the Week of Proper 25 / Ordinary 30
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Nahum 3:8
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Nineveh, are you better than Thebes on the Nile River? Thebes also had water all around her to protect herself from enemies. She used that water like a wall too.
Are you better than No-amon, Which was situated by the canals of the Nile, With water surrounding her, Whose rampart was the sea, Whose wall consisted of the sea?
You are no better than Thebes, who sits by the Nile River with water all around her. The river was her defense; the waters were like a wall around her.
Are you better than No-amon, that was situated among the rivers, that had the waters round about her; whose rampart was the sea, [and] her wall was more than the sea?
Art thou better than populous No, that was situated among the rivers, [that had] the waters around it, whose rampart [was] the sea, [and] her wall [was] from the sea?
Are you better than Thebes, Which was situated by the waters of the Nile, With water surrounding her, Whose defense was the sea (the Nile), Whose wall consisted of the sea?
Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall?
Are you better than No-Amon, who was situated among the rivers, who had the waters around her; whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea?
Whether thou art betere than Alisaundre of puplis, that dwellith in floodis? Watris ben in cumpas therof, whos richessis is the see, watris ben wallis therof.
Art thou better than No-amon, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about her; whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea?
Are you better than Thebes, situated by the Nile with water around her, whose rampart was the sea, whose wall was the water?
Nineveh, do you feel safer than the city of Thebes? The Nile River was its wall of defense.
Art thou better than No-amon, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about her; whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea?
Are you better than No-amon, seated on the Nile streams, with waters all round her; whose wall was the sea and her earthwork the waters?
Are you any better than No-Amon, located among the streams of the Nile, with water all around her, the flood her wall of defense?
Art thou better than No-Amon, that was situate among the rivers, [that had] the waters round about her, whose rampart was the sea, [and] of the sea was her wall?
Art thou better than No-amon, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about her; whose rampart was the sea, and of the sea her wall?
Art thou better then populous No, that was scituate among the riuers that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?
Are you better than Thebes, which is by the Nile River? Water was all around her. The sea kept her safe, for the water was her wall.
Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, water her wall?
Art thou better then No, which was ful of people? that lay in the riuers, and had the waters round about it? whose ditche was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?
Are you better than Jawan of Ammon, which is situated by the rivers, that had waters round about her, whose rampart was the sea, and water her wall?
Art thou better than No-amon, who sat among the Nile-streams, waters round about her, - whose fortress was the sea, from the sea, her wall.
Art thou better than the populous Alexandria, that dwelleth among the rivers? waters are round about it: the sea is its riches: the waters are its walls.
Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, and water her wall?
Wilt thou count thy selfe better then Alexandria the great, that was scituate amonges the riuers, compassed round about with water, whose fortresse was the sea [and had] her wall from the sea?
Prepare thee a portion, tune the chord, prepare a portion for Ammon: she that dwells among the rivers, water is round about her, whose dominion is the sea, and whose walls are water.
Nineveh, are you any better than Thebes, the capital of Egypt? She too had a river to protect her like a wall—the Nile was her defense.
Are you better than Thebesthat sat along the Nilewith water surrounding her,whose rampart was the sea,the river her wall?
Are you better than No-Amon, who was situated among the rivers, who had the waters around her; whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was of the sea?
Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?
Are you better than Thebes? She who sits at the Nile, surrounded by her waters, her rampart was the sea and water was her wall.
Are you better than No Amon that dwelt among the Nile branches, waters surrounding her, whose rampart was the sea, the waters her wall?
Art thou better than No-Ammon, That is dwelling among brooks? Waters she hath round about her, Whose bulwark [is] the sea, waters her wall.
Art thou better then the greate cite of Alexadria? that laye in the waters, and had the waters rounde aboute it: which was strongly fenced & walled with the see?
