The meaning of No-amon in the Bible
(From International Standard Bible Encyclopedia)
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 AD) in a misunderstanding of the word 'amon; the Revised Version (British and American) "No-amon"): Occurs in this form only in Nahum 3:8, but 'amon minno', "Amon of No," occurs in Jeremiah 46:25. Compare also Ezekiel 30:14-16, where no', is undoubtedly the same city.
The description of No-amon in Nahum 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 Isaiah 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).
M. G. Kyle
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