Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

NINEVEH, NINEVITE*

One of the capitals of the Assyrian Empire and, at the height of that empire, one of the great cities of the world. Nineveh was situated in what is now northern Iraq and is represented today by the mounds of Kouyunjik and Nebi Yunus to the east of the Tigris River and opposite the main part of the city of Mosul.

The larger mound, Kouyunjik, to the northwest (approximately a mile by 650 yards [1.6 kilometers by 594.4 meters] in area and some 90 feet [27.4 meters] in height above the plain), is separated from Nebi Yunus by the Khosr River. A village, a cemetery, and a mosque said to contain the tomb of Jonah occupy Nebi Yunus, preventing extensive archaeological work.

Nineveh’s surrounding brick wall, about 8 miles (12.9 kilometers) long with 15 gates (of which 5 have been excavated) was guarded by the colossal stone bulls that typify Assyrian city architecture of this period.

History

The occupation of the site dates to prehistoric times (c. 4500 BC), in agreement with the record of the founding of the city in Genesis 10. Materials from the various early cultures (Hassuna, Samarra, Halaf, Ubaid) have been found at Nineveh.

Sargon of Akkad (mid-24th century BC) was acquainted with Nineveh, which flourished during his time. A record from the reign of a later king, Shamsi-Adad I (c. 1800 BC), relates that a son of Sargon, Manishtusu, restored the temple of Ishtar at Nineveh.

Ishtar (Inanna), the goddess of love and war, was a fitting deity for the rapacious and warlike Assyrians. Many other deities were worshiped at Nineveh, and gates of the city were named after them. The Assyrians worshiped at the temple of Nabu, the god of writing and of arts and sciences, who reflects the Assyrian interest in records, literature, and sculpture in relief and in the round.

Shamsi-Adad I and Hammurabi also restored the temple of Ishtar at Nineveh, Shalmaneser I and Tukulti-Ninurta I enlarged and strengthened the city, and other rulers built their palaces here—Tiglath-pileser I, Ashurnasirpal II (883–859 BC), and Sargon II (722–705 BC). But Sennacherib (705–681 BC) made Nineveh the capital and went to great lengths to beautify the city. In addition to his famous palace, he undertook many projects, rebuilding the city walls, creating parks, making botanical and zoological collections, and constructing aqueducts to bring water for the city from 30 miles (48.3 kilometers) away. To Nineveh came the tribute that the conquering Assyrians exacted from the nations, including Israel and Judah, which fell victim to their awesome armies.

Sennacherib Leads His Troops from Nineveh toward Israel

After the assassination of Sennacherib, his son and successor, Esar-haddon (681–669 BC), captured Nineveh from the hands of rebels. He built a palace at Nineveh and had another at Calah, where he spent most of his time.

Esar-haddon’s son Ashurbanipal (669–633 BC) made his residence at Nineveh, where he had been educated and trained in sports and military skills. He was something of an antiquarian and mastered the reading of Akkadian and Sumerian. In his palace was housed the famous library for the study of Assyriology. The temple of Nabu contained a library dating at least to the time of Sargon II, but the royal library of Ashurbanipal far surpassed it in size and importance. Sargon and his successors had collected many tablets, but Ashurbanipal sent scribes all over Assyria and Babylonia to gather and to copy tablets, so that tens of thousands of tablets accumulated. Like the library of Nippur, the Nineveh collection covers a great range of materials: business accounts, letters, royal records, historical documents, lexicographical lists and bilingual texts, legends, myths, and various other kinds of religious inscriptions, such as hymns, prayers, and lists of deities and temples. Among the tablets were 7 that preserved a Babylonian creation story and 12 that bore the epic of Gilgamesh, with a version of the Flood. Other writings that sometimes are cited as parallels to Bible accounts include the story of Adapa, with the lost opportunity to achieve immortality, and the legend of Etana, a shepherd who ascended to heaven.

Ashurbanipal was also well known for his wars and for his cruelty. The palace relief showing a peaceful banquet scene also displays the severed head of an Elamite leader hanging in a tree.

In the later years of the aging king, and after his demise, the vassal kingdoms rebelled. Babylon became independent and joined with the Medes to take Ashur and Calah in 614 BC. Cyaxares the Mede, Nabopolassar of Babylon, and a Scythian force laid siege to Nineveh in 612 BC; the city fell and King Sinshariskum (Sardanapalus) perished in its flames.

