# Nineveh -- what became of them?



## nwink (Oct 31, 2011)

It's not often when the capital of the world's largest/strongest empire believes God and repents in sackcloth and ashes in response to the word of the Lord....yet this is what happened when the king of Nineveh proclaimed that everyone should cry out to God for mercy, and thus did the city of 120,000.

But I am curious -- is there any way of knowing what ever happened as a result of this experience Nineveh had? Did many become worshipers of the true God? Did it influence the Assyrian empire? Or was this short-lived as it seems it was a king-led repentance?


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## Unoriginalname (Oct 31, 2011)

I have always had the same question I hope someone can answer it


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## Dearly Bought (Oct 31, 2011)

Nineveh was destroyed in 612 B.C. as predicted by the prophet Nahum. Recently, my wife and I were in the British Museum and were able to see artifacts from the city. You can actually see portions of wall carvings from Nineveh that have been blackened by the fires prophesied in Nahum 3:13. It really makes an impression to stand before the blackened remnants of such a judgment.



> "About a hundred years before, at Jonah's preaching, the Ninevites repented, and were spared, yet, soon after, they became worse than ever. Nineveh knows not that God who contends with her, but is told what a God he is. It is good for all to mix faith with what is here said concerning Him, which speaks great terror to the wicked, and comfort to believers. Let each take his portion from it: let sinners read it and tremble; and let saints read it and triumph. The anger of the Lord is contrasted with his goodness to his people. Perhaps they are obscure and little regarded in the world, but the Lord knows them. The Scripture character of Jehovah agrees not with the views of proud reasoners. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is slow to wrath and ready to forgive, but he will by no means acquit the wicked; and there is tribulation and anguish for every soul that doeth evil: but who duly regards the power of his wrath?"
> (Matthew Henry's Commentary on Nahum 1)


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## Tbordow (Oct 31, 2011)

*Ninevah*

Nathan,

My take is that we should not look at Ninevah's repentance as a repentance unto salvation, but more a superstitious repentance that God nevertheless honors in his common grace. The superstitious elements can be seen in the sackcloth upon the animals. Often in the OT unbelievers repent a repentance not onto salvation, but one that causes God to at least relent from immediate judgment, Nebuchadnezzar one such example. The fact that only a generation later true faith could not be found in Ninevah, but only sin and idolatry, is another clue. Anyway, after preaching through Jonah that is my understanding.


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## Peairtach (Oct 31, 2011)

It only takes one generation for there to be a turning away from the Lord.

Surely Nineveh's repentance was genuine, as Neb's was eventually.

There may be little evidence external to the Bible of Nineveh's repentance, but our faith is in God's Word, not uncertain archaeology. Nevertheless, this website does claim some evidence of it:



> Adad-nirari was the Assyrian king who repented under Jonah's preaching, and under him and the three kings who followed him, there was a let-up in Assyrian assaults
> and conquests. It was in this period that Israel had some of her territory recovered. 2 Kings 14:25 Such reform does indicate that Jonah's message did have some influence upon those at Nineveh



Doc Gospel Ministries

Maybe there's more out there, or waiting to be dug up.

There's a paper here by a Bill Cooper on Jonah, which may or may not be interesting, but I can't read it because something's up with my Adobe Acrobat:

http://www.scienceandapologetics.com/engl/resourse2.htm


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## Tbordow (Nov 1, 2011)

*Ninevah*

It is not a question of believing the Word of God or not, and it is not a question whether Ninevah's repentance was heart-felt. The question is - was it a repentance unto eternal salvation. That is not clear from the text. We would have to assume then that Jonah's sermon was much longer than 3:4, that Jonah would have explained the gospel of the coming messiah, but there is no gospel in Jonah's recorded message. It was not unusual for pagan cultures to genuinely fear a certain god at a certain time and repent to that god, that doesn't mean it is a repentance unto eternal life, and I think that better explains the evidence from Nahum, which gives no indication that the generation under judgment left the gospel given to them from the previous generation, but it seems they are judged for many years of idolatry (Nahum 1:14).