Do you think you're superior to Egyptian Thebes, proudly invincible on the River Nile, Protected by the great River, walled in by the River, secure? Ethiopia stood guard to the south, Egypt to the north. Put and Libya, strong friends, were ready to step in and help. But you know what happened to her: The whole city was marched off to a refugee camp, Her babies smashed to death in public view on the streets, Her prize leaders auctioned off, her celebrities put in chain gangs. Expect the same treatment, Nineveh. You'll soon be staggering like a bunch of drunks, Wondering what hit you, looking for a place to sleep it off. All your forts are like peach trees, the lush peaches ripe, ready for the picking. One shake of the tree and they fall straight into hungry mouths. Face it: Your warriors are wimps. You're sitting ducks. Your borders are gaping doors, inviting your enemies in. And who's to stop them?
You are no more secure than Thebes— she was located on the banks of the Nile; the waters surrounded her, her rampart was the sea, the water was her wall.
Are you better than No Amon [fn] That was situated by the River, [fn] That had the waters around her,Whose rampart was the sea,Whose wall was the sea?
Are you better than No-amon, Which was situated by the waters of the Nile, With water surrounding her, Whose rampart was the sea, Whose wall consisted of the sea?
Are you better than No‑amon,Which sits along the waters of the Nile,With water surrounding her,Whose rampart was the sea,Whose wall consisted of the sea?
Contextual Overview
Bible Verse Review
from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge
thou: Ezekiel 31:2, Ezekiel 31:3, Amos 6:2
populous No: or, nourishing No, Heb. No-amon, Jeremiah 46:25, Jeremiah 46:26, Ezekiel 30:14-16
that had: Isaiah 19:5-10
Reciprocal: 1 Kings 19:4 - better Jeremiah 25:19 - Pharaoh Jeremiah 46:12 - heard Ezekiel 29:15 - rule Ezekiel 30:5 - Ethiopia Zechariah 11:2 - Howl
Cross-References
The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, "Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?"
"Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden," the woman replied.
"It's only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.'"
Then the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?"
He replied, "I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked."
The man replied, "It was the woman you gave me who gave me the fruit, and I ate it."
And the Lord God made clothing from animal skins for Adam and his wife.
Then the Lord God said, "Look, the human beings have become like us, knowing both good and evil. What if they reach out, take fruit from the tree of life, and eat it? Then they will live forever!"
Has any nation ever heard the voice of God speaking from fire—as you did—and survived?
But now, why should we risk death again? If the Lord our God speaks to us again, we will certainly die and be consumed by this awesome fire.
Gill's Notes on the Bible
Art thou better than populous No,.... Or No Amon, a city in Egypt so called, not because the kings of Egypt were nursed and brought up there, as Jarchi and Abarbinel; see Proverbs 8:30 but from Ham the son of Noah, whose land Egypt was; or from Jupiter Ammon, worshipped there. No Amon signifies the mansion or palace of Ham, or Hamon; the Egyptians, as Herodotus says h, call Jupiter by the name of Ammon. The Targum interprets it of Alexandria the great, a city so called long after this, when it was rebuilt by Alexander the great; so Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, understand it: others take Diospolis or Thebes to be meant, famous in Homer i for its hundred gates; though some think this was not the number of the gates of the city, but of the temples in it; and others are of opinion that these were so many palaces of princes k. The city was built by Osiris; or, according to others, by Busiris, and seems more likely to be the place here meant; since here was a temple dedicated to Jupiter, called by the Egyptians Ammon, as Diodorus Siculus l relates, and was a very large and populous city. Indeed, according to the above historian, it was in compass but a seventeen and a half miles m; which is to be understood of the city when first built, and before it was enlarged; for it must have been a great deal larger in later times, if we may judge of it by its ruins. Strabo n, who was an eyewitness of them quickly after its last destruction by Cornelius Gallus, says, the footsteps of its largeness were seen fourscore furlongs in length, or ten miles; and even this was but small, in comparison of what it was before it was destroyed by Cambyses, when it is said to reach four hundred and twenty furlongs, or fifty two miles and a half o. It was the metropolis of all Egypt; and formerly the whole country was called after its name, as Herodotus p observes. The accounts given of its inhabitants are incredible, and particularly of the soldiers it sent out; according to the epitaph of Rhampses, seven hundred thousand soldiers dwelt in it; which number Diodorus Siculus q gives to all the people in Egypt; but, though it may seem too large for Thebes, must be too little for all