Smith's Bible Dictionary

Neziah — Nymphas

Neziah

Nezi’ah (pre-eminent). The descendants of Neziah were among the Nethinim who returned with Zerubbabel. Ezra 2:54; Nehemiah 7:56. (b.c. 536.)

Ne’zib (garrison, pillar), a city of Judah, Joshua 15:43 only, in the district of the Shefelah or lowland, one of the same group with Keilah and Mareshah. To Eusebius and Jerome it was evidently known. They place it on the road between Eleutheropolis and Hebron, seven or nine miles from the former, and there it still stands under the almost identical name of Beit Nusib or Chirbeh Nasib.

Nibhaz

Nib’haz (the barker), a deity of the Avites, introduced by them into Samaria in the time of Shalmaneser. 2 Kings 17:31. The rabbins derived the name from a Hebrew root nâbach, “to bark,” and hence assigned to it the figure of a dog, or a dog-headed man. The Egyptians worshipped the dog. Some indications of this worship have been found in Syria, a colossal figure of a dog having formerly stood at a point between Berytus and Tripolis.

Nibshan

Nib’shan (soft soil), one of the six cities of Judah, Joshua 15:62, which were in the district of the Midbar (DAV “wilderness”).

Nicanor

Nica’nor (conqueror).

1. Son of Patroclus, 2 Maccabees 8:9, a general who was engaged in the Jewish wars under Antiochus Epiphanes and Demetrius I. 1 Maccabees 3:38; 1 Maccabees 4; 1 Maccabees 7:26, 1 Maccabees 7:49. (b.c. 160.)

2. One of the first seven deacons. Acts 6:5.

Nicodemus

Nicode’mus (conqueror of the people), a Pharisee, a ruler of the Jews and a teacher of Israel, John 3:1, John 3:10, whose secret visit to our Lord was the occasion of the discourse recorded only by St. John. In Nicodemus a noble candor and a simple love of truth shine out in the midst of hesitation and fear of man. He finally became a follower of Christ, and came with Joseph of Arimathæa to take down and embalm the body of Jesus.

Nicolaitans

Nicola’itans (followers of Nicolas), a sect mentioned in Revelation 2:6, Revelation 2:15, whose deeds were strongly condemned. They may have been identical with those who held the doctrine of Balaam. They seem to have held that it was lawful to eat things sacrificed to idols, and to commit fornication, in opposition to the decree of the Church rendered in Acts 15:20, Acts 15:29. The teachers of the Church branded them with a name which expressed their true character. The men who did and taught such things were followers of Balaam. 2 Peter 2:15; Jude 11. They, like the false prophet of Pethor, united brave words with evil deeds. In a time of persecution, when the eating or not eating of things sacrificed to idols was more than ever a crucial test of faithfulness, they persuaded men more than ever that it was a thing indifferent. Revelation 2:13, Revelation 2:14. This was bad enough, but there was a yet worse evil. Mingling themselves in the orgies of idolatrous feasts, they brought the impurities of those feasts into the meetings of the Christian Church. And all this was done, it must be remembered, not simply as an indulgence of appetite, but as a part of a system, supported by a “doctrine,” accompanied by the boast of a prophetic illumination. 2 Peter 2:1. It confirms the view which has been taken of their character to find that stress is laid in the first instance on the “deeds” of the Nicolaitans. To hate those deeds is a sign of life in a Church that otherwise is weak and faithless. Revelation 2:6. To tolerate them is wellnigh to forfeit the glory of having been faithful under persecution. Revelation 2:14, Revelation 2:15.

Nicolas

Nic’olas (victor of the people), Acts 6:5, a native of Antioch and a proselyte to the Jewish faith. When the church was still confined to Jerusalem, he became a convert; and being a man of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and of wisdom, he was chosen by the whole multitude of the disciples to be one of the first seven deacons, and was ordained by the apostles. There is no reason except the similarity of name for identifying Nicolas with the sect of Nicolaitans which our Lord denounces, for the traditions on the subject are of no value.

Nicopolis

Nicop’olis (city of victory) is mentioned in Titus 3:12 as the place where St. Paul was intending to pass the coming winter. Nothing is to be found in the epistle itself to determine which Nicopolis is here intended. One Nicopolis was in Thrace, near the borders of Macedonia. The subscription (which, however, is of no authority) fixes on this place, calling it the Macedonian Nicopolis. But there is little doubt that Jerome’s view is correct, and that the Pauline Nicopolis was the celebrated city of Epirus. This city (the “city of victory”) was built by Augustus in memory of the battle of Actium. It was on a peninsula to the west of the bay of Actium.

Niger

Ni’ger (black) is the additional or distinctive name given to the Simeon who was one of the teachers and prophets in the church at Antioch. Acts 13:1.

Night

Night. [DAY.]

Night-hawk

Night-hawk. The Hebrew word so translated, Leviticus 11:16; Deuteronomy 14:15, probably denotes some kind of owl.

