Part 5
1. Description 2. Geological Origin 3. The Making of Egypt 4. The Inundation 5. The Infiltration
II. The Nile in Hlstory
1. The Location of Temples 2. The Location of Cemeteries 3. The Damming of the Nile 4. Egyptian Famines
III. The Nile in Religion
1. The Nile as a God 2. The Nile in the Osirian Myth 3. The Celestial Nile
>h^
NUe Nineveh THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA 2146
to the E., and the W., as the level of the vaUey would permit, depositing the sediment and thus making the cultivable land wider, as well as the
the Blue Nile in lat. 15° 45' N. and long. 32° 45' E. The Blue N. rises in the highlands of Abyssinia,
lat. 12° 30' N., long. 3.5° E., and flows
1. DescripN.W. 850 miles to its junction with tion the White N. The White N., the principal branch of the N., rises in Victoria Nyanza, a great lake in Central Africa, a few miles N. of the equator, long. 33° E. (more e.xactly the N. may be said to rise at the headwaters of the Ragera River, a smaU stream on the other side of the lake, 3° S. of the equator), and flows N. in a tortuous channel, 1,400 miles to its junction with the Blue N. From this junction-point the N. flows N. through Nubia and Egypt 1,900 miles and empties into the Mediterranean Sea, in lat. 32° N., through 2 mouths, the Rosetta, E. of Alexandria, and the Damietta, W. of Port Said. There were formerly 7 mouths scattered along a coast-hne of
soil deeper, year by year. At HeUopoUs, a little N. of Cairo, this extension to the E. has been 3 to 4 miles since the building of the great temple there.
140 miles. The Nile originated in the Tertiary period and has continued from that time to this, though by the subsidence of the land 220 ft. along
2. Geologithe Mediterranean shore in the Pineal Origin vial times, the river was very much shortened. Later in the Pluvial times the land rose again and is stiU rising slowly.
Cultivable Egypt is altogether the product of the N., every particle of the soil having been brought down by the river from the heart of the
3. The continent and deposited along the Making of banks and esp. in the delta at the Egypt mouth of the river. The banks have risen higher and higher and extended farther and farther back by the deposit of the sediment, until the valley of arable land varies in width
Cross-Section of Nilometer.
in most parts from 3 or 4 miles to 9 or 10 miles. The mouth of the river, after the last elevation of the land in Pluvial times, was at first not far from the lat. of Cairo. From this point northward the river has built up a delta of 140 miles on each side, over which it spreads itself and empties into the sea through its many mouths.
At Luxor, about 350 miles farther up the river, where the approach toward the mountains is much steeper, the extension of the good soil to the E. and the W. is inconsiderable.
The ancient Egyptians were right in calling all the waters of Egypt the N., for wherever water is
The watering of Egypt by the inundation from the N. ia the most striking feature of the physical
obtained by digging it is simply the
5. The N. percolating through the porous Infiltration soil. This percolation is called the infiltration of the N. It always extends as far on either side of the N. as the level of the water in the river at the time will permit. This infiltration, next to the inundation, is the most important physical phenomenon in Egypt. By means of it much of the irrigation of the land during the dry season is carried on from wells. It has had
character of that land, and one of the
4. The Inmost interesting and remarkable physiundation cal phenomena in the world. The inundation is produced by the combination of an indirect and a direct cause. The
indirect cause is the rain and melting snow on the equatorial mountains in Central Africa, which maintains steadily a great volume of water in the White N. The direct cause is torrential rains in the highlands of Abyssinia which send down the Blue N. a sudden gi-eat increase in the volume of water. T"he inundation has two periods each year. The first begins about July 15 and continues until near the end of September. After a slight recession, the river again rises early in October in the great inundation. High Nile is in October, 25 to 30 ft., low Nile in June, about 12 Jft. The Nilometer for recording the height of the water of inundation dates from very early times. Old Nilometers are found still in situ at Edfu and Assuan. The water-
its influence also in the political and reUgious changes of the country (cf below).
//. The Nile in History.—Some of the early temples were located near the N., probably because of the deifi-
cation of the river. The rising of the 1. The Losurface of the land, and at the same time ratinn nf °^ ^^^ bed of the rivor, from the inundacauonoi ^jq^^ uj^g^j ^^^^^ Egypt and its great lemples river, but left the temples down at the old level. In time the infiltration of the river from its new higher level reached farther and farther and rose to a higher level until the floor of these old temples was under water even at the time of lowest N., and then gods and goddesses, priests and ceremonial aU were driven out. At least two of the greatest temples and most sacred places, Heliopolis and Memphis, had to be abandoned. Probably this fact had as much to do with the downfall of Egypt's religion, as its political disasters and the actual destruction of its temples by eastern invaders. Nature's God had driven out the gods of Nature.
ing and fertiUzing of the land is the immediate effect
of the inundation; its ultimate result is that making
of Egypt which is still in progress. The settUng
of the sediment from the water upon the land
has raised the surface of the valley about 1 ft.
in 300 to 400 years, about 9 to 10 ft. near Cairo
Some prehistoric burials are found on the higher ground, as at Kefr 'A mar. A thousand years of history would be quite sufficient to teach Egyp2. The Lotians that the N. was still making Egypt. cation of Thenceforth, cemeteries were located at
since the beginning of the early great temples. The
deposit varies greatly at other places. As the de-
posit of sediment has been upon the bottom of the
river, as well as upon the surface of the land, though more slowly, on account of the swiftness of the
. the mountains on the eastern and the L-emeteries western boundaries of the valley. Here they continue to this day, for the most part still entirely above the waters of the inundation and usuaUy above the reach of the infiltration.
current, the river also has been Ufted up, and thus
the inundation has extended farther and farther
2147 THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA Nile Nineveh
The widening of the cultivable land by means of long canals which carried the water from far up the river to
Moiyel Nmneirah or in the spring higher up, where
lie the ruins of a town in a well-watered and fruitful district (Buhl, GAP, 272). W. Ewing
levels higher than that of the inundation,
3. Dams in ^^-^ther down the river was practised from ./ ixr'l very early times. The substitution of me iNiie dams for long canals was reserved for modern engineering skill. Three great dams have been made: the flrst a little N. of Cairo, the greatest at Assuan, and the last near Asyut.
NIMROD, nim'rod (~'TP3, nimrodh; N€(3p<68, Nehrod): A descendant of Ham, mentioned in "the generations of the sons of Noah" (Gen 10; cf 1 Ch 1 10) as a son of Cush. He established his kingdom "in the land of Shinar," including the cities "Babel, and Erech, and Accad, and Calneh" (ver
Famines in Egypt are always due to failure in the quantity of the waters of inundation. Great famines have not been frequent. The cause of 4 'Fflminp'5 ^^® failure in the water of inundation """"" is now believed to be not so much a lack of the water of inundation from the Blue N. as the choking of the channel of the White N. in the great marsh land of the Sudan by the sud, a kind of sedge, sometimes becoming such a tangled mass as to close the cliannel and impede the flow of the regular volume of water so that the freshet in the Blue N. causes but little inundation at the usual time, and during the rest of the year the N. is so low from the same cause that good irrigation by canals and wells is impossible. A channel through the sud is now kept open ijy the Egyp government.
10), of which only Babel, or Babylon, and Erech, or Uruk, have been identiiied with certainty. "The land of Shinar" is the old name for Southern Babylonia, afterward called Chaldaea ('eref kasdim), and was probably more extensive in territory than the burner of the inscriptions in the ancient royal title,
"King of Shumer and Accad," since Accad is included here in Shinar. Nimrod, like other great kings of Mesopotamian lands, was a mighty hunter, possibly the mightiest and the prototype of them
///. The Nile in Religion.—One of the gods of the Egyp pantheon was Hapi, the Nile. In early times
all, sinoe to his name had attached itself the proverb: "Like Nimrod a mighty hunter before Jeh" (ver 9), In the primitive days of Mesopotamia, as also in Pal, wild animals Were so numerous that they became a menace to life and property (Ex 23 29; Lev 26 22); therefore the king as benefactor and protector of his people hunted these wild beasts. The early conquest of the cities of Baby-
it divided the honors with Ra, the
1. The Nile sun-god. No wonder it was so. If as a God the Egyptians set out to worship Nature-gods at all, surely then the sun and the Nile first.
