Difference between revisions of "No"

<p> NO or No [[Amon]] (margin, &nbsp;Nahum 3:8), rather than "populous No." So &nbsp;Jeremiah 46:25, "the multitude," rather "Amon of No." So &nbsp;Ezekiel 30:14-16. Named from Amen, Thebes' chief god (from whence the [[Greeks]] call it "the city of Zeus" or "Diospolis".) [[Appearing]] in many kings' names, as Amenophis. Connected by some with Ham, Noah's son, or [[Aman]] "the nourisher," or Hamon "the sun god," or Amon "the artificer." [[Septuagint]] translated "the portion of Amon." [[Inscriptions]] call him Amon-re, "Amon the sun." A human figure with ram's head, seated on a chair (See [[Amen]] .) Nahum describes [[Thebes]] as "situate among the rivers" ''(Including The [[Canals]] [[Watering]] The City)'' on both sides of the Nile, which no other town of ancient Egypt is. Ezekiel's prophecy that it should be "rent asunder" is fulfilled to the letter, Amen's vast temple lying shattered as if by an earthquake (&nbsp;Ezekiel 30:16). </p> <p> Famed in Homer's [[Iliad]] (ix. 381) for its "hundred gates," but as no wall appears traceable either the reference is to the propylaea or portals of its numerous temples ''(Diod. Sicul., But Warriors Would Not March Through Them)'' , or else the surrounding mountains ''(100 Of Them [[Pierced]] With [[Catacombs]] And Therefore Called Beeban [[El]] Meluke, "The [[Gates]] Of The Kings")'' which being mutually detached form so many avenues between them into the city. But the general usage of walling towns favors the view that the walls have disappeared. Her "rampart was the sea, and her wall from ''(Or, As Maurer, Consisted Of)'' the sea," namely, the Nile (&nbsp;Isaiah 19:5). [[Homer]] says it possessed 20,000 war chariots, which [[Diodorus]] Siculus confirms by saying there were 100 stables along the river capable of accommodating 200 horses each. [[Sargon]] after destroying [[Samaria]] attacked Hoshea's ally, So or Sabacho II, and destroyed in part [[No-Amon]] or Thebes (Isaiah 20). </p> <p> "The monuments represent Sargon warring with Egypt and imposing tribute on the [[Pharaoh]] of the time, also Egypt as in that close connection with [[Ethiopia]] which Isaiah and Nahum imply" (G. Rawlinson). No is written Ni'a in the [[Assyrian]] inscriptions. Asshur-bani-pal twice took Thebes. "No," if Semitic, is related to naah , "abode," "pasture," answering to Thebes' low situation on a plain. The sacred name was Ηa-Αmen , "the abode of Amen"; the common name was [[Ap]] or Ape, "capital." The feminine article prefixed made it Tape, Thape, [[Coptic]] Thabu, Greek Thebes. No hieroglyphics are found in it earlier than the sixth dynasty, three centuries later than Menes, a native of This in the Thebaid, the founder of Memphis. Diodorus states the circuit was 140 furlongs. [[Strabo]] (xvii. 47) describes the two colossal figures, "each a single stone, the one entire, the upper part of the other from the chair fallen, the result of an earthquake (&nbsp;Ezekiel 30:16). Once a day a noise as of a slight blow issues from that part of the statue which remains still in the seat and on its base": the vocal Memnon. </p> <p> The Nile's deposit has accumulated to the depth of seven feet around them. It is two miles broad, four long; the four landmarks being Karnak and Luxor on the right bank, Quurnah and Medinet Haboo on the left. [[Temples]] and palaces extended along the left bank for two miles. First the Maneptheion palace or temple of Seti Oimenepthah of the 19th dynasty, a mile from the river. A mile S. is the so named Memnonium of Amenophis III, called Miamun or "Memnon," really the Ramesseium of [[Rameses]] the Great, with his statue of a single block of syenite marble, 75 ft. high, 887 tons weight, the king seated on his throne. The vocal [[Memnon]] and its fellow are a quarter of a mile further S. [[Somewhat]] S. of this is the S. Ramesseium, the magnificent palace temple of Rameses III, one of the ruins of Medinet Haboo. The columns are seven feet diameter at the base and 23 ft. round. Within the second and grand court stood a [[Christian]] church afterward. The right bank has the facade of Luxor facing the river. </p> <p> The chief entrance looks N. toward Karnak, with which once it was joined by an avenue more than a mile long, of sphinxes with rams' heads and lions' bodies ''(One Is In The British Museum)'' . Colossal statues of Rameses the Great are one on each side of the gateway. In front stood a pair of red granite obelisks, one of which now adorns the Place de la Concorde, Paris. The courts of the