Nile

Nile (blue, dark), the great river of Egypt. The word Nile nowhere occurs in the DAV; but it is spoken of under the names of Sihor [SIHOR] and the “river of Egypt.” Genesis 15:18. We cannot as yet determine the length of the Nile, although recent discoveries have narrowed the question. There is scarcely a doubt that its largest confluent is fed by the great lakes on and south of the equator. It has been traced upward for about 2700 miles, measured by its course, not in a direct line, and its extent is probably over 1000 miles more. (The course of the river has been traced for 3300 miles. For the first 1800 miles (McClintock and Strong say 2300) from its mouth it receives no tirbutary; but at Kartoom, the capital of Nubia, is the junction of the two great branches, the White Nile and the Blue Nile, so called from the color of the clay which tinges their waters. The Blue Nile rises in the mountains of Abyssinia, and is the chief source of the deposit which the Nile brings to Egypt. The White Nile is the larger branch. Late travellers have found its source in Lake Victoria Nyanza, three degrees south of the equator. From this lake to the mouth of the Nile the distance is 2300 miles in a straight line—one eleventh the circumference of the globe. From the First Cataract, at Syene, the river flows smoothly at the rate of two or three miles an hour, with a width of half a mile, to Cairo. A little north of Cairo it divides into two branches, one flowing to Rosetta and the other to Damietta, from which places the mouths are named. See Bartlett’s “Egypt and Palestine,” 1879. The great peculiarity of the river is its annual overflow, caused by the periodical tropical rains. “With wonderful clock-like regularity the river begins to swell about the end of June, rises 24 feet at Cairo between the 20th and 30th of September, and falls as much by the middle of May. Six feet higher than this is devastation; six feet lower is destitution.”—Bartlett. So that the Nile increases one hundred days and decreases one hundred days, and the culmination scarcely varies three days from September 25, the autumnal equinox. Thus “Egypt is the gift of the Nile.” As to the cause of the years of plenty and of famine in the time of Joseph, Mr. Osburn, in his “Monumental History of Egypt,” thinks that the cause of the seven years of plenty was the bursting of the barriers (and gradually wearing them away) of “the great lake of Ethiopia,” which once existed on the upper Nile, thus bringing more water and more sediment to lower Egypt for those years. And he shows how this same destruction of this immense sea would cause the absorption of the waters of the Nile over its dry bed for several years after, thus causing the famine. There is another instance of a seven-years famine—a.d. 1064–1071.—Ed.) The great difference between the Nile of Egypt in the present day and in ancient times is caused by the failure of some of its branches and the ceasing of some of its chief vegetable products; and the chief change in the aspect of the cultivable land, as dependent on the Nile, is the result of the ruin of the fish-pools and their conduits and the consequent decline of the fisheries. The river was famous for its seven branches, and under the Roman dominion eleven were counted, of which, however, there were but seven principal ones. The monuments and the narratives of ancient writers show us in the Nile of Egypt in old times a stream bordered by flags and reeds, the covert of abundant wild fowl, and bearing on its waters the fragrant flowers of the various-colored lotus. Now in Egypt scarcely any reeds or water-plants—the famous papyrus being nearly if not quite extinct, and the lotus almost unknown—are to be seen, excepting in the marches near the Mediterranean. Of old the great river must have shown a more fair and busy scene than now. Boats of many kinds were ever passing along it, by the painted walls of temples and the gardens that extended around the light summer pavilions, from the pleasure-galley, with one great square sail, white or with variegated pattern and many oars, to the little papyrus skiff dancing on the water and carrying the seekers of pleasure where they could shoot with arrows or knock down with the throw-stick the wild fowl that abounded among the reeds, or engage in the dangerous chase of the hippopotamus or the crocodile. The Nile is constantly before us in the history of Israel in Egypt.

Nimrah

Nim’rah (limpid, pure), a place mentioned by this name in Numbers 32:3 only. If it is the same as Beth-nimrah, ver. Numbers 32:36, it belonged to the tribe of Gad. It was ten miles north of the Dead Sea and three miles east of the Jordan, on the hill of Nimrim.

Nimrim

Nim’rim (limpid, pure), The waters of, a stream or brook within the country of Moab, which is mentioned in the denunciations of that nation by Isaiah, Isaiah 15:6, and Jeremiah. Jeremiah 48:34. We should perhaps look for the site of Nimrim in Moab proper, i.e., on the southeastern shoulder of the Dead Sea.

Nimrod

Nim’rod (rebellion; or the valiant), a son of Cush and grandson of Ham. The events of his life are recorded in Genesis 10:8-10., from which we learn (1) that he was a Cushite; (2) that he established an empire in Shinar (the classical Babylonia), the chief towns being Babel, Erech, Accad, and Calneh; and (3) that he extended this empire northward along the course of the Tigris over Assyria, where he founded a second group of capitals, Nineveh, Rehoboth, Calah, and Resen.

Nimshi

Nim’shi (rescued), the grandfather of Jehu, who is generally called “the son of Nimshi.” 1 Kings 19:16; 2 Kings 9:2, 2 Kings 9:14, 2 Kings 9:20; 2 Chronicles 22:7.

