The Body of Nineveh: The Conceptual Image of the City in Nahum 2–3

Abstract

Research on cities in the Hebrew Bible shows that urban spaces are often personified. This article argues that in the case of Nahum's Nineveh this personification is part of a conceptual metaphor, in which the city is depicted as a body. The same metaphor underlies other comparative devices in the text, which similarly share a corporeal focus. Together, these devices tell the story of a weakening city body, in a way that is both cognitively accessible as well as narratologically and communicatively efficient.