Nineveh

Biblical References

• Genesis 10:11-12: Nineveh first appears as a city built in the land of Assyria.
• 2 Kings 19:36-37 and Isaiah 37:37-38: After failing to take Jerusalem, the Assyrian king Sennacherib returned and dwelt at Nineveh, where he was killed by his sons.
• Jonah 1–4: Nineveh is "that great city" to which God sent Jonah to proclaim judgment. Jonah cried, "Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown" (Jonah 3:4). From the king down to the common people, the city fasted and put on sackcloth, and God turned away the disaster (Jonah 3:10).
• Nahum: The entire book is "the burden of Nineveh" (Nahum 1:1). It calls Nineveh "the bloody city" (Nahum 3:1).
• Zephaniah 2:13: The prophet foretells that Nineveh will be made "a desolation, and dry like a wilderness."
• Matthew 12:41 and Luke 11:30-32: Jesus refers to the people of Nineveh, who repented at the preaching of Jonah.

History and Geography

Nineveh was an ancient city on the east bank of the Tigris River, opposite present-day Mosul, Iraq. Its principal remains lie in two mounds, Kuyunjik and Nebi Yunus. It is generally understood to have become the capital of the Assyrian Empire under Sennacherib. Excavations beginning in the mid-nineteenth century uncovered Sennacherib's palace and clay tablets from the library of King Ashurbanipal. Palace reliefs depict the assault on the Judean city of Lachish. These reliefs are frequently presented as evidence corresponding to the Assyrian invasion of Judah in the time of Hezekiah (2 Kings 18:13-14). Nineveh is generally understood to have fallen in 612 BC to a coalition of Babylonian and Median forces.

Significance in the Bible as a Whole

In the Old Testament, Nineveh represents Assyria, the great power that threatened Israel. Assyria destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and invaded Judah. At the close of the book of Jonah, God asks whether he should not "spare Nineveh" (Jonah 4:11). This ending is read as a message that God's mercy extends even to the Gentiles. Jonah says that he fled because he knew God to be gracious and merciful (Jonah 4:2). The book of Nahum, by contrast, proclaims God's righteous judgment on the same city.

In the New Testament, Jesus, speaking of "the sign of the prophet Jonas," declared that "the men of Nineveh shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it" (Matthew 12:41). Matthew compares Jonah's three days in the belly of the fish to the three days the Son of Man would be in the heart of the earth (Matthew 12:40). Nineveh thus comes to serve as an example of repentance.

Interpretations and Debates

• The subject of Genesis 10:11: Some read the verse, as the New Korean Revised Version does, to say that Nimrod went out into Assyria and built Nineveh; others read it to say that a man named Asshur went out from that land and built it.
• The historicity of Jonah: Conservative scholars and churches read the book as an account of actual events, citing Jesus' reference to the repentance of Nineveh. Other scholars regard it as a didactic story, pointing among other things to the absence of any such repentance in Assyrian records.
• The size of the city: Interpretations differ on what is meant by "an exceeding great city of three days' journey" (Jonah 3:3). Some take it as the size of the walled city itself; others take it to refer to a region including surrounding towns, or to the time spent going through the city preaching. Likewise, the "more than sixscore thousand persons that cannot discern between their right hand and their left hand" (Jonah 4:11) are understood by some as young children and by others as the entire population.
• Traditions outside the text: The story that people repented upon seeing Jonah's appearance after he emerged from the fish is not found in the biblical text. Nor does the book of Jonah name the king who repented. A mosque traditionally regarded as the tomb of Jonah once stood on the Nebi Yunus mound. This reflects later tradition; the mosque was destroyed by the militant group ISIS in 2014.

In the Korean Church

The account of Nineveh in Jonah 3 is frequently used as a sermon text calling for fasting and repentance. It is also often cited at gatherings such as revival meetings and special early-morning prayer meetings. The story of Jonah being sent to a Gentile city is likewise a common subject in missions sermons.