Nahum Chapters 1-3 Star Chart: "God is jealous, and the LORD (lunar sword) REVENGETH (745 B.C.); the LORD (lunar sword) REVENGETH (721-718 B.C.), and is furious; the LORD will take (lunar sword) VENGEANCE on his adversaries (677 B .C.), and he reserveth (solar) WRATH for his enemies" (612 B.C.)(1:2) Clockwise from when "The (Sagittarius) horseman lifteth up both the bright (red radius line) sword and the glittering (red radius line) spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of (black Zodiac constellation) carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses" (3:3) in 745 B.C. till "they shall stumble in their (Ophiuchus) walk" (2:5) and "The noise of a (red radius line Hercules') whip" (3:2) in 721-718 B.C. till "I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and I will discover thy (Cassiopeia) skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy (Andromeda) nakedness, and the kingdoms thy (red radius line) shame. And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a (Andromeda) gazingstock" (3:5-6) in 677 B.C. till "they that (lunar eye) look upon thee shall (Perseus) flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste" (3:7). "I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her (Auriga) chariots in the (Milky Way) smoke, and the (red radius line) sword shall devour thy young (Orion and Cetus) lions: and I will (red radius line) cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy (Orion and Auriga) messengers shall no more be (lunar ear) heard" (2:13) in 612 B.C. which is 133 years after 745 B.C. (1596° months) or 4 laps plus 156° months more.

Nineveh is Empty (Bukah), Void (Umebukah), and Waste (Umebullakah): the Heart Melts,
and Knees Smite Together

1:1 The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.

he lived in the times of Hezekiah, and was contemporary with Isaiah, Hosea, Amos, and Micah; and that this prophecy was delivered out after the ten tribes were carried captive by the king of Assyria, which was in the sixth year of Hezekiah, and before Sennacherib's invasion of Judea, and siege of Jerusalem, which was in the fourteenth year of his reign; and which is thought to be referred to in the "first" chapter of this prophecy. Mr. Whiston (e) places him in the year of the world A. M. 3278, or 726 B.C.; and says that he foretold the destruction of Nineveh an hundred fifteen years before it came to pass, so says Josephus (f).
(e) Chronological Tables, cent. 8. (f) Antiqu. l. 9. c. 11. sect. 3.

which, as Josephus (n) says, came to pass hundred fifteen years after this prophecy; and which event is placed by the learned Usher (o) in the year of the world 3378 A.M., and which was 626 B.C.; and by others (p) in the year of the world 3403 A.M., of the flood 1747, in 601 B.C.; but by Dean Prideaux (q) and Mr. Whiston (r), in 612 B.C.;

(n) Antiqu. l. 9. c. 11. sect. 3.((o) Annales Vet. Test. A. M. 3378. (p) Universal History, vol. 4. p. 331. (q) Connexion, &c. par. 1. B. 1. p. 47, 48. (r) Chronological Table, cent. 9.

2God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.

has respect to the three times the king of Assyria carried the people of Israel captive, and for which the Lord would be revenged on him, and punish him: (745, 721-718, 677, 612)

3The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the (Milky Way) whirlwind and in the storm, and the (Milky Way) clouds are the dust of his feet.

The clouds are the dust of his feet - This is spoken in allusion to a chariot and horses going on with extreme rapidity: they are all enveloped in a cloud of dust. So Jehovah is represented as coming through the circuit of the heavens as rapidly as lightning; the clouds surrounding him as the dust does the chariot and horses.

4 He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.

5 The mountains quake at him, and the (Milky Way or red radius) hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.

6 Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is (red radius line) poured out like (solar) fire, and the (lunar) rocks (plural moons) are thrown down by him.

7 The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.

8 But with an overrunning (Milky Way) flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his (Auriga and Orion; Ophiuchus and Hercules) enemies.

But with an overrunning flood - Bishop Newcome thinks this may refer to the manner in which Nineveh was taken. The Euphrates overflowed its banks, deluged a part of the city, and overturned twenty stadia of the wall; in consequence of which the desponding king burnt himself, and his palace, with his treasures. - Diodor. Sic., Edit. Wessel., p. 140, lib. ii., s. 27.

