Nahum 3:1-7
NOTES
The plural form (“city of bloods”) suggests the multiple violence associated with the shedding of innocent blood. The voice of Abel’s “bloods” cried out for vengeance (Gen. 4:10). Ezekiel speaks of the “city of bloods” in his day (Ezek. 22:3).?
Bloodthirsty indeed was the ancient city of Nineveh. On one of the sculptured reliefs found in Ashurbanipal’s palace is a scene featuring the king and queen celebrating victory over the Elamites. Depicted near the banqueting table is a fruit tree with the severed head of the king of Elam dangling from one of the branches. Bloodthirsty indeed. Let all generations remember the atmosphere for banqueting created by this specter situated about the table of the Assyrians. Carved in stone by their own hands and so representing how they themselves chose to be remembered—so be it.
Ashurnasirpal II (885–860 B.C.) declared: “Great number of them in the land of Kirhi I slew … 260 of their fighting men I cut down with the sword. I cut off their heads, and I formed them into pillars.… Bubo, son of Buba, I flayed in the city of Arbela and I spread his skin upon the city wall.
“I flayed all the chief men [in the city of Suru] who had revolted, and I covered the pillar with their skins; some I walled up within the pillar, some I impaled upon the pillar on stakes, and others I bound to stakes round about the pillar; many within the border of my own land I flayed, and I spread their skins upon the walls; and I cut off the limbs of the officers, of the royal officers who had rebelled. Ahiababa I took to Nineveh, I flayed him, I spread his skin upon the wall of Nineveh.
“600 of their [the people in the city of Hulai] warriors I put to the sword; 3,000 captives I burned with fire; I did not leave a single one among them alive to serve as a hostage.… Their corpses I formed into pillars; their young men and maidens I burned in the fire.…
“3,000 of their [the people in the city of Tela] warriors I put to the sword.… Many captives from among them I burned with fire. From some I cut off their hands and their fingers, and from others I cut off their noses, their ears, and their fingers, of many I put out the eyes. I made one pillar of the living, and another of heads, and I bound their heads to posts (tree trunks) round about the city.”
Recent archeology has uncovered literally thousands of tablets from Nineveh attesting to their intense concentration on sorcery. Use of the magical arts functioned as a veritable way of life. Demons and evil spirits plagued their victims as a consequence of malicious incantations.
Maier reports: “Thousands of tablets uncovered in the Mesopotamian valley show abysmal superstition. Hundreds of sorcery incantations have been brought to light. Astrology flourished widely as a means of foretelling the future. For the Assyrians the world was filled with omens to be found in moths, swallows, pigs, scorpions, wild oxen, sparrows, doves, cows, rats, crows, worms, dogs, hens, grasshoppers, lambs, sheep, foxes, fish, snakes, jackals. Amulets of stones, plants, bones, and insects were worn to ward off evil spirits.” The pantheon of hideous, destructive deities was similar to today’s Hindu pantheon. Most of these were imagined to hate and persecute human beings.
Ashurbanipal boasts in one of his inscriptions: “I put him [Daite] into a kennel with jackels and dogs. I tied him up and made him guard the gate in Nineveh.”