Nineveh

Nin’eveh (abode of Ninus), the capital of the ancient kingdom and empire of Assyria. The name appears to be compounded from that of an Assyrian deity, “Nin,” corresponding, it is conjectured, with the Greek, Hercules, and occurring in the names of several Assyrian kings, as in “Ninus,” the mythic founder, according to Greek tradition, of the city. Nineveh is situated on the eastern bank of the river Tigris, 550 miles from its mouth and 250 miles north of Babylon. It is first mentioned in the Old Testament in connection with the primitive dispersement and migrations of the human race. Asshur, or according to the marginal reading, which is generally preferred, Nimrod, is there described, Genesis 10:11, as extending his kingdom from the land of Shinar or Babylonia, in the south, to Assyria in the north, and founding four cities, of which the most famous was Nineveh. Hence Assyria was subsequently known to the Jews as “the land of Nimrod,” cf. Micah 5:6, and was believed to have been first peopled by a colony from Babylon. The kingdom of Assyria and of the Assyrians is referred to in the Old Testament as connected with the Jews at a very early period, as in Numbers 24:22, Numbers 24:24, and Psalm 83:8; but after the notice of the foundation of Nineveh in Genesis no further mention is made of the city until the time of the book of Jonah, or the eighth century b.c. In this book no mention is made of Assyria or the Assyrians, the king to whom the prophet was sent being termed the “king of Nineveh,” and his subjects “the people of Nineveh.” Assyria is first called a kingdom in the time of Menahem, about b.c. 770. Nahum (? b.c. 645) directs his prophecies against Nineveh; only once against the king of Assyria. ch. Nahum 3:18. In 2 Kings 19:36 and Isaiah 37:37, the city is first distinctly mentioned as the residence of the monarch. Sennacherib was slain there when worshipping in the temple of Nisroch his god. Zephaniah, about b.c. 630, couples the capital and the kingdom together, Zephaniah 2:13; and this is the last mention of Nineveh as an existing city. The destruction of Nineveh occurred b.c. 606. The city was then laid waste, its monuments destroyed, and its inhabitants scattered or carried away into captivity. It never rose again from its ruins. This total disappearance of Nineveh is fully confirmed by the records of profane history. The political history of Nineveh is that of Assyria, of which a sketch has already been given. [ASSYRIA.] Previous to recent excavations and researches, the ruins which occupied the presumed site of Nineveh seemed to consist of mere shapeless heaps or mounds of earth and rubbish. Unlike the vast masses of brick masonry which mark the site of Babylon, they showed externally no signs of artificial construction, except perhaps here and there the traces of a rude wall of sun-dried bricks. Some of these mounds were of enormous dimensions, looking in the distance rather like natural elevations than the work of men’s hands. They differ greatly in form, size, and height. Some are mere conical heaps, varying from 50 to 150 feet high; others have a broad flat summit, and very precipitous cliff-like sides furrowed by deep ravines worn by the winter rains. The principal ruins are—(1) the group immediately opposite Mosul, including the great mounds of Kouyunjik and Nebbi Yunus; (2) that near the junction of the Tigris and Zab, comprising the mounds of Nimroud and Athur; (3) Khorsabad, about ten miles to the east of the former river; (4) Shereef Khan, about 5½ miles to the north of Kouyunjik; and (5) Selamiyah, three miles to the north of Nimroud.

Discoveries.—The first traveller who carefully examined the supposed site of Nineveh was Mr. Rich, formerly political agent for the East India Company at Bagdad; but his investigations were almost entirely confined to Kouyunjik and the surrounding mounds, of which he made a survey in 1820. In 1843 M. Botta, the French consul at Mosul, fully explored the ruins. M. Botta’s discoveries at Khorsabad were followed by those of Mr. Layard at Nimroud and Kouyunjik, made between the years 1845 and 1850. (Since then very many and important discoveries have been made at Nineveh, more especially those by George Smith, of the British Museum. He has discovered not only the buildings, but the remains of an ancient library written on stone tablets. These leaves or tablets were from an inch to a foot square, made of terra-cotta clay, on which when soft the inscriptions were written; the tablets were then hardened and placed upon the walls of the library rooms, so as to cover the walls. This royal library contained over 10,000 tablets. It was begun by Shalmaneser b.c. 860; his successors added to it, and Sardanapalus (b.c. 673) almost doubled it. Stories or subjects were begun on tablets, and continued on tablets of the same size sometimes to the number of one hundred. Some of the most interesting of these give accounts of the creation and of the deluge, and all agree with or confirm the Bible.—Ed.)

