Smith's Bible Dictionary

(Frankie) #1

Nisan
[Month]
Nisroch
(the great eagle) an idol of Nineveh, in whose temple Sennacherib was worshipping when
assassinated by his sons, Adrammelech and Shizrezer. (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.
Nitre
Mention of this substance is made in (Proverbs 25:20)—“and as vinegar upon nitre”—and in
(Jeremiah 2:26) 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-Amon]
No-Adiah
(whom Jehovah meets).
•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.)
•The prophetess Noadiah joined Sanballet and Tobiah in their attempt to intimidate Nehemiah.
(Nehemiah 6:14) (B.C. 445.)
No-Amon
(temple of Amon) (Nahum 3:8) No, (Jeremiah 46:25; Ezekiel 30:14,16) 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 as 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 Amen 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 “situated 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 if really extended 33 miles along both aides of the
Nile. Thebes was destroyed by Ptolemy, B.C. 81, and since then its population has dwelt in villages
only.—ED.)
Noah
(motion), one of the five daughters of Zelophehad. (Numbers 26:33; 27:1; 36:11; Joshua 17:3)
(B.C. 1450.)
(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

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