whole empire, the profperity or ruin of the one being involved in that of the other. This was à very ancient city, being built by Ashur or rather by Nimrod; for those words of Mofes (Gen. X. 11,) which our tranflators together with most of the ancient verfions render thus, Out of that land went forth Asfhur, and builded Nineveh, fhould rather be tranflated, as the (1) Chaldee paraphraft translates them, and as they are rendered in the margin of our bibles, Out of that land he, that is Nimrod, the person fpoken of before, went forth into Affyria, and builded Nineveh. It is well known that the word Asfbur in Hebrew is the name of the country as well as the name of the man, and the prepofition is often omitted, fo that the words may very well be tranflated he went forth into Affyria. And Mofes is here giving an account of the fons of Ham, and it would be foreign to his fubject to intermix the story of any of the fons of Shem, as Asfhur was. Mofes afterwards recounts the fons of Shem, and Asfhur among them; and he would hardly relate his actions, before he had mentioned his nativity, or even his name, contrary to the feries of the genealogy and to the order of the

(1) De terra illa egreffus eft in Affyriam. Onk.

hiftory.

(2)

history. We may infer therefore that Nimrod rather than Asfhur was the first founder of this city; or he must have been another Asshur who built it, and not Asfhur the son of Shem, but the fon of Nimrod, or the fun of Ham. But by whomfoever it was built, it might afterwards be greatly inlarged and improved by Ninus, and called after his name, whoever Ninus was, whether the fon of Nimrod or any one else.

As it was a very ancient, fo was it likewife a very great city. In Jonah it is ftiled that great city, (I. 2, III. 2,) an exceeding great city. (III 3.) In the original it is (2) a city great to God; in the fame manner as Mofes is called by St. Stephen, in the Acts of the Apoftles (VII. 20,) 25 Twp Jey, fair to God, or exceeding fair, as our tranflators rightly render it; and fo the mountains of God (Pfal. XXXVI. 6,) are exceeding high mountains, and the cedars of God

(Pfal. LXXX. 10,) are exceeding tall cedars. It was therefore an exceeding great city; and the fcripture-account is confirmed by the testimony of heathen authors. Strabo (3) fays, that Nineveh was much greater even than Babylon: and (4) Diodorus Siculus from Ctefias affirms that its builder Ninus propofed to build a city ' of fuch magnitude, that it should not only be the greatest of the cities which were then in all the world, but that none of thofe who fhould be born after that time attempting the ' like should easily exceed it;' and a little after he fubjoins, that no body afterwards built fuch a city, either as to the greatness of the compass, or as to the magnificence of the walls.' It is added in Jonah (III. 3) that it was an exceeding great city of three days journey, that is of three days journey in circuit, as St. (5) Jerome and the best commentators expound it. Strabo, as it was obferved before, hath faid that

fed etiam ut nemo poft genitorum tale quid aggreffusipfum facile fuperaret-xauty γας πολιν εδεις ύσερον έκτισε κατα το το μέγεθος το περιβολάς, και την περί το τείχος μεγαλοπρέπειαν. Α nullo enim poftmodum urbs tanto ambitus fpacio, tantaque magnificentia mæniûm exftruc

ta fuit. Diod. Siculus. Lib. 2. p. 65. Edit. Steph. p. 91, 92. Edit. Rhod.

(5) Civitas magna, et taħti ambitus; ut vix trium dierum poffet itinere circumiri. Hieron. Comment. in locum. p. 1485. Vol. 3. Edit. Benedict.

(6) TOP

that Nineveh was much larger than Babylon; and a little afterwards he fays, that (6) the circuit of Babylon was 385 furlongs: but (7) Diodorus Siculus afferts that the whole circuit of Nineveh was 480 furlongs; which (8) make fomewhat more than 60 miles, and 60 miles were three days journey, 20 miles a day being the common computation for a foot-traveler. It is farther faid in Jonah (IV. 11.) that in Nineveh there were more than fixfcore thousand perfons who could not difcern between their right band, and their left hand, and alfo much cattle. I think it is (9) generally calculated that the young children of any place are a fifth part of the inhabitants; and if we admit of that calculation, the whole number of inhabitants in Nineveh amounted to above fix hundred thousand: which number will appear by no means incredible, if we confider the dimenfions of the city as given by (1) Diodorus Siculus, that it

was in length 150 furlongs, in breadth 99 furlongs, and in circuit 480 furlongs, that is 20 miles long, about 12 miles broad, and above 60 miles in compafs. A city of fuch dimenfions might easily contain fuch a number of inhabitants, and many more: and at the fame time there might be, as there are in moft of the great cities in the east, large vacant spaces for gardens or for pasture; fo that there might be, as the facred text afferts there was, alfo much cattle. But according to the (2) modern method of calculation the number of the Ninevites is reduced much lower. For allowing that the number of infants was one hundred and thirty thousand, as the fcripture faith that they were more than one hundred and twenty thousand ; yet these making but three tenths of the inhabitants, the number of citizens will appear to have amounted to four hundred and twenty three thousand. London and Paris ftand not

dotus Lib. 5. Cap. 53. TEVTEκοιτα δε και εκατον σαδία επ' ημερη έκαση διεξιυσι, centum et quinquaginta fudia unoquoque die peragrantibus. CL ftadia iunt viginti milliaria &c. Bocharti Phaleg. Lib. 4. Cap. 20. Col. 252.

(9) Bochart, ibid. Col. 253. Lowth's Comment, and Calmet's.