Destruction of Nineveh
JOSEPHUS.—Now about this time (the latter part of the reign of Jotham, or B. C. 740) a prophet, whose name was Nahum, spoke concerning the overthrow of the Assyrians and of Nineveh... all of which happened a hundred and fifteen years after.—Antiq., ix., II, 3.
DR. WILLIAM FRASER. —The completeness of the destruction and the permanence of the desolation of Nineveh were foretold with such bold distinctness, as to give the impression that Nahum's language was merely hyperbolical; but the results have proved to the very letter its historical accuracy.... Fearfully and most convincingly have all his predictions been fulfilled. Nineveh went down to "desolation"—sank into “utter ruin"—and its very ruins were lost to the world.—Blending Lights, p. 315-318.
J. BONOMI, F. R. S. L.—Far away it lay buried—no certain trace was known as to the place of its sepulcher—vague tradition said that it was hidden some-where near the river Tigris. More than 2,000 years had it lain in its unknown grave, when a French savant and a wandering English scholar, urged by a noble inspiration, sought the seat of the once powerful empire, and, searching till they found the dead city, threw off its shroud of sand and ruin, and revealed once more to an astonished and curious world the temples, the palaces, and the idols; the representations of war, and the triumphs of peaceful art of the ancient Assyrians. The Nineveh of Scripture—the Nineveh of the oldest historians; the Nineveh— twin-sister of Babylon—glorying in a civilization of pomp and power, all traces of which were believed to be gone; the Nineveh, in which the captive tribes of Israel had labored and wept, and against which the prophecies had gone forth, was, after a sleep of twenty centuries, again brought to light. The proofs of ancient splendor were again beheld by living eyes, and, by the skill of draftsmen and the pen of antiquarian travelers, made known and preserved to the world.—Nineveh and its Palaces, p. 1, 2.
DIODORUS SICULUS.—It happened that the king of Assyria, not knowing anything of the revolt of the Bactrians, and elated by his former successes, was indulging in idleness and reveling; and had prepared wine and other things necessary for feasting his soldiers. While his whole army was now feasting and reveling, Arbaces, receiving intelligence from some deserters of the carelessness and intemperance of the enemy, fell upon them, easily broke into their camp, slew great numbers of them, and drove the remainder back into the city.—Diod. Sic., lib. ii., c. 26.
BOTTA.—In the Bas-reliefs exhumed from the ruins of Nineveh carousing scenes are represented more than once, in which the king, his courtiers, and even the queen, reclining on couches or seated on thrones, and attended by musicians, appear to be pledging each other in bowls of wine.—Mon. de Nin., pl. 63-67, etc.
Nab. 1:14.—Out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make thy grave, for thou art vile.
HON. AUSTEN H. LAYARD, M. P.—Deeply buried in the high mound of Nimroud, we came upon the remains of a Temple. Four of its chambers were explored. The great entrances were to the east. The principal portal was formed by two colossal human-headed lions, sixteen and a half feet high and fifteen feet long. They were flanked by three small winged figures, one above the other, and divided by an ornamental cornice, and between them was an inscribed pavement slab of alabaster. In front of each was a square stone, apparently the pedestal of an altar, and the walls on both sides were adorned with enameled bricks.
About thirty feet to the north of the lion gateway was a second entrance, at each side of which were two singular figures. One was that of a monster, whose head, of fanciful and hideous form, had long pointed ears and extended jaws, armed with huge teeth. Its body was covered with feathers, its forefeet were those of a lion, its hind legs ended in the talons of an eagle, and it had spreading wings and the tail of a bird. Behind this strange image was a winged man, whose dress consisted of an upper garment with a skirt of skin or fur, an under robe fringed with tassels, and the sacred horned hat. A long sword was suspended from his shoulders by an embossed belt; sandals, armlets, and bracelets, completed his attire. He grasped in each hand an object in the form of a double trident, resembling the thunderbolt of the Greek Jove, which he was in the attitude of hurling against the monster, who turned furiously towards him.— This group appears to represent the bad spirit driven out by a good deity; a fit subject for the entrance of a temple.
On the slabs at right angles to these sculptures, forming the outer part of the entrance, were two colossal human figures, without wings, wearing garlands on their heads, and bearing branches ending in three flowers. Within the temple, at right angles to the entrance, were sculptured fish-gods, somewhat different in form from those in the palace of Kouyunjik.
