Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city,
and cry out against it;
for their wickedness has come up before Me.
Jonah 1:2
False Gods
The Hebrew word for fish is "dag."
Ninevites worshipped a fish-god named Dagon. Note how similar the word "dagon" is from "dragon," the only difference is an "r."
Dagon
Dragon
We see Dagon's symbol in America today in a feminine version of course:
The Starbucks logo is a fish god-woman.
One historical note stated that Dagon had another name (false gods always do), he was known as "Nine." If true, then the false god "Nine," of course, was a fish, and one can see how Nineveh coopted Nine, the fish god's name for their city. Dagon, Nine, also had other names and could be linked to other false gods of the region like Poseidon, Neptune, or even the modern American version, Aquaman, who in form at least was a man but operated with the powers of a Poseidon.
Nineveh
Nineveh was the oldest and most-populous city of the ancient Assyrian empire,
The city was part of a four city parallogram with one wall, becoming the largest city in the world for some fifty years, 60 miles across.
A person normally walks 20 miles day, so 60 miles would take 3 days to traverse.
Nineveh was a three days walk.
It had 15 gates with 18 canals. There were 30 feet high outer walls which were 45 feet deep; and the inner wall 8 miles long.
The Wicked City
The entire history of Assyria is filled with a reign of violence, terror, torture and killing conquered peoples. They pridefully carried home parts of their enemies’ leaders’ bodies as souvenirs of war.
Assyria was one of the first nations to have a professional army, year around, instead of one that functioned around an agricultural calendar.
The Assyrian Army became infamous to surrounding nations.
They were known to bury a man up to his neck in the desert sand, and stretch out his tongue so that he could not swallow in the heat until he died.
The Elamite general, Dananu, was flayed alive, then bled like a lamb; his brother had his throat cut, and his body was divided into pieces which were distributed over the country as souvenirs.
I built a pillar at the city gate and I flayed all the chief men who had revolted and I covered the pillar with their skins; some I walled up inside the pillar, some I impaled upon the pillar on stakes.
The Ninevites were recorded to have pulled out tongues by the roots, cut off hands and feet as well as burn men alive.
The Ninevites were an evil people.
Nineveh's Peak
The Assyrians created a world empire that lasted 300 years. The city of Nineveh would peak at the end of the 8th century, about the time when Jonah entered its walls.
God had timed Jonah's visit perfectly, because He was about to unleash some national and heavenly signs that would surely get Nineveh's attention.
Next Post: Jonah's Eclipse
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