The origin of the Osirian myth is still much discussed. Very much evidence, perhaps conclusive evidence, can be adduced to prove that
lonia, or their federation into one great Ivingdom, is here ascribed to Nimrod, Whether the founding and colonization of Assyria (ver 11) are to be ascribed to N. will be determined by the exegesis of the text. EV reads: "Out of that land ke [i.e. Nimrod] went forth into Assyria, and builded Nineveh," etc, this
2. The Nile it rose originally from the Nile; that in Osirian Osiris was first of all the N., then the Myth water of the N., then the soil, the product of the waters of the N., and then Egypt, the N. and all that it produced. Egypt was the Egyptian's little world, and Egypt was the Nile. It was thus quite natural for the Egyptians in considering the celestial
tr assigning the rise of Assyria to N., and apparently being sustained by Mic 5 5.6 (cf J. M. P. Smith, "Micah," ICC, in loc); but ARVm renders: "Out of that land went forth Asshur, and builded Nineveh," which tr is more accurate exegetically and not in conflict with Mic 5 6, if in the latter "land of Nimrod" be understood, not as parallel with, but as supplemental to, Assyria, and therefore as Babylon (cf comms. of Cheyne, Pusey, S. Clark,
3. The world to image it in Ukeness of their Celestial own world with a celestial Nile flowing Nile through it. It is so represented in the mythology, but the conception of the heavens is vague. M. G. Kyle
NIMRAH, nim'ra (TTn^D , nimrah; B, Nd|ippa, Ndmbra, A, 'A|i(3pdH., Ambrdm), or BETH-NIMRAH
in loc).
N. has not been identified with any mythical hero or historic king of the inscriptions. Some have sought identification with Gilgamesh, the flood hero of Babylonia (Skinner, Driver, Delitzsch); others with a later Kassite king (Haupt, Hilprecht)
(rriTOD 71^3 , beth nimrah; B, Na(j.pd|x, Namrdm, A,
'Aiippdv, Ambrdn [Nu 32 36], B, Baieava|3pd, Bailhanabrd, A, Bijeaiivd, Belhmnnd [Josh 13 27]) These two names evidently refer to the same place; but there is no reason to think, as some have done, from the similarity of the names, that it is identical with NiMRiM (q.v.). On the contrary, the indications of the passages cited point to a site E. of the Jordan valley and N. of the Dead Sea. About 11 miles N.E. of the mouth of the Jordan, where Wddy Nimrin, coming down from the eastern up-lands, enters the plain, stands a hiU called Tell Nimrin, with tombs and certain traces of ancient building. This may be certainly identified with Nimrah and Beth-nimrah; and it corresponds to Bethnambris of Onom, which lay 5 Rom miles N. of Livias.
which is quite unlikely; but the most admissible correspondence is with Marduk, chief god of Baby-
lon, probably its historic founder, just as Asshur, the god of Assyria, appears in ver 11 as the founder
of the Assyr empire (Wellhausen, Price, Sayce). Lack of identification, however, does not necessarily indicate mythical origin of the name. See Astronomy, II, 11; Babylonia and Assyria, Religion OF, IV, 7; Merodach; Orion. Edward Mack
NIMSHI, nim'shi ClBTaS , nimshi): The grandfather of Jehu (2 K 9 2.14). Jehu's usual designation is "son of Nimshi" (1 K 19 16).
W. EwiNG NIMRIM, nim'rim (n"'^'a5""'15 , me nimrim;
NINEVEH, nin'e-ve (ni5"'5 , nin'weh: Niv€-oif|, Nineut, Niveu'C, Nineui; Gr and Rom writers, Ntvos, Ninos)
B, NePpetv, Nebrein, A, 'EPp(|x,_ fiirim [Jer 48 34], TO {iSiop Ttis Ni|j.p€£p., 16 hudor lis Nimreim [Isa 15
6]): The meaning appears to be "pure" or "wholesome water." The name occurs only in Isa 15 6 and Jer 48 34 in oracles against Moab. In each
I, Beginnings, Name, Position
1. First Biblical Mention 2. Etymology of the Name 3. Position on the Tigris
case it is mentioned in association with Zoar and Horonaim. It is therefore probably to be sought
II. Nineveh and Its SuRROUNDlNas 1. Its Walls 2. Principal Mounds and Gateways 3. Extent and Population within the Walls 4. Extent outside the Walls 5. Calah, Besen and Rehoboth-Ir 6. Khorsabad 7. Sherif Khan and Selamleh 8. Nimroud
to the S.E. of the Dead Sea. Onom places a town, Bennamareim, to the N. of Zoar, and identifies it
with the OT "Nimrim," as it seems, correctly. The name is still found in Wddy Numeireh, opening on
the sea at Burj Numeirah, N. of Ghor es-Safiyeh. The waters of Nimrim may be sought either in
Nineveh THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA 2148
III. Palaces at Nineveh Proper
protected the northeastern wall from attack on that
1. The Palace of Sennacherib 2. The Palace of Assur-banl-apli IV. Sennacherib's Description op Nineveh 1. The Walls 2. The Gates—Northwest 3. The Gates—South and East 4. The Gates—West 5. The Outer Wall: the Plantations 6. The Water-supply, etc 7. How the Bas-BeUefs lUustrate the King's Description 8. Nineveh the Later Capital V. Last Days and Fall of Nineveh Literature
side, where the Ninevites evidently considered that they had most to fear.
According to G. Smith, the circuit of the inner wall is about 8 miles, and Captain Jones, who made
a trigonometrical survey in 1854,
3. Extent estimated that, allotting to each inand Popuhabitant 50 sq. yards, the city may
lation have contained 174,000 inhabitants. within the If the statement in Jon 4 11, that the Walls city contained 120,000 persons who could not discern between their right hand and their left, be intended to give the number
/. Beginnings, Name, Position.—The first Bib. mention of Nineveh is in Gen 10 11, where it is stated that Nimrod (q.v.) or Asshur 1. First went out into Assyria, and builded N. Biblical and Rehoboth-Ir, and Calah, and Mention Resen between N. and Calah, with the addition, "the same is the great city." Everything indicates that these statements are correct, for N. was certainly at one time under Bab rule, and was at first not governed by Assyr kings, but by i'ssake or viceroys of Assur, the old capital. To all appearance N. took its name from the Bab Nina near Lagas in South Babylonia, on the Euphrates, from which early foundation it was probably colonized. The native name appears as Ninua or Nind {Niiiaa), written with the character for "water enclosure" with that for "fish" 2. Etyinside, implying a connection between mology of Nind and the Sem niin, "fish." The the Name Bab Nina was a place where fish were very abundant, and Istar or Nina, the goddess of the city, was associated with Nin-mah, Merodach's spouse, as goddess of reproduction. Fish are also plentiful in the Tigris at Mosul, the modern town on the other side of the river, and this may have influenced the choice of the site by the Bab settlers, and the foundation there of the great temple of Istar or Nina. The date of this foundation is unknown, but it may have taken place about 3000 BC. N. lay on the eastern bank of the Tigris, at the point where the Kho.sr falls into that stream. The outline of the wall is rectangular on the
of the city's children only, then the population must have numbered about 600,000, and more than three cities of the same extent would have been needed to contain them. It has therefore been supposed—and that with great prob-
4. Extent ability—that there was a large exten.- outside the sion of the city outside its walls. This Walls is not only indicated by Jon 3 3, where it is described as "an exceeding great city of three days' journey" to traverse, but also by the extant ruins, which stretch S.E. along the banks of the Tigris as far as Nimroud (Calah), while its northern extension may have been regarded as including Khorsabad.
