than as it is connected with that of the Jews: and where is the name or the nation now? They are swallowed up and lost, partly among the Nabathean Arabs, and partly among the Jews; and the very name was abolished and disused about the end of the first century after Christ. Thus were they rewarded for insulting and oppressing their brethren the Jews; and, while at this day we see the Jews subsisting as a distinct people, Edom is no more. Agreeably to the words of this prophet, he has been cut off for ever,' for his violence against his brother Jacob (ver. 10); and there is now not any remaining of the house of Esau, for the Lord had spoken it.' (ver. 18.) Their country is now barren and unfruitful; and their cities, even their ancient capitals Bozra and Petra, totally demolished and in ruins. See Prideaux's Connection, an. 129; Newton on the Prophecies, Dissert. iii. and Burckhardt's Travels in Syria, &c.*

(6.) AMALEK. The Amalekites, a people of Arabia Petræa, according to the Arabian historians, were descended from Amalek, a son of Ham; and resided in a tract of country on the frontiers of Egypt and Canaan, south and south-west of Canaan, between the Dead Sea and the Red Sea, (Gen. 14.7; Num. 24: 7-20; 1 Sam. 15. 7; 27.8; 1 Chron. 4. 39, 40.) They were very formidable enemies to the Israelites, whom they greatly annoyed in their march from Egypt to Sinai, acting with great cruelty towards them on this occasion; to punish which, God not only enabled Joshua to obtain a signal victory over them, but enjoined the Hebrews to exterminate them from the earth, God then purposing that Amalek, as a nation, should be blotted out from under heaven, (Ex. 17. 8—16; Deut. 25. 17-19.) The following year, they assisted the Canaanites against the presumptuous Israelites, (Num. 14. 45;) and in the time of the Judges, they first assisted the Moabites, and then the Midianites, against Israel; on both which occasions they shared the miserable fate of their allies, (Ju. 3. 13; 6. 6.) Spared till they had filled up the measure of their iniquities, the purpose of God was carried into effect by Saul, upwards of four hundred years afterwards. Nothing could justify such an exterminating decree but the absolute authority of God; and this was given: all the reasons of it we do not know; but this we know well, the Judge of all the earth doth right. Saul being thus appointed to destroy them utterly, he effected it by cutting off the greater part of them, (1 Sam. 14. 48; xv;) and a few scattered bands of those who escaped this destruction, having attacked and pillaged Ziklag, were completely destroyed or routed by David, (1 Sam. 30. 1-20.) After Haman the Amalekite, who by his enmity to Israel drew down ruin upon himself and friends, (Es. 3. 7-9,) there is no further mention of them in the histories of mankind.+

(7.) NINEVEH, the capital of Assyria, was situated on the eastern bank

* Comprehensive Bible, Notes on Ezek. 25. 14; [35. 7; Introd. p. 93; and Concluding

of the river Tigris, opposite the present Mosul, about 280 miles N. of Babylon, and 400 N. E. of Damascus, in lat. 36° 20′ N. long. 73° 10′ E. It was not only a very ancient, (Gen. 10. 11,) but also a very great city. Strabo, (1. xvi.) says, that it was much larger than Babylon, the circuit of which he estimates at 385 furlongs; and, according to Diodorus Siculus, (1. ii.) it was an oblong parallelogram, extending 150 furlongs in length, 90 in breadth, and 480 in circumference, i. e. about 20 miles long, 12 broad, and 60 in compass. This agrees with the account given Jon. 3. 3, of its being an exceeding great city of three days' journey,' i. e. in circuit; for 20 miles a day was the common computation for a pedestrian. (See Herodotus, l. v. c. 35.) It was surrounded by large walls 100 feet high, so broad that three chariots could drive abreast on them, and defended by 1500 towers 200 feet in height.* Of its population, it is stated in Jon. 4. 11, that it contained more than sixscore thousand persons, that could not discern between their right hand and their left hand: and also much cattle.' It is generally calculated, that the young children of any place are a fifth of the inhabitants; and consequently the whole population of Nineveh would amount to above 600,000; which is very inferior to that of London and Paris, though they occupy not one quarter of the ground. In eastern cities there are large vacant spaces for gardens and pasturages, so that there might be very much cattle.'* Agreeably to the prophecy of Nahum, Nineveh was taken and utterly ruined by Assuerus, or Cyaxares, king of Media, and Nabuchonosor, or Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, B. C. 606, or 612. The prophet declared, that at the approach of destruction she should be drunken, (Nah. 3. 11;) and accordingly, Diodorus, who with others, ascribes the taking of it to Arbaces the Mede, and Belesis the Babylonian, relates, that while the Assyrian army were feasting for their former victories, those about Arbaces being informed of their negligence and drunkenness, fell upon them unexpectedly, slew many, and drove the rest into the city. So according to the same inspired writer, her shepherds and nobles were to desert her, (ch. 3. 18.)—that is, the rulers and tributary princes, who, as Herodotus informs us, deserted Nineveh in the day of her distress, and came not to her succour. Diodorus also says,