“According to secular accounts, during the final siege of Nineveh by a rebel army of Persians, Medes, Arabians, and Babylonians, unusually heavy rains caused the rivers to flood and to undermine the city’s walls, which then collapsed . . . the invading armies entered the city through this breach in its defenses.” (Boice)

But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof,.... Of Nineveh, against whom this prophecy was, and upon whom it lay as a burden, Nahum 1:1; and now though the Lord was good to them that trust in him, and a strong hold to them in a time of trouble; yet he was determined to destroy their enemies the Assyrians, and Nineveh their chief city; and that by the means of a powerful army, which, like a flood or inundation of water breaking in, overruns and carries all before it; and very fitly may the Medes and Babylonians, who joined together in an expedition against Nineveh, be compared to such a flood for their number and force; since, as the historian tells (y) us, they were no less than four hundred thousand men: though this may be literally understood; for as the same writer (z) observes,"there was an oracle received by the Ninevites from their ancestors, that Nineveh could never be taken by any, unless the river (on which it stood) first became an enemy to it; and so it was, that, in the third year of the siege, the river, being swelled with continual rains, overflowed part of the city, and broke down the wall for the space of two and half miles; hence the king concluded the oracle was fulfilled, and gave up all hopes of safety; and through the breach of the wall the enemy entered, and took the city;''
(y) Diodor. Sicul. l. 2. p. 111. Ed. Rhodum. (z) Ibid. p. 113, 114.

9 What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.

affliction shall not rise up the second time; either this should be the last effort the Assyrians would make upon the Jews, which they made under Sennacherib, and this the last time they would afflict them; or rather their own destruction should be so complete that there would be no need to repeat the stroke, or give another blow; the business would be done at once. This seems to contradict a notion of some historians and chronologers, who suppose that Nineveh was destroyed at two different times, and by different persons of the same nations; and so the whole Assyrian empire was twice ruined, which is not likely in itself, and seems contrary to this passage; for though some ascribe it to Arbaces the Mede, and Belesis the Babylonian as Diodorus Siculus (e); and others to Cyaxares the Mede as Herodotus (f), and to Nebuchadnezzar the first, or Nabopolassar the Babylonian in a later period; so Tobit (g) says it was taken by Nebuchadnezzar and Ahasuerus, the same with the Cyaxares of Herodotus; yet all seem to agree that it was taken by the conjunct forces of the Medes and Babylonians; and there are some things similar (h) in all these accounts, which show that there was but one destruction of Nineveh, and of the Assyrian empire.

(e) Bibliothec. l. 2. p. 110, 111. (f) L. 1. sive Clio, c. 106. (g) Tobit 14:15. (h) See the Universal History, vol. 4. c. 8. sect. 5. & vol. 5. p. 22. Margin, & Nicolai Abrami Pharus Vet. Test. l. 6. c. 19. p. 165.

10For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as (Orion and Auriga; Hercules and Ophiuchus) drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.

There is no need to have recourse to a figurative sense, since the Ninevites were actually drunk when they were attacked by their enemy, as the historian relates (i); that the king of Assyria being elated with his fortune, and thinking himself secure, feasted his army, and gave them large quantities of wine; and while the whole army were indulging themselves, the enemy, having notice of their negligence and drunkenness by deserters, fell upon them unawares in the night, when disordered and unprepared, and made a great slaughter among them, and forced the rest into the city, and in a little time took it:

they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry; as easily, and as inevitably and irrecoverably.

(i) Diodor. Sicul. l. 2. p. 112.

11There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the LORD, a wicked counseller.

Imagineth evil against the Lord - Such were Pul, 2 Kings 15:10, Tiglath-pileser, 2 Kings 15:29; Shalmaneser, 2 Kings 17:6; and Sennacherib, 2 Kings 18:17; 2 Kings 19:23.
A wicked counsellor - Sennacherib and Rabshakeh.

There is one come out of thee,.... That is, out of Nineveh, as the Targum explains it; meaning Sennacherib, who had his royal seat and palace there; or Rabshakeh that was sent from hence by him with a railing and blaspheming letter to the king of Judah, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. This is said to be at the present time of writing this prophecy, though it was after it, because of the certainty of it, as is usual in prophetic language; unless it can be thought that this prophecy was delivered out exactly at the time when Sennacherib had entered Judea, and was before the walls of Jerusalem; but not yet discomfited, as after predicted:
that imagineth evil against the Lord; against the people of the Lord, as the Targum; formed a scheme to invade the land of Judea, take the fenced cities thereof, and seize upon Jerusalem the metropolis of the nation, and carry the king, princes, and all the people captive as Shalmaneser his father had carried away the ten tribes:

a wicked counsellor; or "a counsellor of Belial" (k); who, by Rabshakeh, advised Israel not to regard their king, nor trust in their God but surrender themselves up to him, 2 Kings 18:29.