Description of remains.—The Assyrian edifices were so nearly alike in general plan, construction and decoration that one description will suffice for all. They were built upon artificial mounds or platforms, varying in height, but generally from 30 to 50 feet above the level of the surrounding country, and solidly constructed of regular layers of sun-dried bricks, as at Nimroud, or consisting merely of earth and rubbish heaped up, as at Kouyunjik. This platform was probably faced with stone masonry, remains of which were discovered at Nimroud, and broad flights of steps or inclined ways led up to its summit. Although only the general plan of the ground-floor can now be traced, it is evident that the palaces had several stories built of wood and sun-dried bricks, which, when the building was deserted and allowed to fall to decay, gradually buried the lower chambers with their ruins, and protected the sculptured slabs from the effects of the weather. The depth of soil and rubbish above the alabaster slabs varied from a few inches to about 20 feet. It is to this accumulation of rubbish above them that the bas-reliefs owe their extraordinary preservation. The portions of the edifices still remaining consist of halls, chambers, and galleries, opening for the most part into large uncovered courts. The wall above the wainscoting of alabaster was plastered, and painted with figures and ornaments. The sculptures, with the exception of the human-headed lions and bulls, were for the most part in low relief. The colossal figures usually represent the king, his attendants and the gods; the smaller sculptures, which either cover the whole face of the slab or are divided into two compartments by bands of inscriptions, represent battles, sieges, the chase, single combats with wild beasts, religious ceremonies, etc., etc. All refer to public or national events; the hunting-scenes evidently recording the prowess and personal valor of the king as the head of the people—“the mighty hunter before the Lord.” The sculptures appear to have been painted, remains of color having been found on most of them. Thus decorated without and within, the Assyrian palaces must have displayed a barbaric magnificence, not, however, devoid of a certain grandeur and beauty which probably no ancient or modern edifice has exceeded. These great edifices, the depositories of the national records, appear to have been at the same time the abode of the king and the temple of the gods.

Prophecies relating to Nineveh, and illustrations of the Old Testament.—These are exclusively contained in the books of Nahum and Zephaniah. Nahum threatens the entire destruction of the city, so that it shall not rise again from its ruins. The city was to be partly destroyed by fire. Nahum 3:13, Nahum 3:15. The gateway in the northern wall of the Kouyunjik enclosure had been destroyed by fire, as well as the palaces. The population was to be surprised when unprepared: “while they are drunk as drunkards they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.” Nahum 1:10. Diodorus states that the last and fatal assault was made when they were overcome with wine. The captivity of the inhabitants and their removal to distant provinces are predicted. Nahum 3:18. The fullest and the most vivid and poetical picture of Nineveh’s ruined and deserted condition is that given by Zephaniah, who probably lived to see its fall. Zephaniah 2:13-15.

Site of the city.—Much diversity of opinion exists as to the identification of the ruins which may be properly included within the site of ancient Nineveh. According to Sir H. Rawlinson and those who concur in his interpretation of the cuneiform characters, each group of mounds already mentioned represents a separate and distinct city. On the other hand, it has been conjectured, with much probability, that these groups of mounds are not ruins of separate cities, but of fortified royal residences, each combining palaces, temples, propylæa, gardens and parks, and having its peculiar name; and that they all formed part of one great city built and added to at different periods, and consisting of distinct quarters scattered over a very large area, and frequently very distant one from the other. Thus the city would be, as Layard says, in the form of a parallelogram 18 to 20 miles long by 12 to 14 wide; or, as Diodorus Siculus says, 55 miles in circumference.

Writing and language.—The ruins of Nineveh have furnished a vast collection of inscriptions partly carved on marble or stone slabs and partly impressed upon bricks and upon clay cylinders, or six-sided and eight-sided prisms, barrels and tablets, which, used for the purpose when still moist, were afterward baked in a furnace or kiln. Comp. Ezekiel 4:4. The character employed was the arrow-headed or cuneiform—so called from each letter being formed by marks or elements resembling an arrow-head or a wedge. These inscribed bricks are of the greatest value in restoring the royal dynasties. The most important inscription hitherto discovered in connection with biblical history is that upon a pair of colossal human-headed bulls from Kouyunjik, now in the British Museum, containing the records of Sennacherib, and describing, among other events, his wars with Hezekiah. It is accompanied by a series of bas-reliefs believed to represent the siege and capture of Lachish. A list of nineteen or twenty kings can already be compiled, and the annals of the greater number of them will probably be restored to the lost history of one of the most powerful empires of the ancient world, and of one which appears to have exercised perhaps greater influence than any other upon the subsequent condition and development of civilized man. The people of Nineveh spoke a Shemitic dialect, connected with the Hebrew and with the so-called Chaldee of the books of Daniel and Ezra. This agrees with the testimony of the Old Testament.

Ninevites

Nin’evites, the inhabitants of Nineveh. Luke 11:30.

Nisan

Ni’san. [MONTH.]

Nisroch

Nis’roch (the great eagle), an idol of Nineveh, in whose temple Sennacherib was worshipping when assassinated by his sons, Adrammelech and Sharezer. 2 Kings 19:37; Isaiah 37:38. This idol is identified with the eagle-headed human figure, which is one of the most prominent on the earliest Assyrian monuments, and is always represented as contending with and conquering the lion or the bull.

Nisroch.