Egypt; especially if what Agrippa in Josephus r says is right, that Egypt, from Ethiopia and the borders of India to Alexandria, had no less than 7,500,000 inhabitants: however, if Pomponius Mela s may be credited, when it was necessary, the hundred palaces in Thebes could each of them send out ten thousand armed men, or, as some say, twenty thousand; and if what Diodorus Siculus t affirms is true, that twenty thousand chariots used to go out from thence to war, this shows it to have been a very populous city indeed, and might well be called "populous" No; but now it is utterly destroyed, first by the Assyrians and Babylonians, then by the Persians, and last of all by the Romans; the first destruction must be here referred to, if this city is designed. Strabo u says in his time it was only inhabited in villages; and Juvenal w speaks of it as wholly lying in ruins; and Pausanias x, making mention of it with other cities which abounded with riches, says they were reduced to the fortune of a middling private man, yea, were brought to nothing. It is now, or what is built on the spot, or near it, called Luxxor, or Lukorcen y. Some z think the city Memphis is meant, so Vitringa on Isaiah 19:5.
Isaiah 19:5- :,
Isaiah 19:5- :, this was for many ages the metropolis of all Egypt. Strabo a calls it a large and "populous" city, and full of men, and second to Alexandria in his time. The compass of it, when first built, was eighteen and three quarter miles b; but now there is no more remaining of it than if there had never been such a city; nay, it is not easy to say where it once stood: now Nineveh is asked, or its inhabitants, if it could be thought that their city was in a better and safer condition than this city; it might indeed, according to the account of it by historians, and as in the prophecy of Jonah, be larger, and its inhabitants more numerous; but not better fortified, which seems to be the thing chiefly respected, as follows:
that was situate among the rivers; the canals of the river Nile:
[that had] the waters round about it: a moat on every side, either naturally or artificially:
whose rampart [was] the sea, [and] her wall [was] from the sea? which agrees with Alexandria, according to the description of it by Strabo c, Solinus d, and Josephus e, which had two seas on each side of it; the Egyptian sea on the north, and the lake Mareotis on the south, as well as had the canals of the Nile running into it from various parts; and is represented as very difficult of access, through the sea, rivers, and marshy places about it; and, besides, might have a wall towards the sea, as by this account it should seem, as well as the sea itself was a wall and rampart to it: and this description may also agree with Diospolis or Thebes, which, though more inland, yet, as Bochart f observes, it had, as all Egypt had, the two seas, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and the canals of the Nile, which might be said to be as a rampart to it. So Isocrates g says of all Egypt, that it is fortified with an immortal wall, the Nile, which not only affords a defence, but sufficient food, and is insuperable and inexpugnable; nor is it unusual, as to call rivers and lakes seas, so particularly the Nile, and its canals; see Isaiah 11:15, and in the Alcoran the Nile is often called a sea h. There is another Diospolis in Egypt, near Mendes, which, as Strabo i says, had lakes about it; but this, being a more obscure place, is not likely to be intended here; though Father Calmet k is of opinion that it is here meant; it being situated in the Delta, on one of the arms of the Nile, between Busiris to the south, and Mendes to the north. The description seems to agree better with Memphis, whose builder Uchoreus, as Diodorus Siculus l says, chose a very convenient place for it, where the Nile divided itself into many parts, and made the Delta, so called from its figure; and which he made wonderfully strong, after this manner: whereas the Nile flowed round the city, being built within the ancient bed of it, and at its increase would overflow it; he cast up a very great mound or rampart to the south, which was a defence against the swell of the river, and was of the use of a fortress against enemies by land; and on the other parts all about he dug a large and deep lake, which received a very great deal of the river, and filled every place about the city but where the mound (or rampart) was built, and so made it amazingly strong; whence the kings after him left Thebes, and had their palace and court here; and so Herodotus, who makes Menes to be the builder of it, says m, that without the city he caused lakes to be dug from the river to the north, and to the west, for to the east the Nile itself bounded it; and Josephus n, who also makes Minaeus, or Menes, the first Pharaoh, to be the builder of it, speaks of that and the sea together, as if not far off each other: now, if a city so populous, and so well fortified by art and nature, as each of these were, was taken, and its inhabitants carried captive, Nineveh could not depend on her numbers or situation for safety, which were not more or better than this.
