Nineveh
Capital · Nineveh → Mosul, Iraq
The great city of Assyria. Jonah preached here and it turned, for a time, from its violence.
People
- Nimrod
- Jonah
- the king of Nineveh
- Sennacherib
- Nahum
At a glance
- Realm
- Assyria
- Role
- Great capital of the Assyrian empire
- Peoples
- Assyrians
- First mention
- Genesis 10 (built after Babel)
The story
Nineveh rose on the east bank of the Tigris, across from modern Mosul, a city said to have been founded in the days after Babel. Sennacherib made it the vast capital of Assyria, ringed with great walls and gates and watered by canals, an exceeding great city.
Jonah, sent to preach against its violence, first fled the other way, then walked its streets crying that it would fall, and the king and all the city repented in sackcloth and were spared. But a century later Nineveh returned to its cruelty, and Nahum foretold its end, which came when the Medes and Babylonians tore it down and left it empty.
Through the eras
- The Patriarchs · standing. One of the great cities of old, built in the days after the flood.
- Divided Kingdoms · at its height. Jonah preached in this great city; soon after these years Sennacherib made it Assyria’s capital, at its height about 700 BC.
- The Exile · in ruins. Fell in 612 BC to Babylon and the Medes, as Nahum foretold.
- The Return · in ruins. Left desolate, as the prophets had said.