Concerning the positions of two of the cities mentioned with N., namely, Calah and Resen, there
can be no doubt, notwithstanding that
5. Calah, Resen has not yet been identified Resen and Calah is the modern Nimroud, and Rehoboth-Ir Resen lay between that site and N. The name Rehoboth-Ir has not yet been found in the inscriptions, but Fried. Delitzsch has suggested that it may be the rehil Ninua of the inscriptions, N.E. of N. If this be the case, the N. of Jonah contained within it all the places in Gen 10 11.12, and Khorsabad besides. Taking the outlying ruins from N. to S., we begin with Khorsabad (DUr-Sarru-ktn or Dxlr-Sargina)
12 miles N.E. of Kouyunjik, the great
6. Khorsapalace mound of N. proper. Khorsabad bad is a great inclosure about 2,000 yards square, with the remains of towers and gateways. The palace mound lies on its northwest face, and consists of an extensive platform with the remains of Sargon's palace and its temple, with a ziqqurat or temple-tower similar to those at Babylon, Borsippa, Calah and elsewhere. This last still shows traces of the tints symbolical of the 7 planets of which its stages were, seemingly, emblematic. The palace ruins show numerous halls, rooms and passages, many of which were faced with slabs of coarse alabaster, sculptured in relief with military operations, hunting-scenes, mythological figures, etc, while the principal entrances were flanked with the finest winged humanheaded bulls which Assyr art has so far revealed. The palace was built about 712 BC, and was probably destroyed by fire when N. fell in 606 BC, sharing the same fate. Some of the slabs and winged bulls are in the Louvre and the British Museum, but most of the antiquarian spoils were lost in the Tigris by the sinking of the rafts upon which they were loaded after being discovered.
3. Its PosiW., but of an irregular shape on the tion on the E. The western fortifications run Tigris from N.W. to S.E., following, roughly, the course of the river, which now flows about 1,500 yards from the walls, instead of close to them, as anciently.
//. Nineveh and Its Surroundings.—According to the late G. Smith, the southwestern wall has a
length of about 2 J miles, and is joined at
1. Its Walls its western corner by the northwestern
wall, which runs in a northeasterly direction for about 1 5 miles. The northeastern wall, starting here, runs at first in a southeasterly direc-
tion, but turns southward, gradually approaching the southwestern wall, to which, at the end of about 3j miles, it is joined by a short wall, facing nearly
S., rather more than half a mile long.
The principal mounds are Kouyunjik, a little N.E. of the village of ^Amusiyeh, and Nebi-Yunas,
about 1,500 yards to the S.E. Both
2. Principal of these lie just within the S.W. wall. Mounds Extensive remains of buildings occupy and Gatethe fortified area. Numerous openways ings occur in the walls, many of them ancient, though some seem to have been made after the abandonment of the site. The principal gate on the N.W. was guarded by winged
Another outlying suburb was probably Tarbisu now represented by the ruins at Sherif Khan, about '3 mUes N. of Kouyunjik. In this lay a temple 7. Sherif "palace" Sennacherib calls it—dedicated Khan and *° Nergal. Anciently it must have been Coio^toi, ? P'ace of some importance, as Esaroeiamien haddon seems to have built a palace there .„ ,- ^ - ^? ^'l ^^ '^ "seat" for his elde,st son, AsSur-banl-aph. The site of Resen, "between N. and Calah IS thought to be the modern SdamUh. 12 miles S. of N., and 3 miles N. of Nimroud (Calah). It is in the form of an irregular inclosure on a high mound overlooking the Tigris, with a surface of about 400 acres
bulls (see Layard, Monuments of Nineveh, 2d series,
pi. 3; Nineveh and Babylon, 120). Other gates gave access to the various commercial roads of the country, those on the E. passing through the curved outworks and the double line of fortifications which
2149 THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA Nineveh
No remains ol buildings, sculptures or inscriptions have, however, been lound there.
of Sennacherib seated on his "standing" throne, while the captives and the spoil of the city passed before him. The grand entrance was flanked by winged bulls facing toward the spectator as he entered. They were in couples, back to back, on each side of the doorway, and between each pair the ancient Bab hero-giant, carrying in one hand the "boomerang," and holding tightly with his left arm a struggling lion (Layard, Nineveh and Babylon, 137) was represented, just as at his father Sargon's palace at Khorsabad. The upper part of these imposing figures had been destroyed, but they were so massive, that the distinguished explorer attributed their overthrow not to the act of man, but to some convulsion of Nature.
After N. itself (Kouyunjik), the ruins known as Nimroud, 14 or 15 miles S.E., are the most important. They mark the site of the an-
8. Nimcient Calah, and have already been roud described under that heading (see p. 539). As there stated, the stone-faced temple-tower seems to be referred to by Ovid, and
is apparently also mentioned by Xenophon (see Resen). The general tendency of the accumulated references to these sites supports the theory that they were regarded as belonging to N., if not by the Assyrians themselves (who knew well the various municipal districts), at least by the foreigners who had either visited the city or had heard or read descriptions of it.
In the north of the mound are the ruins of the palace of Assur-bani-apli or Assur-bani-pal, discovered by Hormuzd Rassam. His 2. The latest plan (Asshur and the Land of Palace of Nimrod, Cincinnati and New York, Assur-bani1897, plate facing p. 36) does not give apli the whole of the structure, much of the building having been destroyed; but the general arrangement of the rooms was upon the traditional lines. The slabs with which they were paneled showed bas-reliefs illustrating the
///. The Palaces at Nineveh Proper.—The palaces at N. were built upon extensive artificial platforms between 30 and 50 ft. high, either of sundried brick, as at Nimroud, or of earth and rubbish, as at Kouyunjik. It is thought that they were faced with masom-y, and that access was gained to
Entr.\nce to Kouyunjik.
them by means of flights of deep steps, or sloping pathways. Naturally it is the plan of the basement floor alone that can at present be traced, any upper stories that may have existed having long since disappeared. The halls and rooms discovered were faced with slabs of alabaster or other stone, often sculptured with bas-reliefs depicting warlike expeditions, the chase, religious ceremonies and divine figures. The depth of the accumulations over these varies from a few inches to about 30 ft., and if the amount in some cases would seem to be excessive,
Assyr campaigns against Babylonia, certain Arab tribes, and Elam. As far as they are preserved, the sculptures are wonderfully good, and the whole decorative scheme of the paneled walls, of which, probably, the greater part is forever lost, may be characterized, notwithstanding their defects of perspective and their mannerisms, as nothing less than magnificent. The lion-hunts of the great king, despite the curious treatment of the animals' manes
(due to the sculptors' ignorance of the right way to represent hair) are admirable. It would be difficult to improve upon the expressions of fear, rage and suffering on the part of the animals there delineated. The small sculptures showing Assurbanl-iipli hunting the goat and the wild ass are not loss noteworthy, and are executed with great delicacy.
it is thought that this may have been due either to the existence of upper chambers, or to the extra height of the room. The chambers, which are grouped around courtyards, are long and narrow, with small square rooms at the ends. The partition walls vary from 6 to 15 ft. in thickness, and are of sun-dried brick, against which the stone paneling was fixed. As in the case of the Bab temples and palaces, the rooms and halls open into each other,
IV. Sennacherib's Description of Nineveh.—In all probability the best description of the city is that
given by Sennacherib on the cylinder
1. The recording his expedition to Tarsus in Walls Cilioia. From ancient times, he says, the circuit of the city had measured 9,300 cubits, and he makes the rather surprising statement that his predecessors had not buUt either
so that, to gain access to those farthest from the courtyard entrance, one or more halls or chambers had to be traversed. No traces of windows have been discovered, and little can therefore be said as
to the method of lighting, but the windows were
the inner or the outer wall, which, if true, shows how confident they were of their security from attack. He claims to have enlarged the city by 12,515 (cubits). The great defensive wall which he built was called by the Sumerian name of Bad-imgallabilu-susu, which he translates as "the wall whose glory overthrows the enemy." He made the brickwork 40 (cubits) thick, which would probably not greatly exceed the estimate of G. Smith, who reckoned it to have measured about 50 ft. The height
either high up, or light was admitted through openings in the roof.
The palace of Sennacherib lay in the southeast corner of the platform, and consisted of a court-
yard surrounded on all four sides by
1. The numerous long halls, and rooms, of Palace of which the innermost were capable of Sennacherib being rendered private. It was in this palace that were found the reliefs depicting the siege of Lachish, with the representation
Nineveh Nineveh, Library THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA 2160
of the wall he raised to 180 tipki, which, admitting the estimate of Diodorus, should amount to about 100 ft.