Nitre

Nitre. Mention of this substance is made in Proverbs 25:20—“and as vinegar upon nitre”—and in Jeremiah 2:22. The article denoted is not that which we now understand by the term nitre, i.e., nitrate of potassa—“saltpetre”—but the nitrum of the Latins and the natron or native carbonate of soda of modern chemistry. Natron was and still is used by the Egyptians for washing linen. The value of soda in this respect is well known. This explains the passage in Jeremiah. Natron is found in great abundance in the well-known soda lakes of Egypt.

No

No. [NO-AMON.]

No-adiah

No-adi’ah (whom Jehovah meets).

1. A Levite, son of Binnui, who with Meremoth, Eleazar, and Jozabad weighed the vessels of gold and silver belonging to the temple which were brought back from Babylon. Ezra 8:33. (b.c. 459.)

2. The prophetess Noadiah joined Sanballat and Tobiah in their attempt to intimidate Nehemiah. Nehemiah 6:14. (b.c. 445.)

Noah

No’ah (rest), the tenth in descent from Adam, in the line of Seth, was the son of Lamech and grandson of Methuselah. (b.c. 2948–1998.) We hear nothing of Noah till he is 500 years old, when it is said he begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japhet. In consequence of the grievous and hopeless wickedness of the world at this time, God resolved to destroy it. Of Noah’s life during this age of almost universal apostasy we are told but little. It is merely said that he was a righteous man and perfect in his generations (i.e., among his contemporaries), and that he, like Enoch, walked with God. St. Peter calls him “a preacher of righteousness.” 2 Peter 2:5. Besides this we are merely told that he had three sons, each of whom had married a wife; that he built the ark in accordance with divine direction; and that he was 600 years old when the flood came. Genesis 6:7.

The ark.—The precise meaning of the Hebrew word (têbâh) is uncertain. The word occurs only in Genesis and in Exodus 2:3. In all probability it is to the old Egyptian that we are to look for its original form. Bunsen, in his vocabulary, gives tba, “a chest,” tpt, “a boat,” and in the Coptic version of Exodus 2:3, Exodus 2:5, thebi is the rendering of têbâh. This “chest” or “boat” was to be made of gopher (i.e., cypress) wood, a kind of timber which both for its lightness and its durability was employed by the Phœnicians for building their vessels. The planks of the ark, after being put together, were to be protected by a coating of pitch, or rather bitumen, both inside and outside, to make it water-tight, and perhaps also as a protection against the attacks of marine animals. The ark was to consist of a number of “nests” or small compartments, with a view, no doubt, to the convenient distribution of the different animals and their food. These were to be arranged in three tiers, one above another; “with lower, second and third (stories) shalt thou make it.” Means were also to be provided for letting light into the ark. There was to be a door; this was to be placed in the side of the ark. Of the shape of the ark nothing is said, but its dimensions are given. It was to be 300 cubits in length, 50 in breadth, and 30 in height. Taking 21 inches for the cubit, the ark would be 525 feet in length, 87 feet 6 inches in breadth, and 52 feet 6 inches in height. This is very considerably larger than the largest British man-of-war, but not as large as some modern ships. It should be remembered that this huge structure was only intended to float on the water, and was not in the proper sense of the word a ship. It had neither mast, sail, nor rudder; it was in fact nothing but an enormous floating house, or rather oblong box. The inmates of the ark were Noah and his wife and his three sons with their wives. Noah was directed to take also animals of all kinds into the ark with him, that they might be preserved alive. (The method of speaking of the animals that were taken into the ark, “clean” and “unclean,” implies that only those which were useful to man were preserved, and that no wild animals were taken into the ark; so that there is no difficulty from the great number of different species of animal life existing in the world.—Ed.)

The flood.—The ark was finished, and all its living freight was gathered into it as a place of safety. Jehovah shut him in, says the chronicler, speaking of Noah; and then there ensued a solemn pause of seven days before the threatened destruction was let loose. At last the flood came; the waters were upon the earth. A very simple but very powerful and impressive description is given of the appalling catastrophe. The waters of the flood increased for a period of 190 days (40+150, comparing Genesis 7:12 and Genesis 7:24); and then “God remembered Noah,” and made a wind to pass over the earth, so that the waters were assuaged. The ark rested on the seventeenth day of the seventh month on the mountains of Ararat. After this the waters gradually decreased till the first day of the tenth month, when the tops of the mountains were seen; but Noah and his family did not disembark till they had been in the ark a year and a month and twenty days. Whether the flood was universal or partial has given rise to much controversy; but there can be no doubt that it was universal, so far as man was concerned: we mean that it extended to all the then known world. The literal truth of the narrative obliges us to believe that the whole human race, except eight persons, perished by the waters of the flood. The language of the book of Genesis does not compel us to suppose that the whole surface of the globe was actually covered with water, if the evidence of geology requires us to adopt the hypothesis of a partial deluge. It is natural to suppose that the writer, when he speaks of “all flesh,” “all in whose nostrils was the breath of life,” refers only to his own locality. This sort of language is common enough in the Bible when only a small part of the globe is intended. Thus, for instance, it is said that “all countries came into Egypt to Joseph to buy corn”; and that “a decree went out from Cæsar Augustus that all the world should be taxed.” The truth of the biblical narrative is confirmed by the numerous traditions of other nations, which have preserved the memory of a great and destructive flood, from which but a small part of mankind escaped. They seem to point back to a common centre, whence they were carried by the different families of man as they wandered east and west. The traditions which come nearest to the biblical account are those of the nations of western Asia. Foremost among these is the Chaldean. Other notices of a flood may be found in the Phœnician mythology. There is a medal of Apamea in Phrygia, struck as late as the time of Septimius Severus, in which the Phrygian deluge is commemorated. This medal represents a kind of a square vessel floating in the water. Through an opening in it are seen two persons, a man and a woman. Upon the top of this chest or ark is perched a bird, whilst another flies toward it carrying a branch between its feet. Before the vessel are represented the same pair as having just quitted it and got upon the dry land. Singularly enough, too, on some specimens of this medal the letters ΝΩ or ΝΩΕ have been found on the vessel, as in the following illustration.