To the right of this entrance, and apparently outside the walls of the temple, was discovered one of the finest specimens of Assyrian sculpture brought to this country. It represents the early Nimroud king in high relief, carved on a solid block of limestone, cut into the shape of an arched frame, in the form of the rock-tablets of Bavian and the Nahr-el-Kelb. The monarch wears his sacrificial robes, and carries the sacred mace in his left hand. Round his neck are hung the four sacred signs, the crescent, the star, the trident, and the cross. His waist is encircled by the knotted cord, and in his girdle are three daggers. Above his head are the mythic symbols of Assyrian worship, the winged globe, the crescent, the star, the bident, and the horned cap. The entire slab, eight feet eight inches high, by four feet six inches broad, and one foot three inches thick, is covered behind and before, except where the sculpture intervenes, with an Inscription, in small and admirably formed arrow-headed characters. It was fixed on a plain square pedestal, and stood isolated from the building. In front of it was an altar of stone, supported on lions' feet, very much resembling in shape the tripod of the Greeks. It would seem from the altar before this figure, that the Assyrians, like other nations of old, were in the habit of deifying the heroes of their race, and that the king who extended the bounds of the empire to distant lands, and raised temples to the gods, received after his death divine honors.
Unfortunately, the heat of the fire which had consumed the building had also broken this monument in two pieces; it sustained still further damage in its transport to England. The Inscription must have contained, when entire, several hundred lines, and is divided on the back of the slab into two columns. It commences with an invocation to the god Ashur, the supreme lord, the king of the circle of the twelve great gods. Then follow the names of these deities; who, perhaps, presided over the twelve months, corresponding with the same circle in the Egyptian mythology.
About one hundred feet to the east of the above, I discovered a second Temple. Its principal entrance faced the south, and was on the same level as the northwest palace. The gateway was formed by two colossal lions with extended jaws, gathered up lips and nostrils, flowing manes, and ruffs of bristly hair, etc. (Thus have been fulfilled the sure words of prophecy: "Out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image; I will make thy grave, for thou art vile.")—Nineveh and Babylon, p. 299-302, and 309.
ASSYRIAN SCULPTURES.—The shields and the dresses of the warriors are generally painted red in the sculptures discovered among the ruins.—See Nineveh and its Palaces, p. 209, 327, etc.
SCULPTURES OF NIMROUD. —(On the walls of the palace at Nimroud is elaborately sculptured, on marble slabs, a battle-scene, in which occurs the following striking illustration of this text)—The first subject on the upper line represents the king in front of the battle, in his chariot, with his charioteer and shield-bearer. To the sides of the chariot are attached, crossing each other, two quivers full of arrows. Each quiver contains a small bow, and is likewise furnished with a hatchet. The bossed shield of the king is placed at the back of the chariot, serving for further protection: in front is the brass or iron pole, terminating in the head of a swan. The spear is inserted behind the chariot in a place appointed for it, decorated with a human head. The harness and trappings of the horses are rich and elaborate like those of Egypt. Above the royal chariot is the winged divinity, wearing the double-horned cap. He directs his arrows against the enemies of the king. Directly before the king, one of the enemy—perhaps the chief—is falling out from his chariot; while his charioteer, unable to guide the horses, is precipitated in front. Behind one of the king's soldiers has seized a flying enemy, and is about to kill him, notwithstanding the efforts of his companion to drag him off to a place of security. Another of the enemy lies dead; and others are actively flying for refuge towards the outworks of the city—which reach to the shores of a shallow stream running through a woody country. The victorious king has pursued the enemy up to the very confines of the city; which is further protected by a ditch and double wall—and from behind which the enemy are discharging their arrows. The city is represented with embattled towers and arched gateway. From the towers the enemy are shooting arrows and throwing stones, under cover of wicker shields. The last figure—as far as the fracture allows us to see—is that of a person endeavoring to obtain a parley: he holds his slackened bow in his left hand, and his right hand is upraised in the act of bespeaking attention.— Bonomi’s Nineveh and its Palaces, p. 224-227.