In connection with this, in all probability, he arranged the water-supply, conducting a distant water-course to N. by means of con-
6. The duits. Being a successful venture, he Waterseems to have watered therewith all Supply, etc the people's orchards, and in winter 1,000 corn fields above and below the
In this inclosing wall were 15 gates, which he enumerates in (uU. Three o£ these were situated in the short northwest wall—the gate of Hadad; the gate of Uru or Hadad of Tarbisu (Sherif Khan), and the gate of the inoon-god Nannar, Sennacherib's own deity. The plans show five openings in the wall on this side, any of which may have been the gate used when going to Tarbisu, but that adorned with winged bulls probably fiu-nished the shortest route.
2. The Gates Northwest
city. The force of the increased current in the river Khosr was retarded by the creation of a swamp, and among the reeds which grew there were placed wild fowl, 'wild swine, and deer(?). Here he repeated his exotic plantations, including
trees for wood, cotton (apparently) and seemingly the olive.
Sennacherib's bas-reliefs show some of the phases of the work which his cylinder inscriptions describe.
We see the winged bulls, which are of
7. How the colossal dimensions, sometimes lying Bas-Reliefs on their sledges (shaped like boats or Illustrate Assyr ships), and sometimes standing the King's and supported by scaffolding. The Description sledges rest upon rollers, and are dragged by armies of captives urged to action by taskmasters with whips. Others force the sledges forward from behind by means of enormous levers whose upper ends are held in position by guy-ropes. Each side has to pull with equal force, for if the higher end of the great lever fell, the side which had pulled too hard suffered in killed and crushed, or at least in bruised, workmen of their number. In the backgroimd are the soldiers of the guard, and behind them extensive wooded hills. In other bas-reliefs it is apparently the pleasuregrounds of the palace which are seen. In these the background is an avenue of trees, alternately tall and short, on the banks of a river, whereon are boats, and men riding astride inflated skins, which were much used in those days, as now. On another slab, the great king himself, in his hand-chariot dra-wn by eunuchs, superintends the work. How long N. had been the capital of Assyria is unknown. The original capital was Assur, about 50 miles to the S., and probably this continued to be regarded as the religious and official capital of the country. Assur-nasir-apli seems to have had a
Bas-Relief of Lion-Hunt.
The gates looking toward the S. and the E. were the A5§ur-gate (leading to the old capital): Sennacherib's Halzi-gate; the gate of SamaS of Gagal. the gate of the god Enlil of Kar-Ninlil, and the "covered gate," which seems to have had the reputation of letting forth the fever-demon. After this are mentioned the Sibaniba-gate, and the gate of Halah in Mesopotamia. This last must have been the extreme northeastern opening, now communicating with the road to Khorsabad, implying that Halah lay in that direction.
3. The Gates South and East
The gates on the west or river-side of the city were "the gate of Ea, director of my watersprings"; the quay-gate, "bringer
of the tribute of my peoples"; the gate of the land of Bari, within which the presents of the Sumuilites entered (brought down by the Tigris from Babylonia, in all probability) ; the gate of the tribute-palace or armory; and the gate of the god Sar-ur "altogetlier 5 gates in the direction of the W." There are about 9 mde openings in the wall on this side, 2 being on each side of the Kouyunjik mound, and 2 on each side of that called NebiYunus. As openings at these points would have endangered the city's safety, these 4 have probably to be eliminated, leaving 2 only N. of Nebi-Yunus, 2 between that and Kouyunjik, and one N. of Kouyunjik. Minor means of e.xit probably existed at all points where they were regarded as needful.
4. The Gates West
To the outer wall of the city Sennacherib gave a Sumerian name meaning, "the wall which terrifies the enemy." At a depth of 54 gar,
5. The the underground water-level, its Outer Wall: foundations were laid upon blocks of the Planstone, the object of this great depth tations being to frustrate undermining. The wall was made "high like a mountain." Above and below the city he laid out plantations, wherein all the sweet-smelling herbs of Heth (Pal and Phoenicia) grew, fruitful beyond those of their homeland. Among them were to be found every kind of mountain-vine, and the plants of all the nations around.
2151 THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA Nineveh Nineveh, Library
Deluge^ however, by Mr. George Smith in 1873 led the proprietors of the Daily Telegraph to send him to Nineveh in the hope that the missing portions of the story might be found. He had not been excavating there long before he came across a fragment of another version of the story, and then once more the excavations came to an end. Since then expeditions have been sent by the British Museum which have resulted in the recovery of further remains of the ancient library of Nineveh.
stirring historical events; but the most noteworthy were probably Sennacherib's triumphal entries, including that following the capture of Lachish, the murder of that great conqueror by his sons (the recent theory that he was killed at Babylon needs confirmation), and the ceremonial triumphs of Assur-bant-apli—the great and noble Osnappar (Ezr 4 10). After the reign of Assur-banl-apli came his son AsSur-etil-tlani, who was succeeded by Sin-sarra-iskun (Saracos), but the history of the country, and also of the city, is practically nonexistent during these last two reigns. The Assyr and Bab records are silent with regard to the fall of the city, but Alexander Polyhistor, Abydenus and Syncellus all speak of it. The best account, however, is that of Diodorus Siculus, who refers to a legend that the city could not be taken until the river became its enemy. Arbaces, the Scythian, besieged it, but could not make any impression on it for 2 years. In the 3d year, however, the river (according to Commander Jones, not the Tigris, but the Khosr), being swollen by rains, and very rapid in its current, carried away a portion of the wall, and by this opening the besiegers gained an entrance. The king, recognizing in this the fulfilment of the oracle, gathered together his concubines and eunuchs, and, mounting a funeral pyre which he had caused to be constructed, perished in the flames. This catastrophe is supposed to be referred to in Nah 1 8: "With an over-running flood he [the Lord] will make a full end of her place
//. The Library.—The tablets formed a library
in the true sense of the word. Libraries had existed
[i.e. of N.]," and 2 6: "The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved." The destruction of the city by fire is probably referred to in 3 13.15. The picture of the scenes in her streets
•—the noise of the whip, the rattling wheels, the prancing horses, the bounding chariots (3 2 ff), followed by a vivid description of the carnage of the battlefield—is exceedingly striking, and true to their records and their sculptures.
Literature.—The standard books on the discovery and exploration of N. are Layard, Nineveh and Its Remains (two vols, 1849): Nineveh and Babylon (,1853) ; Monuments of Nineveh, 1st and 2d series (plates) (1849 and 1853): and Hormuzd Rassam, Asshur and the Land of Nimrod (Cincinnati and New York, 1897).
T. G. Pinches NINEVEH, LIBRARY OF:
=J"( f-
Plan of the library at Nineveh.
I. The Discovery II. The Library III. Writing-Materials IV. Contents
in the cities of Babylonia from a remote date, and the Assyr kings, whose civilization was derived from Babylonia, imitated the example of Babylonia in this as in other respects. The only true booklover among them, however, was Assur-bani-pal. He was one of the most munificent royal patrons of learning the world has ever seen, and it was to him that the great library of Nineveh owed its existence. New editions were made of older works, and the public and private libraries of Babylonia were ransacked in search of literary treasures.