h L. 2. sive Euterpe, c. 42. i Iliad. 9. ver. 381. k Vid. Mela de Situ Orbis, l. 1. c. 9. Diodor. Sicul. l. 1. p. 43. l Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 14, 42. Ed. Rhodoman. m Ibid. p. 42. n Geograph. l. 16. p. 561, Ed. Casaubon. o See the Universal History, vol. 1. p. 396. p Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 15. q Ut supra, (Bibliothec. l. 1.) p. 27. r De Bello Jud. l. 2. c. 16. sect. 4. s De Situ Orbis, l. 1. c. 9. t Ut supra, (Bibliothec. l. 1.) p. 43. Vid. Homer, ut supra. (Iliad. 9. ver. 381.) u Ut supra. (Geograph. l. 16. p. 561, Ed. Casaubon.) w "Vetus Theba centum jacet obruta portis", Satyr. 15. l. 6. x Arcadica, sive l. 8. p. 509. Ed. Hanau. y Norden's Travels in Egypt and Nubia, vol. 2. p. 61, 62. z So Hillerus, Onomast. Sacr. p. 571, 572. & Burkius in loc. a Geograph. l. 17. p. 555. b Diodor. Sicul. Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 46. c Geograph. l. 17. p. 545. d Polyhistor. c. 45. e De Bello Jud. l. 2. c. 16. sect. 4. f Phaleg. l. 1. c. 1. col. 6, 7. g Busiris, p. 437. h Vid. Schultens in Job xiv. 11. i Geograph. l. 17. p. 551. k Dictionary, in the word "Diospolis". l Ut supra. (Diodor. Sicul. Bibliothec. l. 1. p. 46.) m Euterpe, sive l. 2. c. 99. n Antiqu. l. 8. c. 6. sect. 2. & l. 2. c. 10. sect. 1.
Barnes' Notes on the Bible
Art thou better - More populous or more powerful, “than the populous No?” rather than No-Ammon, so called from the idol Ammon, worshiped there. No-Ammon, (or, as it is deciphered in the Cuneiform Inscriptions, Nia), meaning probably “the portion of Ammon” , was the sacred name of the capital of Upper Egypt, which, under its common name, Thebes, was far-famed, even in the time of Homer, for its continually accruing wealth, its military power, its 20,000 chariots, its vast dimensions attested by its 100 gates .
