And Resen between Nineveh and Calah: the same [is] a great city.
Ver. 12. The same is a great city.] As consisting of three cities, and having more people within the walls than are now in some one kingdom. See the greatness of this city set forth in the Preacher's Travels, p. 89. The greatest city in the world at this day is said to be Quinsai, in Tartary, which is a hundred miles about, as M. Paulus Venetus writeth, who himself dwelt therein, about the year 1260. Cambula, the imperial city, and seat of the great Cham of Tartary, is in circuit twenty-eight miles about. a Nineveh was three days' journey in Jonah's days: now it is destroyed (as was long since prophesied by Nahum), being nothing else than a sepulchre of herself, a little town of small trade, where the Patriarch of the Nestorians keeps his seat at the devotion of the Turk. As Susa, in Persia, once a lily (as the name signifies), for the sweet sight, and so rich, as afterwards is reported, Gen 11:3 is now called Valdac, of the poverty of the place. b
a Turk. Hist., fol. 75.
b Preacher's Travels, 88.