Cities & towns · Assyria
Nineveh
What was Nineveh?
Nineveh was the vast capital of Assyria — the enemy city that repented at Jonah’s preaching.
TodayMounds across the Tigris from Mosul, Iraq
EmpireAssyria
ProphetsJonah, Nahum
Known forThe city that repented
Capital of the empire that crushed and exiled the northern kingdom of Israel, Nineveh embodied cruelty in the ancient world.
Yet when the reluctant prophet Jonah finally walked its streets crying, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overthrown!”, the whole city — king to cattle — repented in sackcloth, and God relented.
A century later the prophet Nahum announced its doom, and Nineveh fell in 612 BC, never to rise.
Key verses BSB · Public Domain (CC0)
Jonah 3:4 “On the first day of his journey, Jonah set out into the city and proclaimed, “Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned!”” Jonah 3:10 “When God saw their actions—that they had turned from their evil ways—He relented from the disaster He had threatened to bring upon them.” Nahum 1:1 “This is the burden against Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite:”
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Original BibleDawn profile. Drafted with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy. Scripture quoted from the public-domain Berean Standard Bible.