Nahum

Part One: Introduction to Nahum

The Prophet

Nahum, whose name means "comfort" or "comforter," is called "the Elkoshite" (1:1). The location of Elkosh is unknown. Suggestions include a village in Galilee (Capernaum means "village of Nahum"), a town in southern Judah, or Al-Qosh near the site of Nineveh in modern Iraq. Nothing else is known about him. His name fits his message: the fall of the cruel Assyrian Empire would bring comfort to God's oppressed people.

Date

Nahum refers to the fall of "populous No" (No-Amon, the great Egyptian city of Thebes) as a past event (3:8-10). The Assyrians destroyed Thebes in 663 BC. He foretells the fall of Nineveh as still future, and Nineveh fell in 612 BC. So Nahum prophesied between 663 and 612 BC, probably during the reign of the wicked King Manasseh or early in the reign of Josiah. He was a contemporary of Zephaniah, who also foretold Nineveh's desolation (Zephaniah 2:13-15).

The Sequel to Jonah

About 150 years earlier, Nineveh had repented at Jonah's preaching and God had spared it (Jonah 3:10). But that repentance did not last. Assyria returned to its violence and became the most brutal empire of the ancient world:

• It destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and deported its people (722 BC; 2 Kings 17).
• Sennacherib invaded Judah, captured 46 fortified cities, besieged Jerusalem and blasphemed the God of Israel (701 BC; 2 Kings 18-19).
• It took Judah's king Manasseh captive with hooks (2 Chronicles 33:11).
• Assyrian kings boasted in their own inscriptions of impaling, flaying, burning and mutilating their enemies and piling up their heads.

Jonah showed God's mercy to the repentant; Nahum shows God's justice on the unrepentant. Both books are rooted in the same revelation of God's character to Moses: "The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering... forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, and that will by no means clear the guilty" (Exodus 34:6-7).

The Fall of Nineveh

At the height of its power, Nineveh was the largest city in the world, with walls said to be wide enough for chariots, protected by moats and the Tigris and Khosr rivers. Its fall seemed impossible. Yet in 612 BC a coalition of Babylonians under Nabopolassar and Medes under Cyaxares besieged and destroyed it. The Babylonian Chronicle records the siege, the capture and the vast plunder taken. The ancient Greek historian Diodorus Siculus records that a flood of the river broke down part of the wall, allowing the attackers in, and that the defenders had been feasting and drinking. Archaeologists have found thick layers of ash in the ruins. So complete was the destruction that within two centuries the site was forgotten; the Greek general Xenophon passed it in 401 BC without recognising it as Nineveh. Its ruins were not identified until the excavations of the nineteenth century.

Purpose and Theme

Nahum announces the certain destruction of Nineveh as God's just judgment on its cruelty and pride, and brings comfort to Judah, which had suffered under Assyria's yoke. Its central theme is the character of God as the righteous Judge who avenges His people, and as a stronghold for those who trust Him.

The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked

Nahum 1:3

The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.

Nahum 1:7

Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!

Nahum 1:15

Outline of Nahum

Part Two: Chapter-by-Chapter Analysis

Chapter 1 — The Judge and His Verdict

The Character of God (1:1-8)

"The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite" (1:1). A "burden" is a weighty message of judgment. Before describing Nineveh's fall, Nahum describes the God who will bring it about. Verses 2-8 form a partial acrostic poem, following the Hebrew alphabet:

God is jealous, and the LORD revengeth; the LORD revengeth, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.

Nahum 1:2

God's "jealousy" is His zeal to protect His honour and His people, like a husband's rightful protectiveness (Exodus 20:5; 34:14). His vengeance is not petty revenge but the righteous judgment of the Ruler of the universe against evil (Deuteronomy 32:35; Romans 12:19).

The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.

Nahum 1:3

God's patience is not weakness. He had been slow to anger with Nineveh for over a century, but His patience has a limit, and He is powerful enough to judge. Creation trembles before Him: He rebukes the sea and dries it up, Bashan, Carmel and Lebanon wither, the mountains quake and the hills melt (1:4-5).

Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.

Nahum 1:6

And yet, in the midst of this description of wrath:

The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.

Nahum 1:7

The same power that destroys His enemies protects His people. God is a refuge, a fortress, for those who trust Him, and He knows them personally (Psalm 46:1; John 10:14; 2 Timothy 2:19). "But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies" (1:8), a prophecy that matches the historical accounts of the flood that breached Nineveh's walls.

Nineveh's Doom (1:9-14)

"What do ye imagine against the LORD? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time" (1:9). This time there would be no reprieve. "While they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry" (1:10), matching the tradition that Nineveh's defenders were drinking when the city fell. "There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the LORD, a wicked counsellor" (1:11), probably Sennacherib, who plotted against Jerusalem and mocked the LORD (2 Kings 18:28-35).