Apamean Coin showing the word “noe” on the Ark. (Taylor Lewis deduces “the partial extent of the flood from the very face of the Hebrew text.” “Earth,” where it speaks of “all the earth,” often is, and here should be, translated “land,” the home of the race, from which there appears to have been little inclination to wander. Even after the flood God had to compel them to disperse. “Under the whole heavens” simply includes the horizon reaching around “all the land”—the visible horizon. We still use the words in the same sense, and so does the Bible. Nearly all commentators now agree on the partial extent of the deluge. It is probable also that the crimes and violence of the previous age had greatly diminished the population, and that they would have utterly exterminated the race had not God in this way saved out some good seed from their destruction. So that the flood, by appearing to destroy the race, really saved the world from destruction.—Ed.)

(The scene of the deluge.—Hugh Miller, in his “Testimony of the Rocks,” argues that there is a remarkable portion of the globe, chiefly on the Asiatic continent, though it extends into Europe, and which is nearly equal to all Europe in extent, whose rivers (some of them the Volga, Oural, Sihon, Kour, and the Amoo, of great size) do not fall into the ocean, but, on the contrary, are all turned inward, losing themselves, in the eastern part of the tract, in the lakes of a rainless district; in the western parts, into such seas as the Caspian and the Aral. In this region there are extensive districts still under the level of the ocean. Vast plains, white with salt and charged with sea-shells, show that the Caspian Sea was at no distant period greatly more extensive than it is now. With the well-known facts, then, before us regarding this depressed Asiatic region, let us suppose that the human family, still amounting to several millions, though greatly reduced by exterminating wars and exhausting vices, were congregated in that tract of country which, extending eastward from the modern Ararat to far beyond the Sea of Aral, includes the original Caucasian centre of the race. Let us suppose that, the hour of judgment having arrived, the land began gradually to sink (as the tract in the Run of Cutch sank in the year 1819) equably for forty days at the rate of about 400 feet per day—a rate not twice greater than that at which the tide rises in the Straits of Magellan, and which would have rendered itself apparent as but a persistent inward flowing of the sea. The depression, which, by extending to the Euxine Sea and the Persian Gulf on the one hand and the Gulf of Finland on the other, would open up by three separate channels the “fountains of the great deep,” and which included an area of 2000 miles each way, would, at the end of the fortieth day, be sunk in its centre to the depth of 16,000 feet—sufficient to bury the loftiest mountains of the district; and yet, having a gradient of declination of but sixteen feet per mile, the contour of its hills and plains would remain apparently what they had been before, and the doomed inhabitants would see but the water rising along the mountain sides, and one refuge after another swept away.—Ed.)

After the flood.—Noah’s first act after he left the ark was to build an altar and to offer sacrifices. This is the first altar of which we read in Scripture, and the first burnt sacrifice. Then follows the blessing of God upon Noah and his sons. Noah is clearly the head of a new human family, the representative of the whole race. It is as such that God makes his covenant with him; and hence selects a natural phenomenon as the sign of that covenant. The bow in the cloud, seen by every nation under heaven, is an unfailing witness to the truth of God. Noah now for the rest of his life betook himself to agricultural pursuits. It is particularly noticed that he planted a vineyard. Whether in ignorance of its properties or otherwise we are not informed, but he drank of the juice of the grape till he became intoxicated and shamefully exposed himself in his own tent. One of his sons, Ham, mocked openly at his father’s disgrace. The others, with dutiful care and reverence, endeavored to hide it. When he recovered from the effects of his intoxication, he declared that a curse should rest upon the sons of Ham. With the curse on his youngest son was joined a blessing on the other two. After this prophetic blessing we hear no more of the patriarch but the sum of his years, 950.

Noah

No’ah (motion), one of the five daughters of Zelophehad. Numbers 26:33; Numbers 27:1; Numbers 36:11; Joshua 17:3. (b.c. 1450.)