Existing earlier, as the capital of Upper Egypt, its grandeur began in the 18th dynasty, alter the expulsion of the Hyksos, or Semitic conquerors of Egypt. Its Pharaohs were conquerors, during the 18th to 20th dynasties, 1706-1110 b.c. - about six centuries. It was then the center of a world empire. Under a disguised name , its rulers were celebrated in Geek story also, for their worldwide conquests. The Greek statements have in some main points been verified by the decipherment of the hieroglyphics. The monuments relate their victories in far Asia, and mention Nineveh itself among the people who paid tribute to them. They warred and conquered from the Soudan to Mesopotamia. A monument of Tothmosis I (1066 b.c.) still exists at Kerman, between the 20th and 19th degrees latitude, boasting, in language like that of the Assyrian conquerors; “All lands are subdued, and bring their tributes for the first time to the gracious god” . “The frontier of Egypt,” they say , “extends Southward to the mountain of Apta (in Abyssinia) and Northward to the furthest dwellings of the Asiatics.” The hyperbolic statements are too undefined for history , but widely-conquering monarchs could alone have used them. : “At all periods of history, the possession of the country which we call Soudan (the Black country) comprising Nubia, and which the ancients called by the collective name of Kous (Cush) or Aethiopia, has been an exhaustless source of wealth to Egypt. Whether by way of war or of commerce, barks laden with flocks, corn, hides, ivory, precious woods, stones and metals, and many other products of those regions, descended the Nile into Egypt, to fill the treasures of the temples and of the court of the Pharaohs: and of metals, especially gold, mines whereof were worked by captives and slaves, whose Egyptian name noub seems to have been the origin of the name Nubia, the first province S. of Egypt.” “The conquered country of Soudan, called Kous in the hieroglyphic inscriptions, was governed by Egyptian princes of the royal family, who bore the name of ‘prince royal of Kous.’“
But the prophet’s appeal to Nineveh is the more striking, because No, in its situation, its commerce, the sources of its wealth, its relation to the country which lay between them, had been another and earlier Nineveh. Only, as No had formerly conquered and exacted tribute from all those nations, even to Nineveh itself, so now, under Sargon and Sennacherib, Nineveh had reversed all those successes, and displaced the Empire of Egypt by its own, and taken No itself. No had, under its Tothmoses, Amenophes, Sethos, the Ousertesens, sent its messengers Nahum 2:13, the leviers of its tribute, had brought off from Asia that countless mass of human strength, the captives, who (as Israel, before its deliverance, accomplished its hard labors) completed those gigantic works, which, even after 2000 years of decay, are still the marvel of the civilized world. Tothmosis I, after subduing the Sasou, brought back countless captives from Naharina (Mesopotamia); Tothmosis III, in 19 years of conquests, (1603-1585 b.c.) “raised the Egyptian empire to the height of its greatness. Tothmosis repeatedly attacked the most powerful people of Asia, as the Routen (Assyrians?) with a number of subordinate kingdoms, such as Asshur, Babel, Nineveh, Singar; such as the Remenen or Armenians, the Zahi or Phoenicians, the Cheta or Hittites, and manymore. We learn, by the description of the objects of the booty, sent to Egypt by land and sea, counted by number and weight, many curious details as to the industry of the conquered peoples of central Asia, which do honor to the civilization of that time, and verify the tradition that the Egyptian kings set up stelae in conquered countries, in memory of their victories. Tothmosis III. set up his stele in Mesopotamia, ‘for having enlarged the frontiers of Egypt.’” Amenophis too is related to have “taken the fortress of Nenii (Nineveh).” : “He returned from the country of the higher Routen, where he had beaten all his enemies to enlarge the frontiers of the land of Egypt” : “he took possession of the people of the South, and chastised the people of the North:” “at Abd-el-Kournah” he was represented as “having for his footstool the heads and backs of five peoples of the S. and four peoples of the North (Asiatics).” : “Among the names of the peoples, who submitted to Egypt, are the Nubians, the Asiatic shepherds, the inhabitants of Cyprus and Mesopotamia.” : “The world in its length and its breadth” is promised by the sphinx to Tothmosis IV. He is represented as “subduer of the negroes.”
Under Amenophis III, the Memnon of the Greeks , “the Egyptian empire extended Northward to Mesopotamia, Southward to the land of Karou.” He enlarged and beautified No, which had from him the temple of Louksor, and his vocal statue , “all people bringing their tributes, their children, their horses, a mass of silver, of iron and ivory from countries, the roads whereto we know not.” The king Horus is saluted as “the sun of the nine people; great is thy name to the country of Ethiopia” ; “the gracious god returns, having subdued the great of all people.” Seti I (or Sethos) is exhibited , as reverenced by the Armenians, conquering the Sasou, the “Hittites, Naharina (Mesopotamia), the Routen (Assyrians?) the Pount, or Arabs in the South of Arabia, the Amari or Amorites, and Kedes, perhaps Edessa.” Rameses II, or the great (identified with the Pharaoh of the Exodus ), conquered the Hittites in the North; in the South it is recorded , “the gracious god, who defeated the nine people, who massacred myriads in a moment, annihilated the people overthrown in their blood, yet was there no other with him.”
