SEV Biblia, Chapter 3:8
¶ ¿Eres tú mejor que No-amón, que estaba asentada entre ríos, cercada de aguas, cuyo baluarte era el mar, y de mar su muralla?
Clarke's Bible Commentary - Nahum 3:8
Verse 8. Art thou better than populous No] No-Ammon, or Diospolis, in the Delta, on one branch of the Nile. This is supposed to be the city mentioned by Nahum; and which had been lately destroyed, probably by the Chaldeans. The waters round about it] Being situated in the Delta, it had the fork of two branches of the Nile to defend it by land; and its barrier or wall was the sea, the Mediterranean, into which these branches emptied themselves: so that this city, and the place it stood on, were wholly surrounded by the waters.
John Gill's Bible Commentary
Ver. 8. Art thou better than populous No , etc.] Or No Amon, a city in Egypt so called, not because the kings of Egypt were nursed and brought up there, as Jarchi and Abarbinel; (see Proverbs 8:30) but from Ham the son of Noah, whose land Egypt was; or from Jupiter Ammon, worshipped there. No Amon signifies the mansion or palace of Ham, or Hamon; the Egyptians, as Herodotus says f80 , call Jupiter by the name of Ammon. The Targum interprets it of Alexandria the great, a city so called long after this, when it was rebuilt by Alexander the great; so Jarchi, Kimchi, and Ben Melech, understand it: others take Diospolis or Thebes to be meant, famous in Homer for its hundred gates; though some think this was not the number of the gates of the city, but of the temples in it; and others are of opinion that these were so many palaces of princes f82 . The city was built by Osiris; or, according to others, by Busiris, and seems more likely to be the place here meant; since here was a temple dedicated to Jupiter, called by the Egyptians Ammon, as Diodorus Siculus relates, and was a very large and populous city. Indeed, according to the above historian, it was in compass but a seventeen and a half miles f84 ; which is to be understood of the city when first built, and before it was enlarged; for it must have been a great deal larger in later times, if we may judge of it by its ruins. Strabo f85 , who was an eyewitness of them quickly after its last destruction by Cornelius Gallus, says, the footsteps of its largeness were seen fourscore furlongs in length, or ten miles; and even this was but small, in comparison of what it was before it was destroyed by Cambyses, when it is said to reach four hundred and twenty furlongs, or fifty two miles and a half f86 . It was the metropolis of all Egypt; and formerly the whole country was called after its name, as Herodotus observes. The accounts given of its inhabitants are incredible, and particularly of the soldiers it sent out; according to the epitaph of Rhampses, seven hundred thousand soldiers dwelt in it; which number Diodorus Siculus gives to all the people in Egypt; but, though it may seem too large for Thebes, must be too little for all Egypt; especially if what Agrippa in Josephus says is right, that Egypt, from Ethiopia and the borders of India to Alexandria, had no less than 7,500,000 inhabitants: however, if Pomponius Mela may be credited, when it was necessary, the hundred palaces in Thebes could each of them send out ten thousand armed men, or, as some say, twenty thousand; and if what Diodorus Siculus affirms is true, that twenty thousand chariots used to go out from thence to war, this shows it to have been a very populous city indeed, and might well be called “populous” No; but now it is utterly destroyed, first by the Assyrians and Babylonians, then by the Persians, and last of all by the Romans; the first destruction must be here referred to, if this city is designed. Strabo says in his time it was only inhabited in villages; and Juvenal speaks of it as wholly lying in ruins; and Pausanias f94 , making mention of it with other cities which abounded with riches, says they were reduced to the fortune of a middling private man, yea, were brought to nothing. It is now, or what is built on the spot, or near it, called Luxxor, or Lukorcen Some think the city Memphis is meant, so Vitringa on ( Isaiah 19:5). (See Gill on “ Ezekiel 30:14”), (see Gill on “ Ezekiel 30:15”), this was for many ages the metropolis of all Egypt. Strabo calls it a large and “populous” city, and full of men, and second to Alexandria in his time. The compass of it, when first built, was eighteen and three quarter miles f98 ; but now there is no more remaining of it than if there had never been such a city; nay, it is not easy to say where it once stood: now Nineveh is asked, or its inhabitants, if it could be thought that their city was in a better and