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## TimV (Nov 1, 2011)

There are millions of Assyrians nowadays, and almost all of them are Christians, although about half have an improper view of Christ's nature.


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## Elimelek (Nov 5, 2011)

Dear Nathan

Obviously the answer to your question will differ depending on how you approach the book of Jonah. Is it a prophecy, historical narrative, parable or short fiction? 

James Limburg (1993:78) writes in the Old Testament Library Commentary on Jonah the following:


> Excavations indicate that Nineveh in the eight century B.C. was a walled city, trapezoidal in shape, with a total perimeter of about seven and one half miles. The longest distance across the city was about two and three quarters miles. Does this statement mean Jonah wandered to and fro through the city? Or does it include a day for coming in from the suburbs and a day for returning? Or is it a storyteller's exaggeration, for effect? That which the narrator is communicating is the enormity of the city of Nineveh. As Wolff puts it, "The reader is not supposed to do arithmetic. He is supposed to be lost in astonishment."
> At the time the book of Jonah was written, Nineveh had been long destroyed. Named at the beginning and the end of the book and mentioned seven times in this chapter [chapter 3], Nineveh functions as a symbol of the great cities of the world.



Kind regards


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## TimV (Nov 5, 2011)

Sounds like 7-10,000 acres then, Jacobus. If there's exaggeration it must be understatement if Jonah spread the word in the time mentioned. I went to a pretty big university and it's only 150 acres in size.


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Nov 5, 2011)

Why would God relent from His promise to destroy Ninevah if their confession was false?


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## py3ak (Nov 5, 2011)

I think Ahab walking softly and receiving a delay or diminution of temporal punishment is a good analogy to what happened historically in the case of Nineveh.


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## Herald (Nov 5, 2011)

Backwoods Presbyterian said:


> Why would God relent from His promise to destroy Ninevah if their confession was false?



Ditto. I'm sure not everyone truly repented, but many probably did. 

sent from my most excellent Motorola Atrix.


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## Peairtach (Nov 5, 2011)

Elimelek said:


> Dear Nathan
> 
> Obviously the answer to your question will differ depending on how you approach the book of Jonah. Is it a prophecy, historical narrative, parable or short fiction?
> 
> ...



I presume that you're not suggesting that the Book of Jonah is parable or short fiction, Jacobus?


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## saintandsinner77 (Nov 5, 2011)

Tbordow said:


> Nathan,
> 
> My take is that we should not look at Ninevah's repentance as a repentance unto salvation, but more a superstitious repentance that God nevertheless honors in his common grace. The superstitious elements can be seen in the sackcloth upon the animals. Often in the OT unbelievers repent a repentance not onto salvation, but one that causes God to at least relent from immediate judgment, Nebuchadnezzar one such example. The fact that only a generation later true faith could not be found in Ninevah, but only sin and idolatry, is another clue. Anyway, after preaching through Jonah that is my understanding.



Not sure how you came up with a repentance of a superstitious kind, but according to Jesus, Ninevah's repentance was genuine: Matt.12 [41] The men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: because they repented at the preaching of Jonas; and, behold, a greater than Jonas is here.


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## Backwoods Presbyterian (Nov 5, 2011)

Good point Walter! I had not even thought of that passage.


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## Tbordow (Nov 5, 2011)

Walter,

I don't think the Matt passage requires a Ninevah repentance unto salvation. I don't think the Queen of Sheba needs to have been a true believer in the Savior for her to condemn God's covenant people for rejecting his wisdom (Matt 12:42).
Abimelech accuses Abraham (Gen 20:10), etc... And since we are dealing in some hyperbole here I don't think Matt 12 is a slam dunk. 

As for Jonah being a fable, I have wrestled with this also. The book does read this way, as does Job, but in the end I cannot go there, but would be interested in arguments from those who hold to innerancy.


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## Peairtach (Nov 6, 2011)

> As for Jonah being a fable, I have wrestled with this also. The book does read this way, as does Job, but in the end I cannot go there, but would be interested in arguments from those who hold to innerancy.