that when the enemy shut up the king in the city, many nations revolted; each going over to the besiegers for the sake of their liberty; that the king dispatched messengers to all his subjects, requiring power from them to succour him; and that he thought himself able to endure the siege, and remained in expectation of armies which were to be raised throughout his empire, relying on the oracle that the city would not be taken till the river became its enemy. This oracle, Diodorus Siculus informs us, (1, ii.) was an ancient prophecy, received from their forefathers, that Nineveh should not be taken till the river first became an enemy to the city and in the third year of the siege, the Euphrates (Tigris) being swollen with continued rains, overflowed part of the city, and threw down twenty stadia of the

Comprehensive Bible, Note in loco.

wall; thus fulfilling the prophecy of Nahum, (ch. 2. 6,) that 'the gates of the rivers should be opened.' The king then thinking that the oracle was fulfilled, the river having manifestly become an enemy to the city, casting aside all hope of safety, and lest he should fall into the enemy's hands, built a large funeral pyre in the palace; 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 midst of the pyre, and burnt them, himself, and the palace together. When the death of the king was announced by certain deserters, the enemy entered at the breach the waters had made, and took the city.* Having thus taken the city, the same historian states, the conquerors dispersed the citizens in the villages, levelled the city with the ground, transferred the gold and silver, of which there were many talents, to Ecbatana, the metropolis of the Medes; and thus subverted the empire of the Assyrians: and Nineveh became empty, and void, and waste,' (Nah. 2. 10.)*

Thus was the destruction of Nineveh effected a little more than a century afterwards; and its utter desolation is unanimously attested both by ancient and modern writers. "But," as Bp. Newton justly observes, "what probability was there, that the capital of a great kingdom, a city which was sixty miles in compass, a city which contained so many thousand inhabitants, . . . should be totally destroyed? And yet so totally was it destroyed, that the place is hardly known where it was situated. We have seen that it was taken and destroyed by the Medes and Babylonians; and what we may suppose helped to complete its ruin and devastation was Nebuchadnezzar's soon afterwards enlarging and beautifying Babylon. From that time no mention is made of Nineveh by any of the sacred writers; and the most ancient of the heathen authors, who have occasion to say any thing about it, speak of it as a city that was once great and flourishing, but now destroyed and desolate. Great as it was formerly, so little of it was remaining, that authors are not agreed even about its situation... Lucian, who flourished in the second century after Christ, affirms, that 'Nineveh was utterly perished, and there was no footstep of it remaining, nor could you tell where once it was situated.'. . . There is at this time a city called Mosul, situated upon the western side of the river Tigris, and on the opposite eastern shore are ruins of a great extent, which are said to be the ruins of Nineveh.... But it is more than probable, that these ruins are the remains of the Persian Nineveh, and not of the Assyrian. Ipsa periere ruina: even the ruins of old Nineveh have been, as I may say, long ago ruined and destroyed. Such an utter end' hath been made of it; and such is the truth of the Divine predictions! This perhaps may strike us the more strongly by supposing only a parallel instance. Let us then suppose, that a person should come in the name of a prophet, preaching repentance to the people of this kingdom, or otherwise denouncing the destruction of the capital city within a few years..

I

presume we should

look upon such a prophet as a madman, and show no further attention to his message than to deride and despise it; and yet such an event would not be more strange and incredible than the destruction and devastation of Nineveh. For Nineveh was much the larger, and much the stronger, and older city of the two; and the Assyrian empire had subsisted and flourished more ages than any form of government in this country; so that you cannot object the instability of the eastern monarchies in this case. Let us then... suppose again, that things should succeed according to the prediction; the floods should arise, and the enemy should come, the city should be overflown and broken down, be taken and pillaged, and destroyed so totally, that even the learned could not agree about where it was situated. What would be said or thought in such a case? Whoever of posterity should read and compare the prophecy and event together, must they not by such an illustrious instance be thoroughly convinced of the providence of God, and of the truth of his prophet, and be ready to acknowledge, Verily this is the word that the Lord hath spoken, verily there is a God that judgeth the earth?'"*

