Prophecy
Prophecy: The Destruction of Nineveh
- Era
- prophesied c. 660-630 BC; fulfilled 612 BC
- Location
- Nineveh (modern Mosul, Iraq)
- Discovered
- —
Nahum and Zephaniah predicted the violent overthrow of Nineveh at a moment when it was the capital of the largest empire on earth. In 612 BC the city fell so completely that it was lost to history for over 2,000 years.
The find
Nahum predicted that Nineveh would be destroyed by an "overflowing flood" (Nahum 1:8, 2:6), made "empty, void and waste" (2:10), and never rise again. In 612 BC a coalition of Medes and Babylonians sacked Nineveh; ancient sources (Diodorus Siculus) report that the Khoser River flooded and broke down a portion of the walls. The city was so thoroughly destroyed that when Xenophon passed by in 401 BC he didn't know what it had been, and it remained unidentified until A.H. Layard's excavations in the 1840s.
Why it matters
A great capital was reduced to a forgotten mound exactly as predicted — including the unusual detail of its destruction coming "by flood."
Cross-linked Scripture
Doctrine check
Sources
- ·Diodorus Siculus, Library of History 2.27
- ·Reade, J. (1998). Assyrian Sculpture, 2nd ed.
- ·Nahum & Zephaniah 2 — Nineveh prophecies (Bible Gateway)
- ·Nineveh — fall & ruins (Wikipedia)