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שׁערי8179 הנהרות5104 נפתחו6605 וההיכל1964 נמוג׃4127

Isa 45:1,2

Verse 6. The gates of the rivers shall be opened] I have already referred to this, see the note on chap. i. 8; but it will be necessary to be more particular. The account given by Diodourus Siculus, lib. ii., is very surprising. He begins thus: hn dÆ autw logion paradedomenon ek progonwn, k.t.l. "There was a prophecy received from their forefathers, that Nineveh should not be taken till the river first became an enemy to the city. It happened in the third year of the siege, that the Euphrates [query, Tigris] being swollen with continued rains, overflowed part of the city, and threw down twenty stadia of the wall. The king then imagining that the oracle was accomplished, and that the river was now manifestly become an enemy to the city, casting aside all hope of safety, and lest he should fall into the hands of the enemy, built a large funeral pyre in the palace, (en toiv basileioiv,) and having collected all his gold and silver and royal vestments, together with his concubines and eunuchs, placed himself with them in a little apartment built in the pyre; burnt them, himself, and the palace together. When the death of the king (Sardanapalus) was announced by certain deserters, the enemy entered in by the breach which the waters had made, and took the city." Thus the prophecy of Nahum was literally fulfilled: "the gates of the river were opened, and the palace dissolved," i.e., burnt.

Ver. 6. The gates of the rivers shall be opened , etc.] Of Diava and Adiava, or Lycus and Caprus, between which, according to some writers, f57 Nineveh was situated; or the gates of the city, which lay nearest to the river Tigris, are meant; or that river itself, the plural for the singular, which overflowing, broke down the walls of the city for two and a half miles, and opened a way for the Medes and Chaldeans to enter in; of which (see Na 1:8): and the palace shall be dissolved ; by the inundation, or destroyed by the enemy; meaning the palace of the king, which might be situated near the river; or the temple of Nisroch the Assyrian deity, or Jupiter Belus; for the same word signifies a temple as well as palace.

שׁערי8179 הנהרות5104 נפתחו6605 וההיכל1964 נמוג׃4127