1. Philology 2. Astronomy and Astrology
3. Religious Texts 4. Law 5. Science 6. Literature 7. History and Chronology
8. Commerce 9. Letters
/. The Discovery.—In the spring of 1850, the workmen of Sir A. H. Layard at Nineveh made an important discovery. In the ruins of the palace of Assur-bani-pal they found a passage which opened
///. WritingMaterials.—Fortunately for us the ordinary writing-material of the Babylonians and Assyrians was clay. It was more easily procurable than papyrus or parchment, and was specially adapted for the reception of the cuneiform characters. Hence, while the greater part of the old Egyp lit., which was upon papyrus, has perished that of Babylonia and Assyria has been preserved. In Babylonia the tablets after being inscribed were often merely dried in the sun; in the damper climate of Assyria they were baked in a kiln. As a large amount of text had frequently to be compressed into a small space, the writing is sometimes so minute as to need the assistance of a magnifying glass before it can be read. It is not surprising, therefore, that in. the library-chambers of Nineveh Layard found a magnifying lens of crystal, which had been turned on the lathe.
into two small chambers leading one into the other. The doorway was guarded on either side by figures
of Ea, the god of culture and the inventor of letters,
in his robe of fishskin. The walls of the chambers had once been paneled with bas-reliefs, one of which represented a city standing on the shore of a sea that was covered with galleys. Up to the height
of a foot or more the floor was piled with clay tab-
lets that had fallen from the shelves on which they had been arranged in order, and the larger number
of them was consequently broken. Similar tablets, but in lesser number, were found in the adjoining chambers. After Layard's departure, other tab-
lets were discovered by Mr. Hormuzd Rassam, and then the excavations ceased for many years. The discovery of the Bab version of the account of the
Nineveh, Library ^^^ INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA Nob 2152
IV. Contents.—The subject-matter of the tablets included all the known branches of knowledge.
second, an elaborate pseudo-science of augury had been built up, and an enormous lit. arose on the interpretation of dreams, the observation of the
Foremost among them are the philo-
1. Philology logical works. The inventors of the cuneiform system of writing had spoken an agglutinative language, called Sumerian, similar to that of the Turks or Finns todiy, and a considerable pait of the early lit. had been written in this language, which to the later Sem Babylonians and Assjiians was what Lat was to the European nations m
liver of animals, etc. Unfortunately Assur-banipal had a special predilection for the subject, and the consequence is that his library was filled with works which the Assyriologist would gladly exchange for documents of a more valuable character. Among the scientific works we may also include those on medicine, as well as numerous mathemat-
ical tables.
Literature was largely represented, mainly in the form of poems on mythological, religious or his-
torical subjects. Among these the
6. Litermost famous is the epic of the hero atnre Gilgames in twelve books, the Bab account of the Deluge being introduced as an episode in the eleventh book. Another epic was the story of the great battle between the god Merodach and Tiamat, the dragon of chaos and evil, which includes the story of the crea-
the Middle Ages. The student was therefore provided with grammars and dictionaries of the t^vo languages, as well as nith reading-books and interlinear tr» into Assyr of the chief Sumerian texts Besides this, long lists of the cuneiform characters were drawn up with their phonetic and ideographic values, together with lists of Assyr synonyms, in which, for example, all the equivalents are given of the word "to go." The Assyr lexicographers at times attempted etymologies which are as wide of the mark as similar etymologies given by English lexicographers of a past generation. Sabattu, "Sabbath," for instance, is derived from the two Sumerian words, sa, "heart," and bat, "to end," and so is explained to mean "day of rest for the heart." It is obvious that all this implies an advanced literary culture. People do not begin to compile grammars and dictionaries or to speculate on the origin of words until books and libraries abound and education is widespread. Astronomy occupied a prominent place in Assyr
tion.
Historical records are very numerous, the Assjtians being distinguished among the nations of antiquity by their historical sense.
7. History In Assyria the royal palace took the and place of the Bab or Egyp temple; Chronology and where the Babylonian or the Egyptian would have left behind him a religious record, the Assyrian adorned his walls with accounts of campaigns and the victories of their royal builders. The dates which are attached to each portion of the narrative, and the care with which the names of petty princes and states are transcribed, give a high idea of the historical precision at which the AssjTians aimed. The Assyr monuments are alone sufficient to show that the historical sense was by no means unknown to the ancient peoples of the East, and when we remember how closely related the Assjrrians were to the Hebrews in both race and language, the fact becomes important to the Bib. student. Besides historical texts the library contained also chronological tables and long lists of kings and djmasties with the number of years they reigned. In Babylonia time was marked by officially naming each year after some event that had occurred in the course of it; the more historically-minded Assyrian named the year after a particular official, called limmu, who was appointed on each New Year's Day. In Babylonia the chronological system went back to a very remote date. The Babylonians were a commercial people, and for commercial purposes it was necessary to have an exact register of the time.
Inscribed Tablet Im-
pressed with beals.
lit., but it was largely mingled with astrology. The Babylonians were the founders of
2. Astronscientific astronomy; they were the omy and first to calculate the dates of lunar Astrology and solar eclipses, and to give names to the signs of the Zodiac. Among the contents of the library of Nineveh are reports from the Royal Observatory, relating to the observation
of eclipses and the like.
A knowledge of astronomy was needed for the regulation of the calendar, and the calendar was
The library contained trading documents of various sorts, more esp. contracts, deeds of sale of
the special care of the priests, as the
3. Religious festivals of the gods and the payment Texts of tithes were dependent upon it. Most of the religious texts went back to the Sumerian period and were accordingly provided with Assyr tr". Some of them were hymns to the gods, others were the rituals used in different temples. There was, moreover, a collection of psalms, as well as numerous mythological texts.
property and the like. Now and then 8. Comwe meet with the plan of a building. merce There were also fiscal documents relating to the taxes paid by the cities and provinces of the empire to the imperial treasury.
One department of the library consisted of letters, some of them private, others addressed to the king
The legal lit. was considerable. The earliest law books were in Sumerian, but the great code compiled by Khammurabi, the con-
or to the high officials. Nearly a 9. Letters thousand of these have already been published by Professor Harper. The clay books, it need hardly be added, were all carefully numbered and catalogued, the Assyr system of docketing and arranging the tablets being at once ingenious and simple. The librarians, consequently, had no difficulty in finding any tablet or series of tablets that might be asked for. We may gather from the inscription attached to the larger works copied from Bab originals as well as to other collections of tablets that the library was open to all "readers." A. H. Sayce
4. Law temporary of Abraham, was in Sem Babylonian (see Hammurabi). Like English law, Assyro-Babylonian law was casemade, and records of the cases decided from time
to time by the judges are numerous.
Among scientific works we may class the long lists
of animals, birds, fishes, plants and stones, together
with geographical treatises, and the
6. Science pseudo-science of omens. Starting from the belief that where two events
followed one another, the first was the cause of the
2153 THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA Nineveh, Library Nob
NINEVITES, nin'ft-vlts (NivtuftJiTai, Nineu[e]itai) Only in Lk 11 30. The
Deluge). In the cuneiform inscriptions Noah corresponds to "Hasisadra" (Xisuthrus). After the flood Noah celebrated his deliverance by building an altar and offering sacrifices to Jeh (Gen 8 20), and was sent forth with God's blessing to be "fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth" (Gen 9 1), as Adam had been sent forth at the beginning (Gen 1 28). In token of the certainty of God's covenant not to destroy the race again by flood, a rainbow spanned the sky whose reappearance was ever after to be a token of peace. But Noah was not above temptation. In the prosperity which followed, he became drunken from the fruit of the vineyard he had planted. His son Ham irreverently exposed the nakedness of his
il passage (Mt 12 41), with Lk 11 32, has the fuller form, "men of Nineveh," which gives the meaning.
NIPHIS, ni'fis (Nenets,' Neiphels, A, *iv€Cs, Phinels; AV Nephis): Given in 1 Esd 5 21 m as = "Magbish" of Ezr 2 30, whose sons are the same in number (156) as those of Niphis, but it would seem rather to be the equivalent of Nebo in ver 29.
NISAN, ni'san CIOiD , nisdn) : The first month
of the Jewish year in which occurred the Passover and which corresponds to April. The month is the same as Abib, which occurs in the Pent. Nisan occurs in Neh 2 1 and Est 3 7. It denotes "the month of flowers." See Calendar.
father, while Shem and Japheth covered it from view (Gen 9 22,23). The curse upon Canaan the son of Ham was literally fulfilled in subsequent history when Israel took possession of Pal, when Tyre fell before the arms of Alexander, and Carthage surrendered to Rome.
NISROCH, nis'rok, niz'rok (ty'iP?, nisrokh): The Assyr god in whose temple Sennacherib was worshipping when put to death by his sons (2 K 19 37; Isa 37 38). The name is not found elsewhere. Some identify him with Asshur, the national deity. See Babylonia and Assyria, Religion OF.
George Frederick Wright NOAH (ny:, no'ah, "movement"): One of the daughters of Zelophehad (Nu 26 33; 27 1; 36 11; Josh 17 3ff).