The 20th Dynasty (1288-1110 b.c.) began again with conquests. : “Rameses III. triumphed over great confederations of Libyans and Syrians and the Isles of the Mediterranean. He is the only king who, as the monuments shew, carried on war at once by land and sea.” Beside many names unknown to us, the Hittites, Amorites, Circesium, Aratus, Philistines, Phoenicia, Sasou, Pount, are again recognized. North, South East and West are declared to be tributary to him, and of the North it is said , “The people, who knew not Egypt, come to thee, bringing gold and silver, lapis-lazuli, all precious stones.” He adorned Thebes with the great temple of Medinet-Abou and the Ramesseum . The brief notices of following Rameses’ speak of internal prosperity and wealth: a fuller account of Rameses XII speaks of his “being in Mesopotamia to exact the annual tribute,” how “the kings of all countries prostrated themselves before him, and the king of the country of Bouchten (it has been conjectured, Bagistan, or Ecbatana) presented to him tribute and his daughter.” : “He is the last Pharaoh who goes to Mesopotamia, to collect the annual tributes of the petty kingdoms of that country.”
On this side of the Euphrates, Egypt still retained some possessions to the time of Necho, for it is said, “the king of Babylon had taken from the river of Egypt unto the river Euphrates all that pertained to the king of Egypt” 2 Kings 24:7. Thebes continued to be embellished alike by “the high priests of Ammon,” who displaced the ancient line , and kings of the Bubastite Dynasty, Sesonchis I or Sisak , Takelothis II , and Sesonchis III . The Ethiopian dynasty of Sabakos and Tearko or Tirhaka in another way illustrates the importance of No. The Ethiopian conquerors chose it as their royal city. There, in the time of Sabakos, Syria brought it tribute ; there Tirhaka set up the records of his victories ; and great must have been the conqueror, whom Strabo put on a line with Sesostris .
Its site marked it out for a great capital; and as such the Ethiopian conqueror seized it. The hills on either side retired, encircling the plain, through the center of which the Nile brought down its wealth, connecting it with the untold riches of the south. : “They formed a vast circus, where the ancient metropolis expaneled itself On the West, the Lybian chain presents abrupt declivities which command this side of the plain, and which bend away above Bab-el-molouk, to end near Kournah at the very bank of the river. On the East, heights, softer and nearer, descend in long declivities toward Louksor and Karnak, and their crests do not approach the Nile until after Medamout, an hour or more below Karnak.” The breadth of the valley, being about 10 miles , the city (of which, Strabo says , “traces are now seen of its magnitude, 80 stadia in length”) must have occupied the whole. : “The city embraced the great space, which is now commonly called the plain of Thebes and which is divided by the Nile into two halves, an Eastern and a Western, the first bounded by the edge of the Arabian wilderness, the latter by the hills of the dead of the steep Libyan chain.”
The capital of Egypt, which was identified of old with Egypt itself , thus lay under the natural guardianship of the encircling hills which expanded to receive it, divided into two by the river which was a wall to both. The chains of hills, on either side were themselves fenced in on East and West by the great sand-deserts unapproachable by an army. The long valley of the Nile was the only access to an enemy. It occupied apparently the victorious army of Asshurbanipal “a month and ten days” to march from Memphis to Thebes. : “At Thebes itself there are still remains of walls and fortifications, strong, skillfully constructed, and in good preservation, as there are also in other Egyptian towns above and below it. The crescent-shaped ridge of hills approaches so close to the river at each end as to admit of troops defiling past, but not spreading out or maneuvering. At each of these ends is a small old fort of the purely Egyptian, i. e., the ante-Hellenic period. Both above and below there are several similar crescent sweeps in the same chain of hills, and at each angle a similar fort.”