safer condition than this city; it might indeed, according to the account of it by historians, and as in the prophecy of Jonah, be larger, and its inhabitants more numerous; but not better fortified, which seems to be the thing chiefly respected, as follows: that was situate among the rivers ; the canals of the river Nile: [that had] the waters round about it : a moat on every side, either naturally or artificially: whose rampart [was] the sea, [and] her wall [was] from the sea ? which agrees with Alexandria, according to the description of it by Strabo f99 , Solinus f100 , and Josephus f101 , which had two seas on each side of it; the Egyptian sea on the north, and the lake Mareotis on the south, as well as had the canals of the Nile running into it from various parts; and is represented as very difficult of access, through the sea, rivers, and marshy places about it; and, besides, might have a wall towards the sea, as by this account it should seem, as well as the sea itself was a wall and rampart to it: and this description may also agree with Diospolis or Thebes, which, though more inland, yet, as Bochart observes, it had, as all Egypt had, the two seas, the Red Sea and the Mediterranean Sea, and the canals of the Nile, which might be said to be as a rampart to it. So Isocrates says of all Egypt, that it is fortified with an immortal wall, the Nile, which not only affords a defence, but sufficient food, and is insuperable and inexpugnable; nor is it unusual, as to call rivers and lakes seas, so particularly the Nile, and its canals; (see Isaiah 11:15 18:1 Ezekiel 32:2), and in the Alcoran the Nile is often called a sea f104 . There is another Diospolis in Egypt, near Mendes, which, as Strabo says, had lakes about it; but this, being a more obscure place, is not likely to be intended here; though Father Calmet is of opinion that it is here meant; it being situated in the Delta, on one of the arms of the Nile, between Busiris to the south, and Mendes to the north. The description seems to agree better with Memphis, whose builder Uchoreus, as Diodorus Siculus says, chose a very convenient place for it, where the Nile divided itself into many parts, and made the Delta, so called from its figure; and which he made wonderfully strong, after this manner: whereas the Nile flowed round the city, being built within the ancient bed of it, and at its increase would overflow it; he cast up a very great mound or rampart to the south, which was a defence against the swell of the river, and was of the use of a fortress against enemies by land; and on the other parts all about he dug a large and deep lake, which received a very great deal of the river, and filled every place about the city but where the mound (or rampart) was built, and so made it amazingly strong; whence the kings after him left Thebes, and had their palace and court here; and so Herodotus, who makes Menes to be the builder of it, says f108 , that without the city he caused lakes to be dug from the river to the north, and to the west, for to the east the Nile itself bounded it; and Josephus f109 , who also makes Minaeus, or Menes, the first Pharaoh, to be the builder of it, speaks of that and the sea together, as if not far off each other: now, if a city so populous, and so well fortified by art and nature, as each of these were, was taken, and its inhabitants carried captive, Nineveh could not depend on her numbers or situation for safety, which were not more or better than this.
Matthew Henry Commentary
Verses 8-19 - Strong-holds, even the strongest, are no defence against the judgment of God. They shall be unable to do any thing for themselves. The Chaldeans and Medes would devour the land like canker-worms. The Assyrians also would be eaten up by their own numerous hired troops which seem to be meant by the word rendered "merchants." Those tha have done evil to their neighbours, will find it come home to them Nineveh, and many other cities, states, and empires, have been ruined and should be a warning to us. Are we better, except as there are some true Christians amongst us, who are a greater security, and a stronge defence, than all the advantages of situation or strength? When the Lord shows himself against a people, every thing they trust in mus fail, or prove a disadvantage; but he continues good to Israel. He is strong-hold for every believer in time of trouble, that cannot be stormed or taken; and he knoweth those that trust in Him __________________________________________________________________
Original Hebrew
התיטבי 3190 מנא 4996 אמון 528 הישׁבה 3427 ביארים 2975 מים 4325 סביב 5439 לה אשׁר 834 חיל 2426 ים 3220 מים 3220 חומתה׃ 2346