NOAH, BOOK (APOCALYPSE) OF. See Apocalyptic Literature.
NITRE, ni'ter (IP? , nether; vCrpov, nitron) Nitre as used in AV does not correspond to the present use of that term. Nitre or niter is now applied to sodium or potassium nitrate. The writer has in his collection a specimen of sodium carbon-
NO-AMON, no-a'mon ClTOX XD , no' 'clmon, Egyp
rmt, "a. city," with the feminine ending t, and Amon, proper name of a god, City Amon, i.e. the "City," par excellence, of the god Amon; tr'' in AV "populous No," following the Vulg in a misunderstanding
ate, called in Arab. natrUn, which was taken from the extensive deposits in Lower Egypt where it is found as a deposit underneath a layer of common
of the word 'amon; RV "No-amon"): Occurs in
salt. Similar deposits are found in Syria and Asia Minor. This is probably the "nitre" of the Bible. ARV has rendered nitre "lye" in Jer 2 22, and "soda" in Prov 25 20. Soda or lye has been used as a cleansing agent from earliest times. It effervesces energetically, when treated with an acid; hence the comparison in Prov 25 20 of the heavyhearted man roiled by the sound of singing to the
this form only in Nah 3 8, but SS'O IITOX , 'amon
minno', "Amon of No," occurs in Jer 46 25. Cf
also Ezk 30 14-16, where N5 , no', is undoubtedly the same city.
The description of No-amon in Nah 3 8 seems to be that of a delta city, but D^, yam, "sea,"
in that passage is used poetically for the Nile, as in Job 41 31 and in Isa 18 2. With this difficulty removed, the Egyp etymology of the name leaves no doubt as to the correct identification of the place. The "City Amon" in the days of Nahum, Jeremiah and Ezekiel was Thebes (cf art. "Thebes" in any general encyclopaedia). M. G. Kyle
sizzling of soda on which vinegar has been poured. See Vinegar. James A. Patch
NO, no. See No-amon.
NOADIAH, no-a-di'a (n;-ri3 , no'adhyah, "tryst
of Jeh"; NoaSeC, Noadei):
(1) Son of Binnui, one of the Levites to whom Ezra intrusted the gold and silver and sacred
NOB, nob (32 , nobh; B, No|iPii, Nombd, A, Nopd, Nobd, and other forms) : An ancient priestly town to which David came on his way S. when he fled from Saul at Gibeah (1 S 21 1). Here he found refuge and succor with Ahimelech. This was observed by Doeg the Edomite, who informed the king, and afterward became the instrument of Saul's savage vengeance on the priests, and on all the inhabitants of the city (ch 22). The name occurs in Neh 11 32 in a list of cities, immediately
vessels which he brought up from Babylon (Ezr 8
33); also called Moeth (q.v.), son of Sabannus
(1 Esd 8 63).
(2) A prophetess associated with Tobiah and Sanballat in opposition to Nehemiah (Neh 6 14).
NOAH, no'a (Hi, rao«A, "rest"; LXX Noie, Noe;
Jos, Nuxos, Nochos). The 10th in descent from Adam in the line of Seth (Gen 5 28.29). Lamech here seems to derive the word from the V DHj
after Anathoth. In Isaiah's ideal account of the Assyrians' march against Jerus, Nob is clearly placed S. of Anathoth. Here, says the prophet, the Assyrian shall shake his hand at the mount of the daughter of Zion, the hill of Jerus. It was a place, therefore, from which the Holy City and the temple were clearly visible.
, naham, "to comfort," but this is probably a mere play upon the name by Noah's father. The times
in which Noah was born were degenerate, and this
finds pathetic expression in Lamech's saying at the
birth of Noah, "This same shall comfort us in our work and in the toil of our hands, which cometh because of the ground which Jeh hath cursed." Concerning the theory that Noah is the name of a dynasty, like Pharaoh or Caesar, rather than of a
The district in which the site must be sought is thus very definitely indicated; but within this dis-
trict no name at all resembling Nob has been discovered, and so no sure identification is yet possible. 'Andta (Anathoth) is 2i miles N.E. of Jerus. Nob therefore lay between that and the city, at a point where the city could be seen, apparently on the great road from the N. Rather more than a mile N. of Jerus rises the ridge Rds el-Mesharif (2,665
single individual, see Antediluvians. In his 600th year the degenerate races of mankind were
cut off by the Deluge. But 120 years previously (Gen 6 3) he had been warned of the catastrophe, and according to 1 Pet 3 20 had been preparing
ft.), over which the road from the N. passes; and
for the event by building the ark (see Ark;
Bobah Nose, Nostrils THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA 2154
noble" for "princes" (Prov 17 26); "nobles" for "princes" (Job 34 18; Dnl 1 3), for "Nazarites" (Lam 4 7, m "Nazirites"); "her nobles" for "his fugitives," m "or, as other otherwise read, fugitives"
here the traveler approaching from that direction obtains his first siglit of the city. It is fittingly named "the looli-out." Col. Conder states the case for identifying this height with Mt. Scopus where Titus established his camp at the siege of Jerus {PEFS, 1874, 111 ff). Immediately S. of the ridge, to the E. of the road, there is a small plateau, S. of which there is a lower ridge, whence the slopes dip into Wddy el-Joz. This plateau, on which Titus may have sat, is a very probable site for Nob. It quite suits the requirements of Isaiah's narrative, and not less those of David's flight. Gibeah lay not far to the N., and this lay in the most likely path to the S. W. Ewing
(I.sa 16 5); ARV has "noble" for "liberal" (Isa 32 5); for "The nobles held their peace," AVm "The voice of the nobles was hid" (Job -29 10), RV has "The voice of the nobles was hushed," m "Heb hid"; for "most noble" (Acts 24 3; 26 25), "most excellent."
W. L. Walker NOD, nod (lis, nodh): The land of Eden, to which Cain migrated after the murder of his brother and his banishment by Jeh (Gen 4 16). Conjecture is useless as to the region intended. The ideas of China, India, etc, which some have entertained, are groundless. The territory was evidently at some distance, but where is now undiscoverable.
NOBAH, no'ba (HDi, nobhah; B, NaP(6e, Na-
both, Napoi, Nahai, 'a, Napwe, Nabolh, NaPeB, Nabeth)
NODAB, no'dab (S'l'lS , nodhobh; NaSapoioi,
Nadabaioi): A Hagrite clan which, along with Jetur and Naphish, suffered complete defeat at the hands of the trans-Jordanic Israelites (1 Ch 5 19). It has been suggested that Nodab is a corruption of Kedemah or of Nebaioth, names which are associated with Jetur and Naphish in the lists of Ishmael's sons (Gen 25 15; 1 Ch 1 31), but it
(1) Nobah the Manassite, we are told, "went and took Kenath, and the villages thereof, and called
it Nobah, after his own name" (Nu 32 42). There can be little doubt that the ancient Kenath is represented by the modern Kanawal, on the western slope of Jebel ed-Druze, the ancient name having survived that of Nobah.
is difficult to see how even the most careless copy-
(2) A city which marked the course of Gideon's pursuit of the Midianites (Jgs 8 11). It is possible that this may be identical with (1). Cheyne argues
ist could so blunder. There is a possible reminiscence of the name in Nudebe, a village in the Hauran.
in favor of this (EB, s.v. "Gideon"). But its mention along with Jogbehah points to a more southerly location. This may have been the
NOE, no'e (N&t, Noe): AV of Mt'24 37.38; Lk 3 36; 17 26.27; Tob 4 12. Gr form of Noah
original home of the clan Nobah. Some would read, following the Syr in Nu 21 30, "Nobah which is on the desert," instead of "Nophah which reacheth unto Medeba." No site with a name resembling this has yet been recovered. If it is
(q.v.) (thus RV).
NOEBA, no'e-ba (Notpa, Noebd): Head of one of the families of temple-servants (1 Esd 5 31) = "Nekoda" of Ezr 2 48.
to be distinguished from Kenath, then probably
it will have to be sought somewhere to the N.E. of Rabbath-Ammon ('Amman). W. Ewing
NOGAH, no'ga (^53, noghah, "splendor"): A son of David born at Jerus (1 Ch 3 7; 14 6). In the
II list (2 S 5 14.15) this name is wanting. In its Gr form (Na77a£, Naggai) it occurs in the genealogy of Jesus (Lk 3 25).
