When and how was Nineveh destroyed?

Verses 1-10. This great prophecy was literally fulfilled some ninety years after Nahum had spoken. When these words were spoken Nineveh was in the zenith of her glory. Who told Nahum the Elkoshite that the proud world city would undergo such a sack and be completely wiped out? Who moved his pen to give such a vivid description of what would take place? There is but one answer--the Spirit of God. How was the prophecy fulfilled? Cyaxares of the Medes had surrounded Nineveh in the north. Nabopolassar of Babylon entered into an alliance with Cyaxares against the Assyrians, which was sealed by the marriage of the daughter of Cyaxares, Amunia, with the son of Nabopolassar, that is, Nebuchadnezzar, who appeared then as the colleague of his father, till the Lord called him as the instrument of judgment upon Jerusalem and he became the head of the Babylonian monarchy (Dan. 1:1). They made an assault upon Nineveh. The Assyrian king, a son of Asshurbanipal, collected all his forces into the lower part of the immense city. Three times the forces of the Assyrian sallied forth from the city and inflicted severe punishment upon the besieging armies, and Nabopolassar had great difficulty in keeping the Median forces from flight. The Assyrians after these successes abandoned themselves to great carousings, as stated in Nahum 1:10. But during that night they were attacked by the besiegers and driven back behind the walls. Then the troops which were under the command of the brother-in-law of the Assyrian king were routed and driven into the river Tigris. The main part of Nineveh was still safe. In the third year of the siege the river which surrounded the city became its enemy. Great rains had fallen and suddenly there was a tremendous flood which broke down the walls surrounding the city. This was predicted by Nahum in this chapter in the sixth verse. The king despaired of saving his life. He had sent his family north, and when all hope was gone he shut himself up with all his treasures in the royal citadel and burned himself with them. Then the victors entered into the city, and, after securing an immense booty, which was carried to Babylon and Ecbatana, the Babylonians set fire to the sacked city, and destroyed it completely by fire.

Nineveh reached great importance around 900 BC. Shalmaneser III of Assyria defeated king Ahab of Israel in the battle of Carcar around the year 843 BC. According to an inscription on the “black obelisk” of Shalmaneser king Jehu shall have been tributary to him too. The Scriptures however do not mention this. Jonah was sent to Nineveh around the year 800 BC to turn them off their cruel ways. In 734 BC the two and a half tribes Reuben, Gad and Manasseh who settled on the eastern side of Jordan were deported by Tiglath-pileser and in 722 BC the whole northern kingdom of Israel was brought into Assyrian captivity under Shalmaneser and Sargon (2 Kings 17). Shanherib attacked the kingdom of Judah at king Hezekiah’s time around 701 BC but had to return without having achieved his object. After Assurbanipal’s death (who had conquered Thebes in Egypt in 663 BC) the might of Assyria and Nineveh declined noticeably. Finally the great city was conquered and totally destroyed in 612 BC by the Medes under Cyaxares and the Babylonians under Nabopolassar. It was only in the 19 th century that Nineveh’s ruins were excavated with their mighty buildings, sculptures and Assurbanipal’s library with over 20,000 clay plates.

The account of the taking of Nineveh is thus given by Ctesias, preserved in Diodorus Siculus, ii. 27, 28. Cyaxares, the Median monarch, aided by the Babylonians under Nabopolassar, laid siege to the city. His efforts were in vain; he was repulsed again and again; but receiving reinforcements he overcame the Assyrian army and they were shut up in the city. He then attempted to reduce the city by blockade, but was unsuccessful for two years, till his efforts were unexpectedly assisted by an extraordinary rise of the Tigris, which swept away a part of the walls and allowed the Medes to enter. The Assyrian king Saracus, in despair, burnt himself in his palace. The conquerors gave up the whole to the flames, and it was razed to the ground.

Rawlinson and others do not credit this account, they consider it undeserving a place in history. Some such destruction would, however, agree with scripture, which, as quoted above, speaks of the water, it also refers to the place being pillaged of its gold and silver, "for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture." Nahum 2:9. Those who of late years have examined the mounds testify to its destruction by fire. Calcined sculptured alabaster statues split by heat, charcoal, and charred wood have been found buried in bricks and earth. For years search has been made among its ruins, and there is yet much to be examined. The principal museums of Europe are stored with the relics, and many tablets have been discovered, one of which gives a remarkable account of the deluge. It may indeed be said that the library of Nineveh has been opened in modern times, and the details of the records made thousands of years ago can now be read.