(k) "consulens", Belijahai, Montanus; "consiliarius Belijaal", Burkius.

12Thus saith the LORD; Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more.

13For now will I break his (lunar) yoke from off thee, and will burst thy (lunar) bonds in sunder.

Now will I break his yoke from off thee - This refers to the tribute which the Jews were obliged to pay to the Assyrians, 2 Kings 17:14.

14And the LORD hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the (lunar) graven image and the (solar) molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile.

Sennacherib, who would have no more children, but be slain in the house of his gods; 2Ki 19:36-37.

No more of thy name be sown - No more of you shall be carried away into captivity.
I will make thy grave; for thou art vile - I think this is an address to the Assyrians, and especially to Sennacherib. The text is no obscure intimation of the fact. The house of his gods is to be his grave: and we know that while he was worshipping in the house of his god Nisroch, his two sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer, smote him there that he died, 2 Kings 19:37.

15Behold upon the mountains the feet of him (Ophiuchus) that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy (red radius line) vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.

they come one after another with the news of the havoc and slaughter made in the army of Sennacherib by an angel in one night; of his flight, and of the dealt, of him by the hands of his two sons; and, after that, of the destruction of Nineveh, and of the whole Assyrian empire; all which were good tidings to the Jews, to whom the Assyrians were implacable enemies,

Which peace the Jews would enjoy by the death of Sennacherib.

2:1He that dasheth in pieces (Orion and Hercules) is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily.

Of Nebuchadnezzar against Nineveh, as Aben Ezra; not Nebuchadnezzar the great, who, the Jewish chronologers say ( Seder Olam Rabba, c. 24. p. 69.), took Nineveh in the first year of his reign; but his father, Nebuchadnezzar the first, called Nabopolassar, who, with Cyaxares or Ahasuerus the Mede, joined their forces against Nineveh, and took it, see the Apocrypha:
"But before he died he heard of the destruction of Nineve, which was taken by Nabuchodonosor and Assuerus: and before his death he rejoiced over Nineve.'' (Tobit 14:15)

Probably the word should be pointed so as to mean a maul or hammer, as Jeremiah 51:20; cf. Proverbs 25:18. The foe and destroyer of Nineveh is referred to.

2For the LORD hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel: for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches.

"the emptiers have emptied them out and marred their vine branches," may relate to the first expedition of Sennacherib, when, Holy Scripture says, he "came up against all the fenced cities of Judah and took them," and Hezekiah gave him "thirty talents of gold and 300 talents of silver" 2 Kings 18:13-14; Isaiah 36:1. Sennacherib himself says , "Hezekiah, king of Judah, who had not submitted to my authority, forty-six of his principal cities, and fortresses and villages depending upon them of which I took no account, I captured, and carried away their spoil. And from these places I captured and carried off as spoil 200, 150 people," etc. This must relate to the first expedition, on account of the exact correspondence of the tribute in gold, with a variation in the number of the talents of silver, easily accounted for .

In the first invasion Sennacherib relates that he besieged Jerusalem. : "Hezekiah himself I shut up in Jerusalem his capital city, like a bird in a cage, building towers round the city to fence him in, and raising banks of earth against the gates, so as to prevent escape." It is perhaps in reference to this, that, in the second invasion, God promises by Isaiah; "He shall not come into this city, and shall not shoot an arrow there; and shall not present shield before it, and shall not cast up bank against it" Isaiah 37:33. Still, in this second invasion also, Holy Scripture relates, that "the king of Assyria sent Rabshakeh from Lachish to Jerusalem unto king Hezekiah with a great army" Isaiah 36:2; 2 Kings 18:17. Perhaps it is in regard to this second expedition, that God says, "Though I have afflicted thee, I will affict thee no more" Nahum 1:12; i. e., this second invasion should not desolate her, like that first. Not that God absolutely would not again afflict her, but not now. The yoke of the Assyrian was then broken, until the fresh sins of Manasseh drew down their own punishment.

Nahum then was a prophet for Judah, or for that remnant of Israel, which, after the ten tribes were carried captive, became one with Judah, not in temporal sovereignty, but in the one worship of God. His mention of Basan, Carmel and Lebanon alone, as places lying under the rebuke of God, perhaps implies a special interest in Northern Palestine. Judah may have already become the name for the whole people of God who were left.

3The (solar) shield of his mighty (Orion and Auriga; Hercules and Ophiuchus; Sagittarius) men is made (radius line) red, the valiant (Orion and Auriga; Hercules and Ophiuchus; Sagittarius) men are in (red radius) scarlet: the (solar Auriga) chariots shall be with (Orion) flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the (Milky Way) fir trees shall be terribly shaken.