NOBAI, no'bl, nob'a-i P5'l3, nobhay, or '5"^?
nebhay) : One of those who took part in sealing the covenant (Neh 10 19).
NOHAH, no'ha (nn'lD, nohdh, "rest"): The fourth son of Benjamin (1 Ch 8 2). It is probable that in Jgs 20 43, instead of "a resting-place" we should read "Nohah," which may have been the settlement of the family.
NOBLE, no'b'l, NOBLES, noTD'lz, NOBLEMAN,
no'b'1-man (D'^l'iri, horim, l^'^S?, 'addlr; ci-yev^s,
eugents, Kpano-TOS) krdtistos, Pao-i\iK6s, basilikds) : "Nobles" is the tr of the Heb hmrlm (occurring only
in the pi.), "free-born," "noble" (1 K 21 8.11; Neh 2 16; 6 17, etc); of 'addtr, "begirded," "mighty,"
NOISE, noiz (bip, kol, r^n, hdmon, lisffi, shd'on; ^avfi, phoni): "Noise" is most frequently the tr of kol, "voice," "sound," in AV (Ex 20 18, "the noise of the trumpet," RV "voice"; 32 17 6is.l8; Jgs 5 11, "[they that are delivered] from the noise of the archers," RV "far from the noise," etc, m "because of the voice of"; 1 S 4 6, etc); hamon, "noise," "sound" (1 S 14 19); roghez, "anger," "rage" (Job 37 2); re"', "outcry" (Job 36 33); sha'on, "desolation," "noise" (Isa 24 8; 25 5); t'shu'oth, "cry" "crying" (Job 36 29); pa^ah, "to break forth" (Ps 98 4); shame-', "to hear," etc (Josh 6 10; 1 Ch 15 28); phone, "sound," "voice," is tr<* "noise" (Rev 6 1, "I heard as it were the noise of thunder," RV "saying as with a voice of thunder"); rhoizeddn, "with a hissing or rushing sound" (2 Pet 3 10, "with a great noise"); ginetai phont (Acts 2 6, AV "when this was noised abroad," m "when this voice was made," RV "when this sound was heard"); akouo, "to hear": dialaleo, "to talk or speak" throughout, are also tr^
"illustrious" or 'Vble" (Jgs 5 13; 2 Ch 23 20, etc);
of nadhlbh, "hberal," "a noble" (Nu 21 18; Prov 8 16, etc).
Other words are gddhol, "great" (Jon 3 7); yakkir. Aram, "precious" (Ezr 4 10); naghldh, "aleader" (Job 29 10); part^'mim, " foremost ones " (Est 1 3; 6 9); 'd-Qilim, "those near." "nobles" (Ex 24 11); bariah, "fugitive" (Isa 43 14); kabhedh, "weighty," "honored" (Ps 149 8); eugerees, "wellborn" (Acts 17 11; 1 Cor 1 26); kratislos, "strongest," " most powerful " (Acts 24 3; 26 25). The Apoc, AV and EV, still further enlarges the list. In RV we have megisldnes. "great ones" (1 Esd 1 38; 8 26, with cre(imos, "in honor"; Wisd 18 12). Otherwise RV's uses of "noble," and "nobleness" are for words containing the -J gen and referring to birth (of "Wisd 8 3; 2 Mace 6 27.31; 12 42; 14 42 6is). AV's uses are wider (Jth 2 2, etc). Nobleman is, in Lk 19 12, the tr of eugents dnthrdpos, "a man well born," and in Jn 4 46.49 of basilikos, "kingly," "belonging to a king," a designation extended to the officers, courtiers, etc,
of a king, RVm "king's officer"; he was probably an official, civil or military, of Herod Antipas, who was styled "king" (basileus).
"noised" (Mk 2 1; Lk 1 65). So RV (cf Jth 10 18, "noised among the tents"). Otherwise in RV Apoc, Ihroos "confused noise" (Wisd 1 10); boi, "outcry" (Jth 14 19); tchos, "sound" (Wisd 17 18; cf Sir 40 13); Latvox, "voice" (2 Esd 5 7).
For "nobles" (Isa 43 14), AV "have brought down all their nobles," RV has "I will bring down all of them as fugitives," m "or, as otherwise read, all their nobles even," etc; for "nobles" (Jer 30 21), "prince"; ERV has " worthies " for " nobles" (Nah 3 18); RV has "the
2155 THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA Nobah Nose, Nostrils
For "noise" (Ps 65 7 bis), RV tias "roaring"; for "malie a noise lilie the noise of the seas" (Isa 17 12;, "the uproar [m "muititude"] of many peoples, that roar lilie the roaring of the seas"; for "a voice of noise from the city" (Isa 66 8), "a voice of tumult from the city"; for "noise" (Jer 10 22), "voice"; for "a noise" (1 Ch 15 28), "sounding aloud." "voice" (Ezk 43 2); for "every battle of the warrior is with confused noise" (Isa 9 5), "all the armor of the armed man in the tumult," m "every boot of the booted warrior"; for "make a noise," "moan" (Ps 66 2). "roar" (Isa 17 12); for " make a loud noise " (Ps 98 4), "break forth"; for "maketh a noise" (Jer 4 19), "is disquieted"; for " the noise of his tabernacle " (Job 36 29), " the thunderings of his pavilion"; for "make any noise witli your voice" (Josh 6 10), "let your voice be heard"; "joyful noise," for "shouting" (Isa 16 10); for "The Lord on high is mightier than the noise of many waters, yea, than the mighty waves of the sea" (Ps 93 -1), "Above the voices of many waters, the mighty breakers of the sea, Jeh on high is mighty."
for them to be referred to as "the north," because the direct desert routes were impracticable, and the roads led first into Northern Syria and then eastward (cf however Gen 29 1, "Then Jacob went on his journey, and came to the land of the children of the east")-
In Ezk 38 6, we have, "Gomer, and all his hordes; the house of Togarmah in the uttermost parts of the north." It is uncertain what country
is here referred to. Some have supposed Armenia
(cf Gen 10 3; 1 Ch 1 6; Ezk 27 14). The north border of the promised land, as outlined in Nu 34 7-9 and Ezk 47 1.5-17, cannot be determined with certainty, because some of the towns named cannot be identified, but it was approximately the latitude of Mt. Hermon, not including Lebanon or Damascus. For North (m'zdrim) see Astronomy. Alfred Ely Day
W. L. Walker NOISOME, noi'sum (TX]r\, hawwah, ^"1, ra'; KOKis, kakos): "Noisome" from "annoy" (annoysome) has in Bible Eng. the meaning of "evil," "hurtful," not of "offensive" or "loathsome." It is the tr of hawwah, "mischief," "calamity" (Ps 91 3, "noisome pestilence," RV "deadly"); of ra\ a common word for "evil" (Ezk 14 15.21), "noisome beasts" (RV "evil"). It occurs also in Job 31 40 AVm as the tr of ho' shah, "noisome weeds," AV and RV "cockle," m as AVm; of kakos, "evil," "bad" (Rev 16 2), "a noisome and grievous sore." "Noisome" also occurs in Apoc (2 Mace 9 9) as the tr of haruno, "to make heavy," "oppress," where it seems to have the meaning of "loathsome."
NORTHEAST, SOUTHEAST: These words occur in Acts 27 12, "if by any means they could reach Phoenix, and winter there; which is a haven of Crete, looking north-east and south-east." RVm has, "Gr, down the south-west wind and down the north-west wind," which is a lit. tr of the Gr: eis Phoinika .... limena Its Krttes bleponta (looking) katd liba (the southwest wind) kai katd choron (the northwest wind). Choros does not appear to occur except here, but the corresponding Lat caurus or corns is found in Caesar, Vergil, and other classical authors. AV has "lieth toward the south west and north west." Kard, katd, with a wind or stream, means, "down the wind or stream," i.e. in the direction that it is blowing or flowing, and this interpretation would indicate a harbor open to the E. If
W. L. Walkee NON, non {fi:,nm): 1 Ch 7 27 AV and RVm. See Nun.
NOOMA, no'6-ma (Noofid, Noomd, B, 'Oo|id, Oomd; AV Ethma): 1 Esd 9 35 = "Nebo" of Ezr 10 43, of which it is a corruption.
y^lf, lips, and x^pos, choros, are used here as names of directions rather than of winds, we should expect a harbor open to the W. There is good reason for identifying Phoenix (AV "Phenice") with Loutro on the south shore of Crete (EB, s.v. "Phenice"), whose harbor is open to the E. See Phoenix.
