What Country Is Nineveh Today?

Where was Nineveh located?

Nineveh was a city situated in the northern region of modern-day Iraq. Although the city itself no longer exists, the location where it once stood still remains identifiable today. Nineveh was the capital city of the ancient Assyrian Empire.

(To learn more about the nation of Assyria, see here → ASSYRIA.)

Nineveh is also the city to which the prophet Jonah was sent by God to preach repentance so that its people might turn from their evil ways. However, Jonah disobeyed and fled toward Tarshish instead.

(To find out where Tarshish is today, see here → TARSHISH.)

Though Nineveh wasn’t a very large city in terms of population, it was highly advanced for its time. When Jonah was sent to preach there, the Bible records that it had around 120,000 inhabitants.

Jonah 4:10–11

But the Lord said, “You have been concerned about this plant, though you did not tend it or make it grow. It sprang up overnight and died overnight.

And should I not have concern for the great city of Nineveh, in which there are more than a hundred and twenty thousand people who cannot tell their right hand from their left and also many animals?”

Although God had intended to destroy the city because of its wickedness, the people of Nineveh repented after hearing Jonah’s message.

Later, the Lord Jesus referred to this same event as a warning to the people of the last days:

Matthew 12:41

“The people of Nineveh will stand up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for they repented at the preaching of Jonah, and now something greater than Jonah is here.”

In the same way, we too must repent at the preaching of the Lord Jesus, so that we do not fall under judgment on the final day.

Please share this good news with others.

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