No-amon

No-a’mon (temple of Amon), Nahum 3:8; No, Jeremiah 46:25; Ezekiel 30:14, Ezekiel 30:15, Ezekiel 30:16, a city of Egypt, better known under the name of Thebes or Diospolis Magna, the ancient and splendid metropolis of upper Egypt. The second part of the first form is the name of Amen, the chief divinity of Thebes, mentioned or alluded to in connection with this place in Jeremiah. There is a difficulty as to the meaning of No. It seems most reasonable to suppose that No is a Shemitic name, and that Amon is added in Nahum (l. c.) to distinguish Thebes from some other place bearing the same name, or on account of the connection of Amen with that city. The description of No-amon as “situate among the rivers, the waters round about it” (Nah. l. c.), remarkably characterizes Thebes. (It lay on both sides of the Nile, and was celebrated for its hundred gates, for its temples, obelisks, statues, etc. It was emphatically the city of temples, in the ruins of which many monuments of ancient Egypt are preserved. The plan of the city was a parallelogram, two miles from north to south and four from east to west, but none suppose that in its glory it really extended 33 miles along both sides of the Nile. Thebes was destroyed by Ptolemy, b.c. 81, and since then its population has dwelt in villages only.—Ed.)

Nob

Nob (high place), 1 Samuel 22:19; Nehemiah 11:32, a sacerdotal city in the tribe of Benjamin, and situated on some eminence near Jerusalem. It was one of the places where the ark of Jehovah was kept for a time during the days of its wanderings. 2 Samuel 6:1, etc. But the event for which Nob was most noted in the Scripture annals was a frightful massacre which occurred there in the reign of Saul. 1 Samuel 22:17-19.

Nobah

No’bah (barking), an Israelite warrior, Numbers 32:42, who during the conquest of the territory on the east of Jordan possessed himself of the town of Kenath and the villages or hamlets dependent upon it, and gave them his own name. (b.c. 1450.) For a certain period after the establishment of the Israelite rule the new name remained, Judges 8:11; but it is not again heard of, and the original appellation, as is usual in such cases, appears to have recovered its hold, which it has since retained; for in the slightly-modified form of Kunawât it is the name of the place to the present day.

Nod

Nod (flight), the land to which Cain fled after the murder of Abel. [CAIN.]

Nodab

No’dab (nobility), the name of an Arab tribe mentioned only in 1 Chronicles 5:19, in the account of the war of the Reubenites against the Hagarites. vs. 1 Chronicles 5:9-22. It is probable that Nodab, their ancestor, was the son of Ishmael, being mentioned with two of his other sons in the passage above cited, and was therefore a grandson of Abraham.

Nogah

No’gah (brightness), one of the thirteen sons of David who were born to him in Jerusalem. 1 Chronicles 3:7; 1 Chronicles 14:6. (b.c. 1050–1015.)

Nohah

No’hah (rest), the fourth son of Benjamin. 1 Chronicles 8:2.

Non

Non (fish). Nun, the father of Joshua. 1 Chronicles 7:27.

Noph

Noph. [MEMPHIS.]

Nopha

No’pha (blast), a place mentioned only in Numbers 21:30, in the remarkable song apparently composed by the Amorites after their conquest of Heshbon from the Moabites, and therefore of an earlier date than the Israelite invasion. It is named with Dibon and Medeba, and was possibly in the neighborhood of Heshbon. A name very similar to Nophah is Nobah, which is twice mentioned. Ewald decides that Nophah is identical with the latter of these.

Nose-jewel

Nose-jewel, Genesis 24:22; Exodus 35:22, “earring”; Isaiah 3:21; Ezekiel 16:12, “jewel on the forehead,” a ring of metal, sometimes of gold or silver, passed usually through the right nostril, and worn by way of ornament by women in the East. Upon it are strung beads, coral or jewels. In Egypt it is now almost confined to the lower classes.

Nose-jewels worn in the East.

Number

Number. Like most Oriental nations, it is probable that the Hebrews in their written calculations made use of the letters of the alphabet. That they did so in post-Babylonian times we have conclusive evidence in the Maccabæan coins; and it is highly probable that this was the case also in earlier times. But though, on the one hand, it is certain that in all existing MSS of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament the numerical expressions are written at length, yet, on the other, the variations in the several versions between themselves and from the Hebrew text, added to the evident inconsistencies in numerical statement between certain passages of that text itself, seems to prove that some shorter mode of writing was originally in vogue, liable to be misunderstood, and in fact misunderstood by copyists and translators. These variations appear to have proceeded from the alphabetic method of writing numbers. There can be little doubt, however, that some at least of the numbers mentioned in Scripture are intended to be presentative rather than determinative. Certain numbers, as 7, 10, 40, 100, were regarded as giving the idea of completeness. Without entering into St. Augustine’s theory of this usage, we may remark that the notion of representative numbers in certain cases is one extremely common among eastern nations, who have a prejudice against counting their possessions accurately; that it enters largely into many ancient systems of chronology, and that it is found in the philosophical and metaphysical speculations not only of the Pythagorean and other ancient schools of philosophy, both Greek and Romans, but also in those of the later Jewish writers, of the Gnostics, and also of such Christian writers as St. Augustine himself. We proceed to give some instances of numbers used, (a) representatively, and thus probably by design indefinitely, or, (b) definitely, but, as we may say, preferentially, i.e., because some meaning (which we do not in all cases understand) was attached to them.