4The (Auriga) chariots shall rage in the (Milky Way) streets, they shall jostle one against another in the (Milky Way) broad ways: they shall seem like (Orion solar) torches, they shall run like the (red radius line) lightnings.

5He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their (Ophiuchus) walk; they shall make haste to the (red radius line) wall thereof, and the defence shall be prepared.

6The (solar golden) gates of the (Milky Way Tigris) rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.

the force of a swollen river has often proved suddenly fatal to the strongest modern masonry. It would be specially destructive where, as in the case of Nineveh, the walls inundated were of sun-dried brick or “clay-bat.”

The “gates of the rivers” (i.e., the dams which fenced the Khausser, which ran through Nineveh, and the Tigris, which was outside it) are forced open by the swelling torrents, and lo, the fate of the city is sealed! ramparts against which the battering-ram might have plied in vain are sapped at the very foundation; palace walls are undermined, and literally “dissolve;” the besieger hastens to avail himself of the disaster, and (in the single word of Nahum 2:7) it-is-decided.

The account given by Diodorus Siculus, lib. ii., is very surprising. He begins thus: Ην δ' αυτω? λογιον παραδεδομενον εκ προγονων, κ.τ.λ. - "There was a prophecy received from their forefathers, that Nineveh should not be taken till the river first became an enemy to the city. It happened in the third year of the siege, that the Euphrates [query, Tigris] being swollen with continued rains, overflowed part of the city, and threw down twenty stadia of the wall. The king then imagining that the oracle was accomplished, and that the river was now manifestly become an enemy to the city, casting aside all hope of safety, and lest he should fall into the hands of the enemy, built a large funeral pyre in the palace, (εν τοις βασιλειοις), and having collected all his gold and silver and royal vestments, together with his concubines and eunuchs, placed himself with them in a little apartment built in the pyre; burnt them, himself, and the palace together. When the death of the king (Sardanapalus) was announced by certain deserters, the enemy entered in by the breach which the waters had made, and took the city." Thus the prophecy of Nahum was literally fulfilled:" the gates of the river were opened, and the palace dissolved," i.e., burnt.

7And Huzzab (Andromeda) shall be led away captive, she shall be brought up, and her maids shall lead her as with the voice of doves, tabering upon their breasts.

And Huzzab shall be led away captive,.... The Targum translates it the queen; and Jarchi and Aben Ezra, after R. Samuel, take it to be the name of the queen of Assyria; so called, as every queen might, from her standing at the king's right hand, Psalm 45:9

And Huzzab shall be led away captive - Perhaps Huzzab means the queen of Nineveh, who had escaped the burning mentioned above by Diodorus. As there is no account of the queen being burnt, but only of the king, the concubines, and the eunuchs, we may, therefore, naturally conclude that the queen escaped; and is represented here as brought up and delivered to the conqueror; her maids at the same time bewailing her lot. Some think Huzzab signifies Nineveh itself.

8 But Nineveh is of old like a (lunar) pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they (Orion and Hercules) cry; but none shall (lunar eye) look back.

9 Take ye the spoil of (lunar) silver, take the spoil of (solar) gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture.

The king of Assyria, perceiving that he, his family, and his wealth, were like to fall into the hands of the enemy, caused a pile of wood to be raised, and in it heaped his gold, silver, and royal apparel, and, enclosing himself, his eunuchs, and concubines in it, set fire to it, and destroyed himself and them. It is said (n) there were no less in this pile than a thousand myriads of talents of gold, which are about fourteen hundred millions sterling, and ten times as many talents of silver, together with apparel and furniture unspeakable; and yet, after all this, the princes of the Babylonians and Medes carried off vast quantities. The Babylonian prince loaded several ships with the ashes of the pile, and a large quantity of gold and silver, discovered to him by an eunuch, a deserter; and the Median prince, what of the gold and silver left out of the pile, which were many talents, that fell into his hands, he sent to Ecbatana, the royal city of Media (o).

(n) Athenaeus apud Rollin's Ancient History, &c. vol. 2. p. 31, 32. See the Universal History, vol. 4. p. 306. (o) Diodor. Sicul. l. 2. p. 114, 115.

10 She is empty, and void, and waste (black Zodiac): and the (solar) heart melteth, and the (red radius leg) knees smite together (at Ursa Minor), and much pain is in all loins, and the (Orion and Auriga; Hercules and Ophiuchus; Sagittarius) faces of them all gather (Zodiac) blackness.

empty, void, waste

Bukah, umebukah, umebullakah.

as Mr. Ward justly remarks, "sickness makes a great change in the countenance of the Hindoos; so that a person who was rather fair when in health, becomes nearly black by sickness."