"The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet: the chariots shall be with flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the fir trees shall be terribly shaken. The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings. He shall recount his worthies: they shall stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof, and the defence shall be prepared. The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved." This is certainly a striking picture of the last scenes; for it is not only that we have minutely enough that which recent discoveries have shown as to the abundance of scarlet and of chariots, and all the preparation of war which was characteristic of Nineveh, but the manner in which Nineveh was to fall is most vividly and exactly foreshown; and the more so because of its contrast with, as well as resemblance to, Babylon; for the city in the plain of Shinar was a capital not inferior in extent, and even superior in magnificence, to Nineveh; both being built upon famous rivers — rivers of Paradise. Nevertheless, although both were typical, and the fall of the one like that of the other has in either case a most important character (Babylon even more than Nineveh), and the river in each played a very important element in the capture of the two cities, yet there is a contrast quite as much as a resemblance. For the special means of the destruction of Babylon was by laying the bed of the river dry by turning the river off; whereas the crisis which led directly towards the destruction of Nineveh was the irruption of the river in — not turning it out. This was surely remarkable; at the same time it convicts of singular dulness those who failed to see the differences clearly. The whole is a good lesson for human nature, and no unimportant hint for us to read the word of God a little more closely. He who wrote scripture had no difficulty. It was all as plain as possible to Him. The real obstacle does not arise in general from its language, save in very exceptional cases, but from our own slowness of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

"The gates of the rivers shall be opened" — not merely the gates of the city. A gate of the city was opened in the case of Babylon; and we know the splendid description of it in Isaiah, with its doors of brass and bars of iron, which must yield to righteousness from the east; for God called Cyrus to his foot, and gave kings as the dust of his sword, as driven stubble to his bow. When the moment came, the difficulty vanished, and the Persians entered the imperial city through the dried bed of the Euphrates, which was turned into another channel. Thus the doors were opened for the rest, when the drunken guards were despatched. But in the case of Nineveh it was the waters of the river which dissolved the palatial dwellings and defences. It was not the place taken by an army which stealthily crept up the emptied bed of the river, and then let in the main body through the gates. The converse of this happened to Nineveh. The Euphrates was turned off from Babylon but the Tigris burst its bounds and swamped and otherwise destroyed a vast portion of Nineveh; so that the very foundations, and not the walls only, were swept away. In vain then does the king summon his nobles: they stumble in their march; they hasten to the wall; and the defence is prepared. The flood-gates are opened and the palace is dissolved. "And Huzzab 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. But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back. Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture. She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melts, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness." That is, all the vast store of what contributes to the pride of life, all that ministered to selfish enjoyment and vanity, was now shown to be so much laid up for the conquerors — so much gathered together for utter destruction, if not carried away by the captors. Such indeed is the history of man generally.

Do what they might, the prophetic sentence is, "There shall the fire devour thee." Just so it is a matter of common history that, when the king found he could not defend himself, he set fire to the place himself. It was not the enemies that did it, as in the case of the Chaldean capital. In Babylon the enemy secured the victory in this way, but it was otherwise with Nineveh. Again only a partial fire consumed Babylon, which therefore remained an humbled but proud city long after the days of Alexander the Great, who in fact died there. But the Assyrian city perished then. Nineveh fell, not only never to rise again, but not even to survive in any measure. The hand that chiefly effected its conflagration was that of the unhappy prince who saw the hopelessness of escape, and therefore, surrounding himself with his wives and concubines, his jewels, gold and silver, and every other valuable, set fire in desperation to the whole.

Hence we have this described as regards Nineveh in a way not found in the description of Babylon's fall. "Draw the waters for the siege, fortify thy strongholds: go into clay, and tread the mortar, make strong the brick-kiln." Alas! no care should avail. "There shall the fire devour thee; the 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. Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoils, and flees away. Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun arises they flee away, and their place is not known where they are. Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria; thy nobles shall lie down." It is a completeness of ruin for its grandeur unexampled in history. "Thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathers them. There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is fatal: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom has not thy wickedness passed continually?"