I assume we all hold by inerrancy on a confessional board.

The fact that our Lord speaks of Jonah as a historical figure should indicate the nature of the book.

In what way does the Book of Jonah read as "a fable" ?


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## Elimelek (Nov 11, 2011)

Hello Nathan, Richard, Walter, Tim and everybody else

Richard, I only mentioned the various stances people hold on Jonah. I was not giving my opinion about the book. Personally I think the problem with using the four categories I’ve mentioned is that one might exclude another. All of them are modern categories that might help to understand some aspect(s) of the book, but also carries certain presupposed baggage into the story. For instance when we look at the decree of the king of Nineveh in Jonah 3:7b-9, we see something “fablish”:



> Decree of the king and his large (one), saying – Man and *animal; cattle and flock;* may not taste anything; may not graze and may not drink water. They must cover themselves with sackcloth, man and *animal*. And they must call to God in force, and a man must turn from his evil way and from the violence that (is) in their hands. Who knows? God may turn and be sorry and He might turn from the burning of his nose and we will not be destroyed. (Own translation)


 
Does this mean the story is a fable? I really don’t think so. Does it have such elements? I would say yes. Does this mean that the book Jonah is not historical? I don’t think the book itself answers that question. We know from the New Testament in Matthew 12:40-41 – also quoted by Walter – that Jesus understood it to be historical. Probably the animals bemoaning their fate and sitting in sackcloth is an exaggeration to drive the point home that Nineveh genuinely repents. 

In the Old Testament we find the basic story of the prophet that is called but is reluctant to accept God’s calling in a few places. In Exodus 4:10 Moses complains of a speech impediment. In Judges 6:10 Gideon uses his low-born status as excuse for not being able to fill the vocation as a judge. In Isaiah 6:5 Isaiah complains that he is as impure as the Israelites. In Jeremiah 1:6 Jeremiah after receiving his vocation complains that he is unable to speak as he is only a child.

Jonah is commanded to go to Nineveh, yet he takes the road and runs from his vocation and God. (Ironically God uses him and this run-away prophet becomes an instrument in saving – physically and spiritually – the sailors who were praying to their own gods earlier on the boat/ ship (chapter 1:16).) 

In a similar fashion the Old Testament bear witness to prophets being rejected by the king outright. Think of Moses before Pharoah (Exodus 7-12), Micaiah before Ahab (1 Kings 22), Isaiah before Manasseh and Jeremiah before Zedekiah. In all the above case the prophet’s speech is quite long and emotion filled. The prophet is completely ignored and usually angrily rejected. The punishment of God then comes to pass.

Jonah is the complete opposite. In chapter 3 he gives a short speech without much emotion. His message is basic


> Still 40 days and Nineveh is overturned (Own translation).


 
He doesn’t speak to someone in particular, leave alone the king. He doesn’t even call attention to the sins of the Ninevites. The Lord told Jonah in chapter 1:2 that the large/great city Nineveh’s evil has piled up before Him. (The Septuagint says that “the outcry of their evil went up” to Him. It softens the Hebrew image of evil deeds piling up like a heap of sand until it reaches God.) Yet, Jonah even goes so far as not to tell the Ninevites what to do to show their repentance.

The book of Jonah tells a story of an unrepentant prophet and repentant sinners. It reminds me a lot of the parable of the Pharisee and the tax collector Luke 18:9-12. In that sense the book might be a bit “parablish.”

But to come back to Nathan’s initial questions,


> is there any way of knowing what ever happened as a result of this experience Nineveh had? Did many become worshipers of the true God? Did it influence the Assyrian empire? Or was this short-lived as it seems it was a king-led repentance?


