Verse 12
"All thy fortresses,shall be like fig-trees with the first-ripe figs: if they be shaken, they fall into the mouth of the eater."
"Thy fortresses ..." "These were the strongholds on the borders of Assyria, protecting the approaches to Nineveh."[31]
"Like ... first-ripe figs ..."
"First-ripe figs, when at full maturity, fall from the tree with the least shake; so at the first shake or consternation, all the fortresses of Nineveh were abandoned; and the king, in despair, burnt himself and household in his own palace."[32]
The ring of outer fortresses protecting the approaches to Nineveh were "certain mountain passes, called by Strabo `the Caspian gates,' and others cited by Xenophon as `the gates of Cilicia and Syria.'"[33]
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