The short, abrupt, bold and elegant sentences in describing Nineveh, her lengthened siege of two years and the manner of her capture, make the book a very interesting one indeed. We need not the pen of the historian to trace for us the particulars connected with the destruction of that ancient city which with its rival Babylon is doomed to perpetual desolation. A more graphic account of the pride, cruelty, and idolatry of Nineveh, of its size and its resources, and finally of the mode of its capture by the combined forces of the Medes and Babylonians, with the surprise of its king and nobles, cannot be produced, and positively makes the reader independent of the human historian. Nineveh was to be destroyed by fire and water. The travellers Botta, and Layard, in their interesting discoveries in the palaces and ruins of the city, found considerable quantities of charcoal and half-burnt wood. Here we have God's account of things, surely preferable infinitely to man's judgment and his generally faulty record of things and persons.

In verse 5 the Assyrian king is seen turning to his army, as he sees the chariots dashing along the highways and broadways which lead to the city; he counts his worthies, his generals and captains. And the army suddenly called, in making haste stumbled along in disorder and made haste to reach the walls. As stated above, the sixth verse was fulfilled when the river became a flood and undermined the foundations of the walls, so that the besiegers could enter in. And when Babylon fell, under the grandson of Nebuchadnezzar, the river also was the means of defeat, for the enemy had diverted the river Euphrates and through the dry river-bed entered the city.

Nineveh is next mentioned in 2 Kings 19:36; Isa. 37:37, when Sennacherib, after the destruction of his army by God, retired to Nineveh, where he was slain by two of his sons.

The other references to Nineveh in scripture are occupied with its judgement and foretelling its destruction. The prophecy of Nahum is especially devoted to this. Diodorus asserts that there was an ancient prophecy that Nineveh should not fall till the river became an enemy to the city; which happened in the third year of the siege, when the river partially overflowed the city. In the prophecy of Nahum it is said, "with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place"; "the gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved." Nahum 1:8; Nahum 2:6. It was to be totally destroyed and not rise again. "a desolation, and dry like a wilderness." Nineveh had been very proud, and had said in its heart, "I am, and there is none beside me"; it should be a place for wild beasts. Zeph. 2:13-15: cf. Isa. 10:5-19. It had been 'a city of blood,' and full of lies and robbery; it should be made vile; its destruction should be final: there would be no healing of its bruise. Nahum 3:1, 19. In Ezek. 31:3-17 Assyria is compared to a cedar of high stature, which had been brought to utter ruin.

Nahum 2 concerns the city of Nineveh directly. God had allowed Jacob to be disciplined and 'emptied out;' but now Nineveh must be dealt with. It is exhorted to make good its defence, yet the gates of the rivers should be opened, and the palace should be dissolved. Here it is not the 'gates of the city,' as when Babylon was taken, but 'the gates of the rivers.' This may refer to the Tigris and the canals that watered the city. The overflowing river, it is said, caused a breach in the sun-dried brick walls.

"Huzzab shall be led away captive." Nahum 2:7. This name is supposed by some to be symbolical of Nineveh, the one 'established,' or 'held to be impregnable,' as in the margin; others, however, believe it refers to the reigning queen, who should be led captive with her maids. The spoil which had been taken in many wars was great, but should now enrich others. The reference to the lions, and the strangling, and the filling the dens with ravin, possibly applied to the cruelties which the Assyrians inflicted on their prisoners, and which are depicted by themselves on their monuments. Truly, as said in Nahum 3, it was a 'bloody city.' The following verses, as also Nahum 2:3-4, show that it was a warlike nation, ever seeking to enrich itself by the spoil of other nations, among which were Israel and Judah. It should not only be brought down, but should be made vile and a gazing-stock. Nahum 3:8-10 show that as 'populous No' (the renowned Thebes, with its hundred gates), had been brought to nought (probably by Sargon, king of Assyria), so should Nineveh fall. The gates of the land should be left open for their enemies, and as the cankerworm, the locust, and the grasshopper destroy vegetation, so should be their desolation. Fire is spoken of several times, and the explorations that have been made at the ruins of Nineveh abundantly prove that fire did its destructive work. The denunciations close with, "There is no healing of thy bruise; thy 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 ruins show how complete and lasting was God's judgement on the guilty city. See NINEVEH.

Exact or approximate indications of time are totally missing in Nahum’s book. Chapter 3:8-10 however mentions the destruction of No of Amon ( Thebes) capital of Upper Egypt. This took place in 663 BC by Assurbanipal king of Assyrians. Nineveh was destroyed by the Medes under Cyaxares and by the Babylonians under Nabopolassar in 612 BC. Nahum’s time of labour would lie between these two events.