 
According to the book Jonah all the Ninevites repented, but Jonah – well it seems he remained stubborn. I don’t know if it influenced the Assyrian empire. To understand a king-led repentance better, I could maybe equate it to how South African tribes function in the Political sphere. In my country the chiefs of certain tribes swear allegence to a specific Political party. In the Limpopo and North West provinces the chiefs are mainly allied to the ANC. In the Eastern Cape certain chiefs swore allegance to the United Democratic Movement (UDM). (There are some other examples also.) When we have elections all the members of a specific tribe will vote for the political party to which its chief swore allegence. You find something similar where chiefs chose to be a member of a specific religious group, like the Zion Christian Church (ZCC). (Some chiefs give their people freedom to choose how they want to worship, others are very specific.) Missions in rural Africa always works through the chief of a village. (I am not aware of any exception.) If a missionary is in good books with the chief, the chief can decree that the whole tribe must be Christians. Even in 1 Kings 16:29-34 Ahab acts like a tribal chief, choosing Baal over the Lord.

It is important to note the apocryphal book of Tobit (written between 100 BC and 2 AD), chapter 14:4 & 8 (the shorter version, not the longer version). On his deathbed Tobit who stays in the city of Nineveh sommons his son Tobias with the following advice:


> 4 Go into Media, my child, for I trust what Ionas {/Jonah} the prophet said about Nineue, that it will be overthrown. But in Media there will be peace till an appointed time. And our kindred will be scattered over the earth from the good land, and Hierosolyma will be desolate. And the house of God in it will be burned down and will be desolate for a time. (NETS)


 as well as


> 8 “So now, my child, go away from Nineue, because what the prophet Ionas said will surely happen. (NETS)


 
Here we have an indication that someone as early as 100 BC also saw the problem to Nathan question. It is interesting that the longer version of Tobit exchanged Jonah’s name with that of Nahum in verse 4 and left it completely out in verse 8.

Coming back to the book Jonah. For me there is a warning in Jonah the prophet’s actions. For one, God tends not to be prescribed by humankind in how He should act. Furthermore we must be careful of being so focussed on ourselves and our holiness – even being used by God for his purpose – yet we are not where God wants us to be, facing our greatest enemies because He wants to do a miracle. (So by the way, the fact that the Ninevites repented should actually be a greater miracle than being spit out by a fish (the Septuagint says a “beast” (therion).)

Kind regards


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## J. Dean (Nov 11, 2011)

nwink said:


> It's not often when the capital of the world's largest/strongest empire believes God and repents in sackcloth and ashes in response to the word of the Lord....yet this is what happened when the king of Nineveh proclaimed that everyone should cry out to God for mercy, and thus did the city of 120,000.
> 
> But I am curious -- is there any way of knowing what ever happened as a result of this experience Nineveh had? Did many become worshipers of the true God? Did it influence the Assyrian empire? Or was this short-lived as it seems it was a king-led repentance?


My guess: short lived. Babylon later on swept through the region and defeated the Assyrians. In the process, Ninevah was destroyed.

As for the permanence of repentance: we have all seen cyclical repentance-blessing followed by forgetfulness-pride-wickedness-judgment in the Scriptures. If Israel was guilty of this, it's not at all inconceivable to think that Ninevah did the same.


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## TimV (Nov 11, 2011)

Jacobus using your own indigenous people's history, when Chaka's mother died he made the animals suffer too, right? So why wouldn't an Assyrian king with absolute power not demand animals being treated in the way the history says? Just because you think it's strange or weird?


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## Elimelek (Nov 15, 2011)

Hello Tim

When Shaka's mother died, several cows were slaughtered, some to escourt her to the "ancestors" as food and some for the funeral feast. Furthermore, because they were Zulu they buried at 12:00 noon. Even today this practice is found under traditional Zulus. Yet nowhere there is any human qualities given to these animals. I said "fablish" as one of the the ways in identifying a fable is when antropomorfic qualities are given to an animal. 

My example from Africa is an atempt to illustrate group mentality vs. individual mentality. The Bible was written to people with a group mentality first. Now we insist in asking individualist questions to it. In itself it is not wrong, but I do think one needs to also be sensitive to the "human" aspect of the Divine Word.

Kind regards


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