Although a Ninevite remnant under Ashuruballit held out at Harran until 609 BC, Nineveh had been destroyed: the divine predictions of the Hebrew prophets had their complete fulfillment.

Nineveh and the Bible

Six books of the OT refer to the city of Nineveh. In Genesis the only mention of Nineveh appears in the table of nations (Gn 10), which states that Nimrod went out from the land of Shinar to Assyria and built Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah (vv 11-12; the KJB attributes this building to Asshur).

The tribute paid by Menahem (2 Kgs 15:19-20) and the spoil taken at the fall of Samaria (Is 8:4) were brought to Nineveh. To this city also came the tribute that Sennacherib received from Hezekiah (2 Kgs 14–16).

Among the scenes commemorated in the reliefs found in Sennacherib’s palace at Nineveh is the depiction of the siege and capture of Lachish (cf. 2 Kgs 19:8). Sennacherib is shown on a throne, with suppliant captives before him. The siege itself is shown in progress, with archers and battering rams on the attack, while defenders on the walls use bows and arrows and firebrands to repulse the onslaught. From one gate people are emerging with bundles on their backs as if in surrender or flight. At the lower right three naked men have been impaled on poles.

On the prism at the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago and on the Taylor Prism at the British Museum there is Sennacherib’s account of this invasion of Judah. Since the Assyrians did not take Jerusalem, Sennacherib had to be content with boasting: “As to Hezekiah the Jew, he did not submit to my yoke. I laid siege to 46 of his strong cities, walled forts and to the countless small villages in their vicinity, and conquered them. . . . Himself I made a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage.”

The Assyrian kings associated with Nineveh played an important part in the history of Israel, but the name Nineveh occurs only once in the historical books of the Bible. Second Kings 19:36 states that after the loss of 185,000 soldiers at the hand of the angel of the Lord, Sennacherib went home and stayed in Nineveh. There, in 681 BC, he was murdered by his sons (cf. 2 Kgs 19:37; 2 Chr 32:21; Is 37:38).

There are many references to Nineveh in the book of Jonah, for the prophet was expressly sent to that city to warn it of impending judgment. Nineveh is called “that great city” (Jon 1:2; 3:2) and it is described as “a city so large, that it took three days to see it” (3:3). Nineveh must have included more than the area represented by the mounds of Kouyunjik and Nebi Yunus. Some commentators believe that Nineveh encompassed other cities associated with it, including the “Assyrian triangle,” the angle of land between the Tigris and the Great Zab rivers, reaching from Khorsabad in the north to Nimrud in the south.

The Lord speaks of “that great city, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand persons who do not know their right hand from their left” (Jon 4:11, rsv). Some writers interpret this statement as indicating the number of innocent children in the city and therefore arrive at a total population of some 600,000 for greater Nineveh. However, it is more reasonable to conclude that the entire population is meant and that the descriptive clause relates to the utter spiritual darkness of the Ninevites—as is translated in the NLT.

Jonah preached a message of judgment and destruction, but the repentance of the city brought about its deliverance (3:6-10). Nahum declared the final downfall of the city in language that is vivid and stirring. Zephaniah also foretold the doom of Nineveh and prophesied that it would be a desolation, a place for flocks to lie down, as even the casual visitor to the site would note (Zep 2:13-15).

Nineveh was destroyed by a coalition of Babylonians, Medes, and Scythians. The devastation of the city was overwhelming and complete; within several centuries the very location of the city was forgotten. Xenophon and the Greek armies retreated past the site in 401 BC without realizing it. In the second century AD the Greek satirist Lucian commented: “Nineveh is so completely destroyed that it is no longer possible to say where it stood. Not a single trace of it remains.”

The only NT references to Nineveh in the Gospels also have to do with judgment. Jesus asserted, in response to a demand from the scribes and Pharisees, that an evil generation looks for a sign; as Jonah had been a sign to the Ninevites, so Jesus would be a sign to his generation (Mt 12:38-40; Lk 11:29-31). He went on to declare that the people of Nineveh would rise at the judgment with his generation and condemn it, for the Ninevites repented at the preaching of Jonah. Now one greater than Jonah had come (Mt 12:41; Lk 11:32).