DIODORUS SICULUS.—There was an old prophecy among the Ninevites, received from their forefathers, that their city should never be taken till the river became its enemy: and in the third year of the siege, the river, being swollen with continued rains, overflowed part of the city, and broke down the wall for twenty stadia: then the king, thinking that the oracle was fulfilled, and the river become an enemy to the city, built a large funeral pile in the palace, and collecting together all his wealth, and his concubines and eunuchs, burnt himself and the palace with them all: and the enemy entered the breach that the waters had made, and took the city.—Diod. Sic., lib. ii., c. 26, 27.
Nah. 9.—Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture.
DIODORUS SICULUS.—Arbaces, having taken the city, distributed the citizens of Nineveh through the country villages, leveled the city with the ground, and transferred many talents of gold and silver to Ecbatana, the royal city of the Medes; and so the empire of the Assyrians was subverted.—Diod. Sic., lib. ii., C. 28.
IDEM.—Belesis pretended that he had made a vow to Belus, that when Sardanapalus should be conquered and his palace consumed, he would carry the ashes to Babylon, and there raise a mound near to his temple; but his true reason for desiring to do this was that he had heard of the gold and silver which lay hidden among the ruins. Arbaces, being ignorant of the plot, granted him permission to carry away the ashes: upon which Belesis prepared shipping and took away great treasures of gold and silver to Babylon.—Diod. Sic., lib. ii., c. 28.
GIBBON.—Eastward of the Tigris, at the end of the bridge of Mosul, the great NINEVEH had formerly been erected: the city, and even the ruins, had long since disappeared; the vacant space afforded a spacious field for the operation of the two armies.—Decl. and Fall, Vol. VIII., p. 250.
That this was the true character of Nineveh at this very time—that its kings delighted in, and made a boast of their cruelties, carnage and robberies, is sufficiently attested by their own records recently brought to light. Take a single example from the
INSCRIPTION OF SENNACHERIB.—Like a herd of sleek oxen of abundant fatness eagerly I attacked and defeated them. Their heads I cut off, like victims, their highly worked decorations I tore off with derision. Like the fall of a great shower, their rings and bracelets I cast down upon the earth in a lofty heap. My faultless horses, yoked to my chariot, through the deep pools of blood, stepped slowly. Of my chariot, as it swept away the slain and the fallen, with blood and flesh its wheels were clogged. The heads of their soldiers, like urkiti, I salted, and into great wicker-baskets I stuffed them.—Inscr. of Senn., column v., lines 74-85.
ASSYRIAN SCULPTURES.—This magnificent description of the assault upon the city of Nineveh is illustrated in almost every particular upon the sculptured slabs that have been dug out of its ruins, and the ruins of neighboring cities. The various kinds of armor, helmets, shields, spears, swords, used in battle and during a siege; the chariots and horses, etc., are all seen in the various bas-reliefs discovered by Botta and Layard.—See Nineveh and its Remains, Vol. II., part 2, chap. 4 and 5.
DR. WILLIAM FRASER.—Taken' by themselves, the prophecies of Nahum appear to be unlikely, if not contradictory, in their reference to the means by which the city of Nineveh was to be destroyed. In one portion we read, “That the gates of the river should be opened," and that” there should be an overrunning flood: "in another," Fire shall devour thy bars—There shall fire devour thee." Unlikely as was this combination of fire and water, in the prophecy, as the means that would ensure the destruction of Nineveh, yet it was true, and the prediction was fulfilled to the very letter.—Blending Lights, p. 315-318.
EDITOR OF PICTORIAL BIBLE.—The statement that Nineveh should be destroyed by fire is most remarkably verified by the state in which its ruins have been found. The appearance of the ruins of the more recent palaces—the palace of Khorsabad, the southwest palace of Nimroud, and the palace of Kouyunjik—proves beyond a doubt that they had been destroyed by fire; while it is quite as clear that the northwest and center palaces of Nimroud owed their ruin to a different cause.— Append. to Vol. III., Note 78.
LAYARD.—The palace of Kouyunjik had been destroyed by fire. The alabaster slabs were almost reduced to lime, and many of them fell to pieces as soon as uncovered. The places which others had occupied could only be traced by a thin white deposit, left by the burnt alabaster upon the wall of sun-dried bricks, and having the appearance of a coating of plaster.... The whole entrance of the southwest palace at Nimroud was buried in charcoal, and the fire which destroyed the building appears to have raged in this part with extraordinary fury.—Nineveh and its Remains, Vol. I., p. 121.