Karnak temple occupy 1,800 square feet, and its buildings represent every dynasty from [[Ptolemy]] Physcon, 117 B.C., 2000 years backward. It is two miles in circumference. The grand hall has twelve central pillars, 66 ft. high, 12 ft. diameter. On either side are seven rows, each column 42 ft. high, nine feet diameter. There are in all 134 pillars in an area 170 ft. by 329. The outer wall is 40 ft. thick at the base and 100 high. On it is represented Shishak's expedition against [[Jerusalem]] and "the land of the king of Judah "under [[Rehoboam]] (&nbsp;1 Kings 14:25; &nbsp;2 Chronicles 12:2-9). It records also [[Tirhakah]] the Ethiopian's exploits. In the 12th and 13th dynasties of Manetho, first, Theban kings appear. </p> <p> When the nomads from the N.E., the [[Hyksos]] or shepherd kings, invaded Egypt and fixed their capital at Memphis, a native dynasty was maintained in Thebes. Ultimately, the Hyksos were expelled and Thebes became the capital of all Egypt under the 18th dynasty, the city's golden era. Thebes then swayed [[Libya]] and Ethiopia, and carried its victorious arms into Syria, Media, and Persia. It retained its supremacy for 500 years, to the close of the 19th dynasty, then under the 20th dynasty it began to decline. Sargon's blow upon Thebes was inflicted early in Hezekiah's reign. Nahum (&nbsp;Nahum 3:8; &nbsp;Nahum 3:10) in the latter part of that reign speaks of her being already "carried away into captivity, her young children dashed in pieces at the top of all the streets, lots cast for her honourable men, and all her great men bound in chains," notwithstanding her having Ethiopia, Egypt, Put, and [[Lubim]] as "her strength and it was infinite," and makes her a warning to Nineveh. </p> <p> A still heavier blow was dealt by Nebuchadnezzar, as Jeremiah (&nbsp;Jeremiah 46:25-26) foretells: "Behold I will punish Anjou No and Pharaoh and Egypt, with their gods and their kings. [[Afterward]] it shall be inhabited." This last prophecy was fulfilled 40 years after Nebuchadnezzar's conquest of Egypt, when under [[Cyrus]] it threw off the [[Babylonian]] yoke. So &nbsp;Ezekiel 29:10-15, "I will make ... Egypt ... waste ... from the tower of [[Syene]] (N.) even unto Ethiopia (the extreme S.) ... Yet at the end of 40 ''(The Number Expressing [[Affliction]] And Judgment, So The 40 Days Of The [[Flood]] Rains)'' years will I ... bring again the captivity of Egypt." The [[Persian]] [[Cambyses]] gave the finishing blow to No-Amon's greatness, leveling Rameses' statue and setting fire to the temples and palaces. In vain the [[Ptolemies]] tried subsequently to restore its greatness. It now consists of [[Arab]] huts amidst stately ruins and drifting sands. </p>

<p> <em> 'Ayin </em> (אַיִן, Strong'S #369), “no; not; nothing; or else, nor.” Cognates of this word appear in Akkadian, Ugaritic, and Phoenician (Punic). The word appears 789 times in biblical [[Hebrew]] and in all periods. </p> <p> <em> 'Ayin </em> may be used absolutely, with no suffixes and not in a construct chain. When so used the word signifies nonexistence. This is its use and significance in Gen. 2:5 (the first occurrence): “… And there was not a man to till the ground.” Preceded by the particle <em> ‘im </em> , the word may mean “not”: “Is the Lord among us, or not?” (Exod. 17:7). In Gen. 30:1 this construction means “or else.” In other contexts the word means “nothing”: “… Mine age is as nothing before thee …” (Ps. 39:5). </p> <p> In the construct state <em> 'ayin </em> has the same basic meaning. In one special nuance the word is virtually a predicate meaning “there is not” or “we do not have” (Num. 14:42; cf. Gen. 31:50). In several contexts the word might be translated “without”: “Without counsel purposes are disappointed …” (Prov. 15:22). Preceded by the preposition <em> min, ‘ayin </em> can mean “because” (Jer. 7:32). [[Elsewhere]] the word expresses simple negation: “They have ears, but they hear not; neither is there any breath in their mouths” (Ps. 135:17). </p> <p> With a suffixed pronoun <em> 'ayin </em> negates the existence of the one or thing so represented; with the suffixed pronoun “he,” the word means “he was no longer”: “And [[Enoch]] walked with God: and he was [no longer]; for God took him” (Gen. 5:24). </p> <p> This word should be distinguished from another <em> 'ayin </em> meaning “whence,” or “from where.” </p>

