Nine-Days' Devotion. See Novena.
Nine Lections is the name of a liturgical service in the Romish and Anglican churches. Three lections are said on each of the three nocturns : the first three taken from Holy Scripture ; the second from the acts of a saint ; the third from homilies of the fathers. Justin IMartyr alludes to the commentaries of apostles and writings of prophets, the third Council of Carthage to the passions of martyrs on their anniversaries, the Council of Laodicea to the lections, and St. Jerome to the works of St. Ephrem, as being read in the sacred assemblies. The nine had reference to the orders of angels, with whom the Church joined in adoration, and, as a tripled three, bore allusion to the Holy Trinity. But from the time of Cassian there were twelve lessons, until Gregory VH reduced them to nine, with eighteen psalms, on Sundays, except Easter and Pentecost; on festivals, nine psalms and nine lessons; on ferials, twelve psalms and three lessons; in Easter-weck and Whitsun-week, three psalms and three lessons, accord- ing to ancient use. Among these daj'S were included the Epiphany, the Circumcision, Conversion of St. Paul, Puritication, St. Matthias, the Annunciation, St. Philip and St. James, St. Barnabas, St. Peter, All Saints', St. Andrew, and sixty -eight other commemorations of saints and holy days, such as the Exaltation of the Cross and the Name of Jesus. See Walcott, Sacred A rchnnlofiy, p. 400 ; Palmer, Orig. Lit. vol. i, bk. i, p. 10; Bingham, Christian Antiquities, xiv, 3, § 2.
Nine Worthies of the "World, (a) Heathens : (1) Hector of Troy; (2) Alexander the Great; (3) Julius Ciesar. (b) Jews: (1) Joshua; (2) David; (3) Judas Maccabaeus. (e) Christians: (1) King Arthur; (2) Charlemagne ; (3) Godfrey of Bouillon. Their arms are on duke Robert's tomb at Gloucester. See Walcott, Sacred Archmology, p. 400.
Nineteenth Day of the Month. In the morn- ing service of the Church of England and the Protestant
Episcopal churches it is directed that on the nineteenth day of any month the Venite Exultemus (or Psalm be- ginning, " O come, let us sing unto the Lord") shall not be said or sung. The reason is that it occurs on that day in the regular portion of Psalms, and would thus occasion an unnecessary repetition. See Staunton, Eccles. Diet, s. v.
Nin'eve {"Sivivi v. r. 'HivivItui ; Sept. l^tvivrf), the Grsecized form (Luke xi, 32 ; Tob. i, 3, etc. ; Judith i, 1, etc.) of the name of Nineveh (q. v.).
Nin'eveh (Heb. Nineveh', tn_'13'^3 ; Sept. 'Sivivi) or l>iivtvri, V. r. 'Sivivt; Vulg. Ninive), the capital of the ancient kingdom and empire of Assyria; a city of great power, size, and renown, usually included among the most ancient cities of the world of which there is any his- toric record. In the following account we chiefly follow the article by Layard in Smith's Diet, of the Bible, with additions from other sources.
I. Name. — This, if Shemitic, signifies dwelling of Ni- nus ; but it is probably of foreign etymology. In cunei- form (q. v.) it is written ^j;<y ^T^YorSS; toU Y X.
.Josephus GrsEcizes it T^isvfiji] {A nt. ix, 10, 2), Ptolemy WivoQ r) Krti 'Hivtvt (viii, 21, § 3), Herodotus // 'Sivoq or Ntfoc (i, 193; ii, 150); while the Romans wrote it Ninus (Tacit. Ann. xii, 13) or Nineve (Amm. Marci- anus, xviii, 7). The name appears to be derived 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. In the Assyrian inscriptions Nineveh is also sup- posed to be called " the city of Bel." Fletcher, rather fancifully, taking A7« as meaning " a floating substance or fish," and neveh " a resting-place," supposes the city to have been built nigh to the spot where the ark of Noah rested, and in memory of the deliverance provid- ed by that wondrous vessel (Notes from Nineveh, ii, 90), The connection of the name of the city with Ninus, its mythical founder, is not opposed to the statement in Gen. X, 11 ; for the city might be named, not from Nim- rod, its originator, but from a successor who gave it con- quest and renown. In the Assyrian mythology Ninus is the son of Nimrod.
II. History. — 1. From Biblical and iMter A ccounfs. — The first reference to Nineveh in Scripture is in Gen. x, 11, "Out of that land went forth Asshur and builded Nineveh," as it is rendered in our version. The other and better version is, " Out of that land (the land of Shinar) went he (Nimrod) to Assyria, and builded Nin- eveh, and Rehoboth, and Calah, and Resen between Nineveh and Calah; the same is a great city." The translation which we have adopted is that of the Tar- gums of Onkelos and Jonathan, and is defended by Hyde, Bochart, Le Clerc, Tuch, Baumgarten, Keil, Delitzsch, Knobel, Kalisch, and Murphy. The other exegesis, which makes Asshur the subject of the verb, has support from the Septuagint, the Syrian version, and the Vulgate, and has been adopted by Luther, Calvin, Grotius, Michaelis, Schumann, Yon Bohlen, Pye Smith, and is apparently preferred bj' Rawlinson. The arguments in its favor are not strong; yet it con- tains or implies the reason why the country was named Assyria after its first settler. It is also a plausible theorj' of Jacob Bryant, that Nimrod b}^ his conquests forced Asshur to leave the territory of Shinar, so that, thus expelled and overpowered by the mighty hunter, he went out of that land and built Nineveh (Ancient Mythology, vi, 192). Hence Assyria was subsequently known to the Jews as " the land of Nimrod" (comp. Mic. v, 6), and was believed to have been first peopled by a colony from Babylon.