BOTTA.—I must acknowledge I no longer doubt that this monument (the Khorsabad palace) was destroyed by fire. The lower portion contains an enormous quantity of charcoal, and even remnants of burnt beams; besides, the surface of the gypsum, in many places, is evidently converted into plaster, and become friable; to these indications, in short, another sign may be added. I have already mentioned the discovery, during the excavations, of a little ball of clay, bearing a mythological impression. Six more, precisely similar, have since appeared, and, on examination, I perceived that a hole was bored through them still retaining fragments of carbonized string.—Letters, English Trans., 1850.
LAYARD. —In the ruins of the Temple of Nimroud was found a mass of lead, melted by the fire, for embedded in it was the iron head of a hatchet.—Nineveh and Babylon, p. 308.
Doom of the Assyrian Power
AUSTEN H. LAYARD, D. C. L.—Situated upon a navigable river communicating with the Euphrates and the Persian Gulf, Nineveh must have soon formed one of the great trading stations between that important inland sea, and Syria, and the Mediterranean, and must have become a depot for the merchandise supplied to a great part of Asia Minor, Armenia, and Persia. The animals represented on the Black Obelisk, now in the British Museum, and on other monuments—the rhinoceros, the elephant, the double-humped camel, and various kinds of apes and monkeys, show a communication direct or indirect with the remotest parts of Asia. The intercourse with foreign nations, and the practice of carrying to Assyria as captives the skilled artists and workmen of conquered countries, must have contributed greatly to the improvement of Assyrian manufactures. —Smith's Dict. of Bible, p. 2170.
REV. W. M. THOMSON, D. D.—To anyone who has attentively watched the habits of the locust, the comparison of Nahum is not only plain, but very striking. In the evenings, as soon as the air became cool, at Abeih, they literally camped in the hedges and loose stone walls, covering them over like a swarm of bees settled on a bush. There they remained until the next day's sun waxed warm, when they again commenced their march. On a cool day they scarcely move at all from their camps. But when the hot sun beats powerfully upon them, they literally flee away and the place is not known where they are. This is true even in regard to those which have not wings. One wonders where they have all gone to. Yesterday the whole earth seemed to be creeping and jumping, to-day you see not a locust.—The Land and the Book, Vol. II., p. 106.
And their place is not known where they are.
LUCIAN.—Nineveh is so completely destroyed, that it is not even possible to say where it stood.— Contempl., c. 23.
DIODORUS SICULUS.—When the enemy had shut up the king within the city, many nations revolted; each going over to the besiegers, for the sake of their liberty.—Diod. Sic., lib. ii.
DR. JOHN KITTO.—The war practices of the Assyrians, as represented on the monuments, were characterized by savage cruelty. Their treatment of captives was particularly cruel. In a sculpture at Khorsabad, for example, Mere is a representation of a man flaying a captive alive. In others, the king is represented holding in one hand a rope, which is attached at its other ends to rings through the lips of certain prisoners; while with the other, he is putting out the eyes of a captive with a sharp-pointed instrument. Many bas-reliefs represent Assyrian soldiers bringing in the heads of the slain, and scribes keeping account of their number, to furnish matter for boasting to the vainglorious and barbarous tyrant. More horrible still, the monuments show clearly that it was an occasional practice of the Assyrians to impale their victims, and the practice seems to have become more common during the latter period of the empire. These infamous usages, taken in connection with the extent and overwhelming success of the Assyrian conquests—as represented on the sculptures, and narrated in the inscriptions—enable us to understand the force and point of the question, " Upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually? "—Piet. Bible, Vol. III., p. 729.
There is no healing of thy bruise.
PROF. GEORGE RAWLINSON, M. A.—In accordance with the announcement of Nahum, we find that Assyria never rose again to any importance, nor even succeeded in maintaining a distinct nationality. Once only was revolt attempted, and then in conjunction with Armenia and Media, the latter heading the rebellion. This attempt took place about a century after the Median conquest, during the troubles which followed upon the accession of Darius Hystaspes. It failed signally, and appears never to have been repeated, the Assyrians remaining thenceforth submissive subjects of the Persian empire. They were reckoned in the same satrapy with Babylon, and paid an annual tribute of 1,000 talents of silver. In the Persian armies, which were drawn in great part from the subject-nations, they appear never to have been held of much account, though they fought in common with other levies.—Smith's Dict. of Bible, p. 189.