<p> (Heb. id. נא, doubtless an Egyptian word, and signifying [according to Jablonski, ''Opusc.'' 1:163] [[Portion]] or [[Possession]] )'','' a city of Egypt (called by the natives ''Toph,'' according to Champollion, ''Grammn. Egypt.'' p. 136, 153), mentioned by this name alone twice by the prophets (&nbsp;Ezekiel 30:14 sq.; &nbsp;Jeremiah 46:25), and generally supposed to be the same elsewhere (&nbsp;Nahum 3:8), called more fully NO-AMON (See No-Amon) (q.v.) (see Gesen. ''Thes.'' p. 834 sq.; Young, ''Rudiments Of An Egyptian Dictionary,'' p. 80 sq.), a famous city of Egypt, thickly peopled, and strongly situated, which at the time of Nahum (B.C. cir. 720) had recently been taken by a mighty conqueror (&nbsp;Nahum 3:8 sq.). The Sept. translate the name by ''Diospolis.'' which was the name of two cities in Egypt; the one in Upper Egypt, better known as Thebes, famous in Homer's time (II. 9:383), and often mentioned by Strabo (1:9, 35; 17:805, 815) and Pliny (v. 11; 36:12; 37:54), and for which a separate nome or district was named (Ptol. 4:5, 73); the other in Lower Egypt, in the district of Mendes, mentioned by Strabo (17:802) as being surrounded by lakes. Some refer the words of Nahum (1. c.) to the latter, Diospolis the lesser' (so Kreenen, NaAumi VVatic. philol. et critic. expos. [Harder. 1808]; Champollion, l'Egypte, 2:131); but most interpreters, following the Egyptian signification of the name No, as given above, understand the prophet to mean Thebes. The latter opinion, supported by the seventy [[Alexandrian]] translators, seems to be certainly correct, as the prophet could not speak of anv city less than Thebes as equal to Nineveh. The "waters round about her" (&nbsp;Nahum 3:8) refer doubtless to the canals, with which Thebes, like so many other cities on the Nile, was surrounded for protection (comp. Zorn, Hist. et. Antiqu. Urbis Thebar. [Sedin. 1727]; Opuscula, 2:322 sq.; also in Ugolini, Thes. vii; Rosenmuller, Schol. vii, 3:299 sq.). This city was one of the oldest, probibly the oldest in all Egypt (Diod. Sic. 1:50; comp. 14:45), and in very early times was the residence of the kings of Upper Egypt during several dynasties. In the days of its grandeur it lay on both banks of the Nile (Strabo, 17:816), in a valley about ten geographical miles in width, and contained within its vast circuit houses from four to six stories high, with many splendid and wealthy temples, the chief being that of [[Jupiter]] Ammon (Herod. 1:182; 2:42), whose numerous priests were famous for their astronomical knowledge (Strabo, 17:816). </p> <p> The colossal statue of Memnon .stood in the western part of the city (Strabo, 1. c.; Pliny, 36:11; Pausan. 1:42, 2). The splendid tombs of the kings also increased its splendor (Diod. Sic. 1:46). But when Memphis became the residence of the Egyptian kings Thebes began to decline, and later, by the invasion of Cambyses, lost forever its old magnificence. In Strabo's time the city was already in decay; but its remains were still eighty stadia, or nearly ten miles, in circuit, and the inhabited parts formed several considerable villages. Indeed, its ruins are still extensive and splendid (Joilois, Devilliers, and Jomard, Dlescript. de l'Egypt, with many plates, vols. ii, iii; F. Cailland, [[Voyage]] a l'oasis de Thebes (Paris, 1821); G. Belzoni, Reis. u. d. Schriffenverz.; Heeren, Ideen, 2:11, 216 sq.; Mannert, 10:1, 334 sq.; Ukert, Africa, 1:226 sq.; Ritter, Erdkunde, 1:1, 731 sq. [2d ed.]; Wilkinson's View of An. Egypt, and Topography of Thebes [Lond. 1835]; Prokesch, Erinner. 1:279 sq.; Robinson, Researches, 1:2934). It is difficult to determine which overthrow of Thebes is referred to by Nahum (3:8). however nothing is known but that he made an incursion into the interior of Egypt (comp. Ditmar, Beschr. v. Ae.p. p. 121 sq.). Rosenmü ller (in loc.) explains the passage as referring to Tartan, general under king Sargon, and the facts stated in Isaiah vi agree well with this view (comp. Siskind in Stud. und Krit. 1835, p. 151 sq.; Gesen. Thes. 2:835). But [[Gesenius]] (Hall. Lit.Zeit. 1841, No. 1) remarks that an overthrow of Thebes by the Assyrians does not accord well with the context in Nahum, for, had the conqueror been al Assyrian, the prophet could hardly have predicted the destruction of the Assyrian capital without making prominent the contrast between her situation as destroyer and as destroyed. He accordingly refers this passage to an invasion of the [[Scythians]] in the beginning of the 7th century before Christ. Ewald believes this destruction of Thebes to have been occasioned by the great internal commotions of Egypt in the early art of the 7th century before Christ. (See Thebes). </p>