NOON, noon, NOONDAY, noon'da (D'lnnS,
gohdrayim; |j.£(ninPp£a, mesemhria) : The word means light, splendor, brightness, and hence the brightest part of the day (Gen 43 16.25; Acts 22
Alfred Ely Day NOSE, noz, NOSTRILS, nos'trilz (CN, 'aph, "nose," D'^^TIp, n'hirayim, dual of "ITID , n'hir,
6). See also Midday; Day and Night; Time.
"nostrils"): The former expression {'aph from *'anph, like Arab. i_aj| , 'anf) is often tr'' "face" (which see s.v.) in EV. It is frequently referred to as the organ of breathing, in other words, as the receptacle of the breath or spirit of God: "Jeh .... breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Gen 2 7; cf 7 22); "My life is yet whole in me, and the spirit of God
NOPH, nof (Db, noph; in Hos 9 6 moph): A name for the Egyp city Memphis (so LXX), hence thus rendered in RV (Isa 19 13; Jer 2 16; 44 1; Ezk 30 13.16). See Memphis.
NOPHAH, no'fa (nsb , nophah; LXX does not
transliterate) : A city mentioned only in Nu 21 30
(see Nobah). LXX reads kai hai gunaikes eti prosexikausan pur epi Modb, "and the women besides
is in my nostrils" (Job 27 3). Therefore a life which depends on so slight a thing as a breath is considered as utterly frail and of no great consequence: "Cease ye from man, whose breath is in his nostrils; for wherein is he to be accounted of?" (Isa 2 22; cf Wisd 2 2). In poetical language such a breath of life is ascribed even to God, esp. with regard to the mighty storm which is thought to proceed from His nostrils
[yet] kindled a fire at [against] Moab." The text has evidently suffered corruption.
NORTH, north, NORTH COUNTRY (iiS2
gaphon, from V 15?, gaphan, "to hide," i.e. "the
hidden," "the dark"' [Ges.]; Poppas, borrhds; Poppas,
boreas [Jth 16 4]; septentrio [2 Esd 15 43]): In ad-
dition to the many places where "north" occurs merely as a point of the compass, there are several passages in Jer, Ezk and Zeph, where it refers to a particular country, usually Assyria or Babylonia: Jer 3 18, "They shall come together out of the land
(Ex 15 8; 2 S 22 9; Ps 18 8.15). The phrase, "a smoke in my nose, a fire that burneth all the day" (Isa 65 5), is equivalent to a perpetual annoyance and cause of irritation. A cruel custom of war, in which the vanquished had their noses and ears cut off by their remorseless conquerors, is alluded to in Ezk 23 25. As a wild animal is held in check by having his nose pierced and a hook or ring inserted in it (Job 40 24 ; 41 2 [Heb 40 26]), so this expression is used to indicate the humbling and taming of an obstinate person
of the north to the land that I gave for an inheritance unto your fathers" ; Jer 46 6, "In the north by the river Euphrates have they stumbled and
fallen"; Ezk 26 7, "I will bring upon Tyre Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon, king of kings, from
the north"; Zeph 2 13, "He will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria, and
(2 K 19 28; Isa 37 29; cf Ezk 29 4; 38 4). But men, and esp. women, had their noses pierced
will make Nineveh a desolation."
for the wearing of jewelry (Gen 24 47; Isa 3 21; Ezk 16 12). In one passage the meaning is not
While the site of Nineveh was N.E. of Jerus, and
that of Babylon almost due E., it was not unnatural
Nose-Jewels Number THE INTERNATIONAL STANDARD BIBLE ENCYCLOPAEDIA 2156
(cf Mai 4 5); "notable" occurs also in 2 Mace 3 26 (ekprepes); 14 33, RV "for all to see"; 6 28 (gennaios), "a, notable example," RV "noble"; notably, only in 2 Mace 14 31 (gennaios), "notably prevented," RV "bravely," m "nobly."
quite clear, viz. in the enumeration of blemishes which disable a "son of Aaron" from the execution of the priest's office (Lev 21 18), where EV translates "flat [m "slit"] nose." The Heb word is Din
, hdrum, which is a hapax legomenon. It corresponds,
W. L. Walker NOTE, not (ppn , hakak, D115T , rasham; o-q-
however, to the Arab. V Lo>^, ^^^ ^haram,harman (kharam, kharman), which means "to open," "to pierce the nose," esp. the bridge of the nose. We may accept this meaning as the one intended in the passage.
(leiow, semeido, lirC<rT||jLos, episemos): "Note" (vb.)
is the tr of hakak, "to grave," "to inscribe," etc
(Isa 30 8, "note it in a book," RV "inscribe"); of rashann, "to note down," etc (Dnl 10 21, RV "inscribed"); of semeioo, "to put a sign on" (2 Thess 3 14, "note that man"). "Note" (noun) is the tr of episemos, "marked upon," "distinguished" (Rom 16 7, "who are of note among the apostles").
Another dark and much discussed passage must
still be referred to: "And, lo, they put the branch to their nose" (Ezk 8 17). The usual explanation (whereof the context gives some valuable hints)
is that a rite connected with the worship of Baal
(the sun) is here alluded to (see Smend and A. B. Davidson's comms. on the passage). A similar custom is known from Pers sun-worship, where a bunch (baregma) of dates, pomegranates or tamarisks was held to the nose by the worshipper, probably as an attempt to keep the Holy One (sun) from being contaminated by sinful breath (Spiegel, Eranische Altertumer, III, 571). Among modern Jews posies of myrtle and other fragrant herbs are held to the nose by the persons attending on the ceremony of circumcision, for the alleged reason of making the sight and smell of blood bearable. Another interpretation of the above passage would understand ITll^T , z'morah, in the sense of "male sexual member" (see Gesenius-Buhl, s.v.; Levy, Nhh. Worterbuch, I, 544), and the whole passage as a reference to a sensuous Canaanite rite, such as is perhaps alluded to in Isa 57 8. In that case the DSX, 'appam, "their nose," of the MT would have to be considered as tikkun ^oph'rim (a correction of the scribes) for "'EX , 'appl, "my face." Or read "They cause their stench [z'moratham] to come up to my face" (Kraetzschmar, ad loc). See Branch. H. L. E. LUERINQ NOSE-JEWELS, noz-ju'elz, -joo'elz (DT;, nezem [probably from DTJ, nazam, "muzzle"], a "nosering," or "nose-jewel," so rendered in Isa 3 21; "jewel in a swine's snout," Prov 11 22, AVm "ring"; "jewel on thy forehead," Ezk 16 12, "ring upon thy nose") : In Gen 24 22, AV rendered incorrectly "earring"; cf ver 47. Indeed, the word had also a more generic meaning of "ring" or "jewelry," whether worn in the nose or not. See Gen 35 4; Ex 32 2, where the ornament was worn in the ear. There are several cases without specification, uniformly rendered, without good reason, however, "earring" in AV (Ex 35 22; Jgs 8 24. 25; Job 42 11 ["ring"]; Prov 25 12; Hos 2 13
"Notes" (musical) occurs in Wisd 19 18, "notes of a psaltery" (phthoggos). W. L. Walker
NOTHING, nuth'ing (X'b, Id', 1112^S^ X'b, Id' m''Umah, etc; |iT)S€ts, medeis, oiSets, oudels): "Nothing" is represented by various words and phrases, often with lo', which is properly a subst. with the meaning of "nothing." Most frequently we have Id' m''ilmah, "not anything" (Gen 40 15; Jgs 14 6).