(8.) BABYLON, whose destruction and utter ruin were predicted by the prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, &c., was situated in the midst of a large plain, having a very deep and fruitful soil, on the Euphrates, about 252 miles south-east of Palmyra, and the same distance north-west of Susa, and the Persian gulf, in lat. 32° 30′ N., and long. 44° 20′ E. According to Herodotus, it formed a perfect square, each side of which was 120 stadia, and consequently its circumference 480 stadia, or 60 miles; inclosed by a wall 200 cubits high, and fifty wide; on the top of which were small watchtowers, of one story high, leaving a space between them, through which a chariot and four might pass and turn. On each side were 25 gates of solid brass; from each of which proceeded a street, 150 feet broad, making in all 50 streets; which, crossing each other at right angles, intersected the city into 676 squares, extending four stadia and a half on each side, along which stood the houses, all built three or four stories high, and highly decorated towards the street; the interior of these squares being employed as gardens, pleasure grounds, &c. Its principal ornaments were the temple of Belus, having a tower of eight stories, upon a base of a quarter of a mile square; a most magnificent palace; and the famous hanging gardens, or artificial mountains raised upon arches, and planted with large and beautiful trees.† But the celebrated and costly buildings of Babylon had been erected by the spoils of conquered nations, and by the blood of multitudes; and in the righteous judgment of God, the royal family was destined soon to be ruined, the seat of empire removed, and the city itself finally destroyed, as declared by the prophet Habakkuk. Houses built, and fortunes made by such iniquitous means, in most cases become as chaff before the whirlwind of God's indignation.

• Comprehensive Bible, Concluding Remarks to Nahum.

+ Idem, Note on Isa. 13. 18.

Cyrus was the instrument selected to effect this purpose of the Almighty, “He who saith to the deep, Be dry, and I will dry up thy rivers: That saith of Cyrus, he is my shepherd, and shall perform all my pleasure," (Isa. 44. 27, 28.) which alludes to the taking of Babylon by Cyrus (here foretold by name more than a century before his birth), by laying the bed of the Euphrates dry, and leading his army into the city by night through the empty channel of the river. This remarkable circumstance, in which the event actually corresponded with the prophecy, was also noted by the prophet Jeremiah.† In order to qualify him for the great work to which he was called, Jehovah declared that "he would hold his anointed Cyrus by the right hand, to subdue nations before him;" (Isa. 45. 1.) and accordingly, Xenophon, (1. 1,) says that Cyrus conquered the Syrians, Assyrians, Arabians, Cappadocians, both the Phrygians, Lydians, Carians, Phoenicians, Babylonians; and also reigned over the Bactrians, Indians, Cilicians, the Sacæ, Paphlagones, and Mariandyni. † Thus was fulfilled this prediction, and another of the same prophet, (ch. 41. 25) in which Jehovah declares, “I have raised up one from the north, and he shall come from the rising of the sun shall he call upon my name: and he shall come upon princes as upon morter, and as the potter treadeth clay." Here it should be remarked, that Media lay north of Babylon, and Persia eastward; and Cyrus commanded the forces of both these nations; and by his wonderful success, he trampled down mighty monarchs as mortar, and as the potter treads the clay.t Cyrus had conquered Armenia, as well as Croesus, king of Lydia, and subdued several nations from the Ægean sea to the Euphrates, before he marched against Babylon; and Xenophon expressly informs us, that there were not only Armenians, but both Phrygians and Cappadocians in the army of Cyrus, (Cyr. 1. 3. 7.) Thus the Lord "called together against her the kingdoms of Ararat, Minni, and Aschenaz." (Jer. 51. 28.) And the army of Cyrus was composed of Medes, Persians, Armenians, Caducians, Sacæ, and other nations which he had conquered; all of which, arranged under the Medes, came from the north, according to the prophecy of Jeremiah, (ch. 50. 9.) "I will raise and cause to come up against Babylon an assembly of great nations from the north country," &c.t

Babylon was replenished from all nations by a concourse of people, whom Jeremiah (ch. 50. 37.) calls the mingled people,' y, airev; and Æschylus (in Pers. v. 52), denominates the inhabitants of the same capital πаμμктov oxλov, a mixture of all sorts.' All these, at the approach of Cyrus, sought to escape to their several countries. "They every one to his quarter; none saved her." (Isa. 47. 15.)†

wandered