of a lion’s head, from which the cup itself rises in a graceful curve. They all raise their cups to a level with their heads, and look as if they were either pledging each other or else one and all drinking the same toast” (Five Great Monarchies, vol.1, pp. 579-580).