Bible Dictionary
No-Amon
Noadiah was a Levite entrusted with sacred vessels during Ezra’s return from Babylon and also a prophetess who opposed Nehemiah’s work with Tobiah and Sanballat.
Definition
No-Amon was an Egyptian city, identified with Thebes, also known as Diospolis Magna. Its name is connected with Amon, the chief divinity of Thebes. The city was an ancient and splendid metropolis of Upper Egypt.
Biblical Usage
Nahum used No-Amon’s position among the rivers and surrounding waters as a vivid description of the city. Jeremiah referred to Amon of No, and Ezekiel also mentioned the same Egyptian city in prophecies concerning Egypt.
Historical Background
Thebes lay on both sides of the Nile and was celebrated for temples, obelisks, statues, and other monuments. It was especially a city of temples, whose ruins preserved many monuments of ancient Egypt. Its identification with Thebes is supported by the Egyptian form of the name.
Scripture References
Related Figures
Historical Bible Dictionaries
Smith's Bible Dictionary
(temple of Amon) (Nahum 3:8) No, (Jeremiah 46:25; Ezekiel 30:14,16) a city of Egypt, better known under the name of Thebes or Diospolis Magna, the ancient and splendid metropolis of upper Egypt The second part of the first form as the name of Amen, the chief divinity of Thebes, mentioned or alluded to in connection with this place in Jeremiah. There is a difficulty as to the meaning of No. It seems most reasonable to suppose that No is a Shemitic name and that Amen is added in Nahum (l.c.) to distinguish Thebes from some other place bearing the same name or on account of the connection of Amen with that city. The description of No-amon as “situated among the rivers, the waters round about it” (Nah. l.c.), remarkably characterizes Thebes. (It lay on both sides of the Nile, and was celebrated for its hundred gates, for its temples, obelisks, statues. etc. It was emphatically the city of temples, in the ruins of which many monuments of ancient Egypt are preserved, The plan of the city was a parallelogram, two miles from north to south and four from east to west, but none suppose that in its glory if really extended 33 miles along both aides of the Nile. Thebes was destroyed by Ptolemy, B.C. 81, and since then its population has dwelt in villages only.—ED.)
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia (ISBE)
<p>no-a'-mon (no' 'amon, Egyptian nut, "a city," with the feminine ending t, and Amon, proper name of a god, City Amon, i.e. the "City," paragraph excellence, of the god Amon; translated in the King James Version "populous No," following the Vulgate (Jerome's Latin Bible, 390-405 A.D.) in a misunderstanding of the word 'amon; the Revised Version (British and American) "No-amon"): Occurs in this form only in Na 3:8, but 'amon minno', "Amon of No," occurs in Jer 46:25. Compare also Eze 30:14-16, where no', is undoubtedly the same city.</p><p>The description of No-amon in Na 3:8 seems to be that of a delta city, but yam, "sea" in that passage is used poetically for the Nile, as in Job 41:31 and in Isa 18:2. With this difficulty removed, the Egyptian etymology of the name leaves no doubt as to the correct identification of the place. The "City Amon" in the days of Nahum, Jeremiah and Ezekiel was Thebes (compare the article "Thebes" in any general encyclopedia).</p><p>M. G. Kyle</p>