1. Seven, as denoting either plurality or completeness, perhaps because seven days completed the week, is so frequent as to make a selection only of instances necessary, e.g., seven fold, Genesis 4:24; seven times, i.e., completely, Leviticus 26:24; Psalm 12:6; seven (i.e., many) ways, Deuteronomy 28:25. 2. Ten as a preferential number is exemplified in the Ten Commandments and the law of tithe. 3. Seventy, as compounded of 7 1/2 10, appears frequently, e.g., seventy fold. Genesis 4:24; Matthew 18:22. Its definite use appears in the offerings of 70 shekels, Numbers 7:13, Numbers 7:19-21.; the 70 elders, ch. Numbers 11:16; 70 years of captivity. Jeremiah 25:11. 4. Five appears in the table of punishments, of legal requirements, Exodus 22:1; Leviticus 5:16; Leviticus 22:14; Leviticus 27:15; Numbers 5:7; Numbers 18:16, and in the five empires of Daniel. Daniel 2. 5. Four is used in reference to the 4 winds, Daniel 7:2, and the so-called 4 corners of the earth; the 4 creatures, each with 4 wings and 4 faces, of Ezekiel, Ezekiel 1:5-7.; 4 rivers of Paradise, Genesis 2:10; Genesis 4 beasts, Daniel 7 and Revelation 4:6; the 4 equal-sided temple-chamber. Ezekiel 40:47. 6. Three was regarded, by both the Jews and other nations, as a specially complete and mystic number. 7. Twelve (3 1/2 4) appears in 12 tribes, 12 stones in the high priest’s breastplate, 12 apostles, 12 foundation-stones, and 12 gates. Revelation 21:19-21. 8. Lastly, the mystic number 666. Revelation 13:18.

Numbers

Num’bers, the fourth book of the law or Pentateuch. It takes its name in the LXX and Vulgate (whence our “Numbers”) from the double numbering or census of the people; the first of which is given in chs. Numbers 1-4, and the second in ch. Numbers 26. Contents.—The book may be said to contain generally the history of the Israelites from the time of their leaving Sinai, in the second year after the exodus, till their arrival at the borders of the promised land, in the fortieth year of their journeyings. It consists of the following principal divisions:

1. The preparations for the departure from Sinai. Numbers 1:1-10:10. 2. The journey from Sinai to the borders of Canaan. ch. Numbers 10:11-14:45. 3. A brief notice of laws given and events which transpired during the thirty-seven years wandering in the wilderness. ch. Numbers 15:1-19:22. 4. The history of the last year, from the second arrival of the Israelites in Kadesh till they reached “the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho.” ch. Numbers 20:1-36:13. Integrity.—This, like the other books of the Pentateuch, is supposed by many critics to consist of a compilation from two or three or more earlier documents; but the grounds on which this distinction of documents rests are in every respect most unsatisfactory, and it may, in common with the preceding books and Deuteronomy, be regarded as the work of Moses. The book of Numbers is rich in fragments of ancient poetry, some of them of great beauty and all throwing an interesting light on the character of the times in which they were composed. Such, for instance, is the blessing of the high priest. ch. Numbers 6:24-26. Such, too, are chants which were the signal for the ark to move when the people journeyed, and for it to rest when they were about to encamp. In ch. Numbers 21 we have a passage cited from a book called the “Book of the Wars of Jehovah.” This was probably a collection of ballads and songs composed on different occasions by the watch-fires of the camp, and for the most part, though not perhaps exclusively, in commemoration of the victories of the Israelites over their enemies.

Nun

Nun (fish, or posterity), the father of the Jewish captain Joshua. Exodus 33:11, etc. His genealogical descent from Ephraim is recorded in 1 Chronicles 7. (b.c. before 1530.)

Nurse

Nurse. In ancient times the position of the nurse, wherever one was maintained, was one of much honor and importance. See Genesis 24:59; Genesis 35:8; 2 Samuel 4:4; 2 Kings 11:2. The same term is applied to a foster-father or mother, e.g., Numbers 11:12; Ruth 4:16; Isaiah 49:23.

Nuts

Nuts are mentioned among the good things of the land which the sons of Israel were to take as a present to Joseph in Egypt. Genesis 43:11. There can scarcely be a doubt that the Hebrew word, here translated “nuts,” denotes the fruit of the pistachio tree (Pistacia vera), for which Syria and Palestine have been long famous. In Song of Solomon 6:11 a different Hebrew word is translated “nuts.” In all probability it here refers to the walnut tree. According to Josephus the walnut tree was formerly common, and grew most luxuriantly around the Lake of Gennesareth.

Pistachio Nuts.

Nymphas

Nym’phas (bridegroom), a wealthy and zealous Christian in Laodicea. Colossians 4:15. (a.d. 60.)