NITRE. [NETER.] NO (g). The manner in which this ancient city is mentioned in the several passages of the Bible is deserving of the notice of the student of Scripture geography. The first passage in which it occurs is Jer. xlvi. 25, 'I will punish the multi tude of No ;' literally ' the Amon of No' (ray 'Aisgaip rdv lay cet)ri)s ; super tumultunz Alexandria), where the reference seems to be rather to the Egyptian deity Amon, who was wor shipped at No, than to the people of that city (which would make 1501=rini1, multitude). The next passage is Ezek. xxx. 14, 15, 16 : will execute judgments in No' ; eP tocrr 6X et ; its Alex andria) ; ' I will cut off the multitude of No' (b(l pn-rtt: ; rd 7rXiAos Meppecas ; Multitudinem Alexandria) ; No shall be rent asunder' (t? ; iv bizoolz-6Xec; Alexandria). The different rendering in the Septuagint here is remarkable. Memphis was identical with the Noph of the Bible. The Hebrew word rendered ` multitude' in ver. 15 is different from that in Jeremiah ; perhaps it may be a corruption of Amon. Diospolis was the Greek equivalent of No-Ammon, and identical with Thebes. The last passage is Nahum iii. 8, and is very im portant, not merely as giving the full name of the city, but also describing its position. It is thus rendered in the A. V.: ' Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?' ` Pope :ous No' is in Hebrew linti 14), (LXX.
oxpioa Alexandria propulorum), that is, 'No of Amon,' in which Amon was the supreme deity, and of which he was protector.
Various opinions have been entertained as to the site of this city. That it was in Egypt all admit. The Septuagint identifies it with Diospolis ; but there were two places of this name—one in Lower Egypt, near the sea, and encompassed by the marshes of the Delta (Strabo, xviii. p. 8o2) ; and with this Champollion and others identify No Egypte, ii. 131 ; Winer, R. Ir., ii. 16o) ; the other was Thebes, in Upper Egypt, which is pro bably theplace really referred to in the Septuagint. For No, Jerome in the Vulgate reads Alexandria (as also the Chaldee, the Rabbins, and Drusius) ; but the town of Alexandria was not in existence in the time of Jeremiah ; and yet it appears from the words of Nahum (I. c.) that No had been already destroyed in his day (see Bochart, Opera, i. 6).
There can be little doubt that No-Amon, which Nahum compares with Nineveh, is identical with the great city of Thebes. The objection that Thebes is far from the sea, and does not therefore agree with the description of Nahum, cannot stand the test of critical examination. The sea referred to is the river Nile, which to the present day is usually termed in Egypt el-Bahr, the sea.' The Nile flows through the midst of Thebes (Bochart, Opera, i. 7 ; Robinson, B. R., 1. 20, and 582). [THEREs.]—J. L. P.