All successive monarchs, during more centuries than have passed since our Lord came, successively beautified it. Everything is gigantic, bearing witness to the enormous mass of human strength, which its victorious kings had gathered from all nations to toil for its and their glorification. Wonderful is it now in its decay, desolation, death; one great idol-temple of its gods and an apotheosis of its kings, as sons of its gods. : “What spires are to a modern city, what the towers of a cathedral are to the nave and choir, that the statues of the Pharaohs were to the streets and temples of Thebes. The ground is strewn with their fragments; the avenues of them towered high above plain and houses. Three of gigantic size still remain. One was the granite statue of Rameses himself, who sat on the rightside of the entrance to his palace. - The only part of the temple or palace, at all in proportion to him, must have been the gateway, which rose in pyramidal towers, now broken down and rolling in a wild ruin down to the plain.”
It was that self-deifying, against which Ezekiel is commanded to prophesy; “Speak and say; thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I am against thee, Pharaoh king of Egypt, the great dragon that lieth in the midst of his rivers, which hath said, My river is mine own, and I have made it for myself” Ezekiel 29:3. : “Everywhere the same colossal proportions are preserved. Everywhere the king is conquering, ruling, worshiping, worshiped. The palace is the temple. The king is priest. He and his horses are ten times the size of the rest of the army. Alike in battle and in worship, he is of the same stature as the gods themselves. Most striking is the familiar gentleness, with which, one on each side, they take him by each hand, as one of their own order, and then, in the next compartment, introduce him to Ammon, and the lion-headed goddess. Every distinction, except of degree, between divinity and royalty is entirely leveled.”
Gigantic dimensions picture to the eye the ideal greatness, which is the key to the architecture of No. : “Two other statues alone remain of an avenue of eighteen similar or nearly similar statues, some of whose remnants lie in the field behind them, which led to the palace of Amenophis III, every one of the statues being Amenophis himself, thus giving in multiplication what Rameses gained in solitary elevation.” : “Their statues were all of one piece.” Science still cannot explain, how a mass of nearly 890 tons of granite was excavated at Syene, transported and set up at Thebes, or how destroyed .
Nozrani, In Egypt and Syria, p. 278: “The temper of the tools, which cut adamantine stone as sharply and closely as an ordinary scoop cuts an ordinary cheese, is still a mystery.” Everything is in proportion. The two sitting colossi, whose “breadth across the shoulders is eighteen feet, their height forty-seven feet, fifty-three above the plain, or, with the half-buried pedestal, sixty feet, were once connected by an avenue of sphinxes of eleven hundred feet with what is now ‘Kom-el-Hettan,’ or ‘the mound of sand-stone,’ which marks the site of another palace and temple of Amenophis III.; and, to judge from the little that remains, it must have held a conspicuous rank among the finest monuments of Thebes. All that now exists of the interior are the bases of its columns, some broken statues, and Syenite sphinxes of the king, with several lionheaded figures of black granite” .
The four villages, where are the chief remaining temples, Karnak, Luksor, Medinet-Abou, Kournah, form a great quadrilateral , each of whose sides is about one and a half mile, and the whole compass accordingly six miles. The avenue of six hundred sphinxes, which joined the temple of Luksor with Karnak must have been one and a half mile long : one of its obelisks is a remarkable ornament of Paris. Mostly massiveness is the characteristic, since strength and might were their ideal. Yet the massive columns still preserved, as in the temple of Rameses II , are even of piercing beauty . And for the temple of Karnak! Its enclosure, which was some two miles in circumference , bears the names of Monarchs removed from one another, according to the Chronology, by above two thousand years . : “A stupendous colonnade, of which one pillar only remains erect, once extended across its great court, connecting the W. gate of entrance with that at its extremity. The towers of the Eastern gate are mere heaps of stones, poured down into the court on one side and the great hall on the other; giant columns have been swept away like reeds before the mighty avalanche, and one hardly misses them. And in that hall, of 170 feet by 329 feet, 134 columns of colossal proportions supported its roof; twelve of them, 62 feet high and about 35 in circumference, and on each side a forest of 66 columns, 42 feet 5 in. in height. Beyond the center avenue are seen obelisks, gateways and masses of masonry; every portion of these gigantic ruins is covered with sculpture most admirably executed, and every column has been richly painted.”
