- NISAN month of flowers, (Nehemiah 2:1) the first month of the Jewish
sacred year. (See ABIB.) Assyrian nisannu, “beginning.” - NISROCH probably connected with the Hebrew word nesher, an eagle.
An Assyrian God, supposed to be that represented with the head of an
eagle. Sennacherib was killed in the temple of this idol (2 Kings 19:37;
Isaiah 37:38). - NITRE (Proverbs 25:20; R.V. marg., “soda”), properly “natron,” a
substance so called because, rising from the bottom of the Lake Natron in
Egypt, it becomes dry and hard in the sun, and is the soda which
effervesces when vinegar is poured on it. It is a carbonate of soda, not
saltpetre, which the word generally denotes (Jeremiah 2:22; R.V. “lye”). - NO or No-A’mon, the home of Amon, the name of Thebes, the ancient
capital of what is called the Middle Empire, in Upper or Southern Egypt.
“The multitude of No” (Jeremiah 46:25) is more correctly rendered, as in
the Revised Version, “Amon of No”, i.e., No, where Jupiter Amon had his
temple. In Ezekiel 30:14, 16 it is simply called “No;” but in ver. 15 the
name has the Hebrew Hamon prefixed to it, “Hamon No.” This prefix is
probably the name simply of the God usually styled Amon or Ammon. In
Nah. 3:8 the “populous No” of the Authorized Version is in the Revised
Version correctly rendered “No-Amon.”
It was the Diospolis or Thebes of the Greeks, celebrated for its hundred
gates and its vast population. It stood on both sides of the Nile, and is by
some supposed to have included Karnak and Luxor. In grandeur and extent
it can only be compared to Nineveh. It is mentioned only in the prophecies
referred to, which point to its total destruction. It was first taken by the
Assyrians in the time of Sargon (Isaiah 20). It was afterwards “delivered
into the hand” of Nebuchadnezzar and Assurbani-pal (Jeremiah 46:25, 26).
Cambyses, king of the Persians (B.C. 525), further laid it waste by fire. Its
ruin was completed (B.C. 81) by Ptolemy Lathyrus. The ruins of this city
are still among the most notable in the valley of the Nile. They have
formed a great storehouse of interesting historic remains for more than two
thousand years. “As I wandered day after day with ever-growing
amazement amongst these relics of ancient magnificence, I felt that if all the
ruins in Europe, classical, Celtic, and medieval, were brought together into
one centre, they would fall far short both in extent and grandeur of those of
this single Egyptian city.” Manning, The Land of the Pharaohs.