However we must allow that Nimrod founded a Kingdom at Babylon, and perhaps extended it into Assyria:  but this Kingdom was but of small extent, if compared with the Empires which rose up afterwards; being only within the fertile plains of Chaldaea, Chalonitis and Assyria, watered by the Tigris and Euphrates:  and if it had been greater, yet it was but of short continuance, it being the custom in those early ages for every father to divide his territories amongst his sons.  So Noah was King of all the world, and Cham was King of all Afric, and Japhet of all Europe and Asia minor; but they left no standing Kingdoms.  After the days of Nimrod, we hear no more of an Assyrian Empire ’till the days of Pul.  The four Kings who in the days of Abraham invaded the southern coast of Canaan came from the countries where Nimrod had Reigned, and perhaps were some of his posterity who had shared his conquests.  In the time of the Judges of Israel, Mesopotamia was under its own King, Judg. iii. 8. and the King of Zobah Reigned on both sides of the River Euphrates ’till David conquered him, 2 Sam. viii, and x.  The Kingdoms of Israel, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Philistia, Zidon, Damascus, and Hamath the great, continued subject to other Lords than the Assyrians ’till the days of Pul and his successors; and so did the house of Eden, Amos i. 5. 2 Kings xix. 12. and Haran or Carrhae, Gen. xii. 2 Kings xix. 12. and Sepharvaim in Mesopotamia, and Calneh near Bagdad, Gen. x. 10, Isa. x. 9, 2 Kings xvii. 31. Sesac and Memnon were great conquerors, and Reigned over Chaldaea, Assyria, and Persia, but in their histories there is not a word of any opposition made to them by an Assyrian Empire then standing:  on the contrary, Susiana, Media, Persia, Bactria, Armenia, Cappadocia, &c. were conquered by them, and continued subject to the Kings of Egypt ’till after the long Reign of Ramesses the son of Memnon, as above.

Homer mentions Bacchus and Memnon Kings of Egypt and Persia, but knew nothing of an Assyrian Empire. Jonah prophesied when Israel was in affliction under the King of Syria, and this was in the latter part of the Reign of Jehoahaz, and first part of the Reign of Joash, Kings of Israel, and I think in the Reign of Moeris the successor of Ramesses King of Egypt, and about sixty years before the Reign of Pul; and Nineveh was then a city of large extent, but full of pastures for cattle, so that it contained but about 120000