Stanley, Sinai and Palestine, p. xli.: “Imagine a long vista of courts and doorways and colonnades and halls; here and there an obelisk shooting up out of the ruins, and interrupting the opening view of the forest of columns. - This mass of ruins, some rolled down in avalanches of stone, others perfect and painted, as when they were first built, is approached on every side by avenues of gateways. East and West, North and South, these vast approaches are found. Some are shattered, but in every approach some remain; and in some can be traced, beside, the further avenues, still in parts remaining by hundreds together, avenues of ram-headed sphinxes. Every Egyptian temple has, or ought to have, one of those grand gateways, formed of two sloping towers, with the high perpendicular front between.” Then, over and above, is “their multiplied concentration. - Close before almost every gateway in this vast array were the colossal figures, usually in granite, of the great Rameses, sometimes in white and red marble, of Amenophis and of Thothmes. Close by them, were pairs of towering obelisks, which can generally be traced by pedestals on either side. - You have only to set up again the fallen obelisks which lie at your feet; to conceive the columns, as they are still seen in parts, overspreading the whole; to reproduce all the statues, like those which still remain in their august niches, to gaze on the painted wails and pillars of the immense ball, which even now can never be seen without a thrill of awe, and you have ancient Thebes before you.”
And most of these paintings were records of their past might. : “There remained on the massive buildings Egyptian letters, recording their former wealthiness; and one of the elder priests, bidden to interpret his native language, related that of old 700,000 of military age dwelt there; and with that army king Rhamses gained possession of Libya, Ethiopia, the Medes and Persians, the Bactrian and Scythian; and held in his empire the countries which the Syrians and Armenians and neighboring Cappadocians inhabit, the Bithynian also and Lycian to the sea. There were read tee the tributes imposed on the natives, the weight of silver amid gold; the number of arms and horses, and the gifts to the temples, ivory and frankincense, and what supplies of corn and utensils each nation should pay, not less magnificent than are now enjoined by Parthian violence or by Roman power.”
That was situate among the rivers - Literally, “the dweller, she that dwelleth.” Perhaps the prophet wished to express the security and ease, in which she dwelt “among the rivers.” They encircled, folded round her, as it were, so that she was a little world in herself, secluded from all who would approach to hurt her. The prophet’s word, “rivers” , is especially used of the branches or canals of the Nile, which is also called the “sea” . The Nile passed through No, and doubtless its canals encircled it. Egypt is said by a pagan to be “walled by the Nile as an everlasting wall,” “Whose rampart was (rampart is) the sea.” Wall and rampart are, properly, the outer and inner wall of a city, the wall and forewall, so to speak. For all walls and all defenses, her enfolding walls of sea would suffice. Strong she was in herself; strong also in her helpers.
Clarke's Notes on the Bible
Verse 8. Art thou better than populous No — No-Ammon, or Diospolis, in the Delta, on one branch of the Nile. This is supposed to be the city mentioned by Nahum; and which had been lately destroyed, probably by the Chaldeans.
The waters round about it — Being situated in the Delta, it had the fork of two branches of the Nile to defend it by land; and its barrier or wall was the sea, the Mediterranean, into which these branches emptied themselves: so that this city, and the place it stood on, were wholly surrounded by the waters.
