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Bible Dictionaries
Nineveh
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
or NINEVEH (Assyr. [Note: Assyrian.] Ninâ, Ninûa ) is said in Genesis 10:11 to have been founded by Nimrod in Assyria. Nineveh was included in the dominions of Hammurabi, who restored the temple of Ishtar there. It was early an important city, and is frequently referred to in the royal inscriptions, but Sennacherib first raised it to the position of capital of Assyria. It lay on the E. of the Tigris, opposite the modern Mosul. Its chief remains are buried beneath the mounds of Kouyunjik and Nebi Yunus, but the outline of the old walls can be traced. They enclosed some 1,800 acres, with a circumference of about 8 miles. The mound of Kouyunjik is separated from the mound of Nebi Yunus by the Khoser, and overlies the palaces of Sennacherib to the S., and Ashurbanipal to the N. The southern mound, Nebi Yunus, covers palaces of Sennacherib and Esarhaddon. The Nineveh of Sennacherib’s day lay largely outside this area, and included the Rebit Ninûa , or Rehoboth-ir, which extended as far as Khorsa bad, where Sargon built a great city, Dûr-Sargon. The traditions of its great size may be due to a reminiscence of this outer girdle of inhabited country. The fall of Nineveh (b.c. 606) is referred to by Nahum and Zephaniah ( Nahum 2:13 ). 2 Kings 19:36 and Isaiah 37:37 know it as the city of Sennacherib. For Jonah’s mission, see Jonah. Later, Tobit ( Tob 1:10; Tob 1:17 etc.) and Judith ( Jdt 1:1 ) refer to it, and the Ninevites are named in Matthew 12:41 , Luke 11:30; Luke 11:32 .
C. H. W. Johns.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'Nineveh'. Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdb/n/nineveh.html. 1909.
