CHAPTER V.

THE OVERTHROW AND THE RUIN OF THE GREAT CITY,

If history be nothing more than the record of the passions of a few leaders of mankind, then happy indeed the people whose history is the most wearisome to read. But we have seen that history is something more than the record of human passions. It proclaims the existence and the government of Him who sits on the throne of all worlds, and reigns sublime over all events. It reveals those moral principles which make men good or bad-principles which lift nations into virtue and glory, or sink them into guilt and ruin.

The stroke of divine vengeance which hung over Nineveh was, on the repentance of her guilty children, averted or turned aside for one hundred and fifty years. It was a grand respite. The lightning which played on the edge of the dark cloud retired, and would never have left that dark-bosomed cloud, had not the people fallen back into their former habits and pursuits. They sunk deeper than before in moral pollution, and then another of God's true speakers was sent to foretell the overthrow of the city and the empire. He sets out by describing the majesty of God in terms of unequalled boldness and sublimity:-"The Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers; Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth. The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him. The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him. But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies. What do ye imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end; affliction shall not rise up the second time. For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry."*

* Nahum i. 3-10.

How affecting the thought that when her people are in a state of beastly intoxication, the invader comes up against Nineveh, and effects her conquest! On the advance of the united force of the Medes and Babylonians, the king of Assyria marched against them, and in three successive battles left the field victorious. The Medes and Babylonians, who were tributary to Assyria, but who had been guilty of revolt, became desponding, and thought of giving up their daring enterprise in despair, as they had heard that a powerful army out of Bactria was on its way to the assistance of the king. But this force, after a slight engagement, were persuaded to make common cause with the Medes and the Babylonians against the king of Assyria. The Assyrian monarch, ignorant of the desertion of the Bactrians from his standard, and exulting in his past successes, gave himself up to revelry and sloth, and permitted his army to

abandon themselves to every species of indulgence. The allied revolters having learned in what a state of intemperance and unpreparedness the Assyrians now were, suddenly attacked their camp in the dead silence of night, and, amid their revelry and their drunkenness, made a prodigious slaughter of the Assyrians.

To comfort the people of God in the midst of these impending calamities, the prophet assures them of the divine protection and favour:-"There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord-a wicked counsellor. Thus saith the Lord:-Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder. And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown. Out of the house of thy

gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image:-I will make thy grave; for thou art vile. Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows; for the wicked shall no more pass through thee;-he is utterly cut off."* He then describes the preparations for the destruction, and the destruction itself, which he paints in the most vivid colours. He calls on Nineveh to prepare for the approach of the enemy; while the military array and muster, the very arms and dress of the Medes and Babylonians-their rapid approach to the gates-the process of the siege-the inundation of the river-the taking of the palace-the captivity, the lamentation, and the flight of the inhabitants-the sacking of the city-the bearing away of its treasures

together with the consequent desolation and terror-are all set forth under the sublimest and most impressive images, and in the true spirit of Hebrew poetry. "He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face; keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily; for the Lord hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel; for the emptiers have emptied them out, and marred their vine branches. The 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 justle 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."

There was an old tradition that Nineveh should not be taken till the river Tigris, which defended part of the city, should become its enemy. Now it so happened, that in the third year of the siege, it became so swollen by continued rains, that it overflowed part of the city, and threw down a considerable portion of the wall. The king, thinking that the oracle was fulfilled by this inundation of the river, and giving up all hope of future safety, lest he should fall into the enemy's hands, built a large funereal pile in the palace; and having collected all his gold and silver, and royal vestments, together with his concubines and his eunuchs, set fire to the pile, and thus involved himself and

them, and the whole palace, in one common ruin! When the fate of the king was made known by certain deserters, the enemy entered by the breach which the waters had made, and took the city. So vivid is the description, that you fancy you hear the whip cracking, the horses prancing, the wheels rumbling, the chariots bounding after the galloping steeds; or that you see the reflection from the polished swords and the glittering spears, like flashes of lightning dazzling the eyes; while the slain or the dying are lying in heaps upon the street, and the horses and the chariots stumbling over them. How bold and highly illumined are the characters which the prophet employs!" Huzzab, or she who was so firmly established, 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 melteth, and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all gather blackness. Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding-place of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid? The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin. Behold I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions; and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard. Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not; the noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses, and of the jumping chariots. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear; and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses."

In these circumstances of severe distress, even her rulers and her tributary powers came not to her help or succour. Those who ought to have espoused her cause, went over to the side of her besiegers. Her numbers, her wealth, her mighty men, availed her not. She became faint-hearted and feeble, and her strongholds were taken with case. She is in the hand of the enemy; her desolation is complete. The prophet himself is moved to tears by her condition, and, in a tender and beautiful allegory, represents her as an illustrious princess, led away into captivity, attended by her maids of honour, who bewail her and their own calamity by beating their breasts and tearing their hair, in token of grief deep and inconsolable, while the nations whom she had oppressed are seen and heard exulting with joy over her fall.-"It shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste! Who will bemoan her? Whence shall I seek comforters for thee? Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sca; and her wall was from the sea? Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite!-Put and Lubim were thy helpers. Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity;

* Nahum ii. 7—13. iii. 1-3.