11Where is the dwelling of the (Cetus and Orion) lions, and the feedingplace of the (Orion) young lions, where the lion (Cetus), even the old lion, walked, and the lion's whelp (Orion), and none made them afraid?

The figure of the lion appears so frequently on the Assyrian monuments that we may perhaps suppose it to have been a national scutcheon. The metaphor of the ravening beast is well illustrated by the Assyrian records, wherein the most frequent theme is the levying of gold, silver, brass, oxen, &c., from tributary cities.

12The (Orion or Cetus) lion did (red radius line) tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his (lunar) holes with prey, and his (lunar) dens with ravin.

13 Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her (Auriga) chariots in the (Milky Way) smoke, and the (red radius line or lunar) sword shall devour thy young (Cetus and Orion) lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy (Orion and Auriga; Ophiuchus and Hercules) messengers shall no more be heard.

3:1 Woe to the bloody city! (Nineveh) it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not;

2The noise of a (red radius line Orion or Hercules') whip, and the noise of the rattling of the (solar and lunar) wheels, and of the pransing (Sagittarius) horses, and of the jumping (Auriga) chariots.

3The (Sagittarius) horseman lifteth up both the bright (red radius line) sword and the glittering (red radius line) spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of (black Zodiac constellation) carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses:

4Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured (Cassiopeia or Andromeda) harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her (red radius line) whoredoms, and (Andromeda, etc.) families through her witchcrafts.

Nineveh worships idols

5Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts; and I will discover thy (Cassiopeia and Andromeda) skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy (red radius blood) shame.

6And I will cast abominable (red radius blood) filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a (Andromeda) gazingstock.

7And it shall come to pass, that all they that (lunar eye) look upon thee shall (Perseus) flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste (612 B.C.): who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?

8Art 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?

Dr. Prideaux, with more reason, believes that the destruction of No Ammon was effected by Sennacherib, about three years before he besieged Jerusalem, in the time of Hezekiah. At that time Sevechus, the son of Sabaccon, or So, mentioned 2 Kings 17:4, was king both of Egypt and Ethiopia; so they are mentioned here as confederates, and Isaiah foretels that they should be vanquished by Sargon, or Sennacherib.

He mentions the destruction of the Egyptian city No Amon (Thebes) in Nahum 3:8 and Thebes fell to the Assyrians in 663 B.C., so Nahum must have been written after that. Nineveh was destroyed 50 years after No Amon (612 B.C.).

The destruction of Thebes here alluded to was effected by Assurbanipal about 664–662. The Egyptian king of the day was Urdamanî, who had succeeded Tirhaka. Details are given in the Inscriptions; see Schrader, ii. pp. 149–152; Winckler, Altorient. Untersuch. I. p. 105 (Essay on “The Sargonides and Egypt”).

9Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite; Put and Lubim were thy helpers.

10Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity: her young children also were dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets: and they cast (lunar and solar) lots for her honourable (Orion and Auriga; Hercules and Ophiuchus) men, and all her (Orion and Auriga; Hercules and Ophiuchus) great men were bound in (red radius iron) chains.

11 Thou also shalt be (lunar or solar cup) drunken: thou shalt be hid, thou also shalt seek strength because of the enemy.

12 All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with the firstripe figs (solar golden brown round): if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the (lunar) mouth of the eater.

13Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are (Cassiopeia or Andromeda) women: the (solar) gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies: the (solar) fire shall devour thy (red radius line) bars.

14Draw thee (lunar bucket) waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds: go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the (solar) brickkiln.

15There shall the (solar) fire devour thee; the (red radius line) sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts (Scorpio).

16Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away.

17Thy crowned are as the (Scorpio) locusts, and thy captains as the great (Scorpio) grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

18Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them.

19There is no healing of thy (solar golden brown) bruise; thy (red radius) wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?

the capital of a great kingdom, a city which was sixty miles in compass, a city which contained so many myriads of inhabitants, which had walls one hundred feet high, and so thick that three chariots could go abreast upon them, and which had one thousand five hundred towers of two hundred feet in height; surely there was no probability that such a city should ever be totally destroyed; and yet so totally was it destroyed, that authors are not agreed about its situation. From the general suffrage, indeed, of ancient historians and geographers, it seems to have been situated upon the Tigris;