To Judah God promised: "Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder" (1:12-13). To Nineveh's king: "no more of thy name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile" (1:14). Sennacherib himself had been assassinated by his own sons while worshipping in the house of his god Nisroch (2 Kings 19:37), and the Assyrian royal line would soon come to an end.

Good Tidings for Judah (1:15)

Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.

Nahum 1:15

Messengers would run across the mountains with the news that the oppressor was destroyed. Judah could worship freely again. Isaiah used almost the same words for the news of God's salvation (Isaiah 52:7), and Paul applied them to the preaching of the gospel: "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!" (Romans 10:15).

Chapter 2 — The Fall of Nineveh

The Attack (2:1-5)

"He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily" (2:1). With irony Nahum calls Nineveh to prepare its defences, which would be useless. "For the LORD hath turned away the excellency of Jacob, as the excellency of Israel" (2:2): God would restore the glory of His people whom Assyria had plundered.

The attackers' shields are red and the warriors dressed in scarlet (2:3). The scene is vivid:

The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings.

Nahum 2:4

The verse describes the chaos of chariot warfare in the city's streets, the bronze and polished metal flashing like torches. (Some have applied this verse to modern traffic, but its meaning in context is the ancient battle for Nineveh.) The defenders stumble as they rush to the wall (2:5).

The Flood and the Fall (2:6-10)

The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved.

Nahum 2:6

The rivers that protected Nineveh became the means of its destruction. Ancient accounts describe a flood breaking down part of the walls; the river gates or dams may also have been opened to flood the city. "Huzzab" (2:7), probably a title for the queen or a word meaning "it is decreed," is led away captive while her maids mourn like doves. "But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back" (2:8): the people pour out like water from a breached pool, and no one turns back to defend the city.

Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store and glory out of all the pleasant furniture. She is empty, and void, and waste: and the heart melteth

Nahum 2:9-10

Nineveh had grown rich by plundering other nations; now it was plundered. The Babylonian Chronicle records that "great quantities of spoil" were carried off.

The Lions' Den Destroyed (2:11-13)

Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feedingplace of the young lions, where the lion, even the old lion, walked, and the lion's whelp, and none made them afraid? The lion did tear in pieces enough for his whelps, and strangled for his lionesses, and filled his holes with prey, and his dens with ravin.

Nahum 2:11-12

The lion was a symbol of Assyrian royal power; Assyrian palace reliefs famously show kings hunting lions. Assyria had been like a lion that tore its victims and filled its den with prey from the nations. Now the den would be empty.

Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions: and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard.

Nahum 2:13

"Behold, I am against thee" is the most terrifying sentence any nation could hear. The Assyrian messengers who had once shouted threats and blasphemies outside Jerusalem's walls (2 Kings 18:17-35; 19:9-13) would be silenced for ever.

Chapter 3 — Why Nineveh Fell

The Bloody City (3:1-3)

Woe to the bloody city! it is all full of lies and robbery; the prey departeth not

Nahum 3:1

Nineveh was built on bloodshed, deception and plunder. Nahum then paints the final battle in rapid, breathless images:

The noise of a whip, and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the pransing horses, and of the jumping chariots. The horseman lifteth up both the bright sword and the glittering spear: and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses

Nahum 3:2-3

The violence Nineveh inflicted on others now fell on Nineveh.

The Harlot and Sorceress (3:4-7)

"Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts" (3:4). Nineveh is pictured as a seductive prostitute and sorceress who lured nations with promises of wealth and alliance and then enslaved them. Revelation uses the same imagery for "Babylon the great," the final world system, a harlot who corrupts the nations with her sorceries (Revelation 17:1-5; 18:3, 23). God would expose her shame before the nations (3:5-6). "All they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?" (3:7). No one would mourn the city that had caused so much mourning.

The Lesson of Thebes (3:8-10)

Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?

Nahum 3:8

No-Amon (Thebes) was the great capital of Upper Egypt, protected by the Nile and supported by powerful allies, Ethiopia, Egypt, Put and Lubim (3:9). Yet Assyria itself had destroyed it in 663 BC, carrying its people captive and dashing its children to pieces (3:10). If Thebes could fall to Assyria, Nineveh could fall too. No city is invincible against God's judgment.

Hopeless Defences (3:11-17)

Nineveh too would stagger like a drunkard and be "hid" (3:11), a word fulfilled when the city disappeared so completely that its location was forgotten. Its fortresses were like fig trees with ripe figs: shake them, and they fall into the eater's mouth (3:12). Its soldiers would lose courage, its gates would stand wide open, and fire would devour its bars (3:13). Nahum mockingly tells the city to store water for the siege and to make bricks to repair the walls, but the fire would consume it anyway (3:14-15). Its merchants had multiplied like stars, and its officials like swarms of locusts, but like locusts they would fly away when the sun rose (3:16-17).

No Healing (3:18-19)

Thy shepherds slumber, O king of Assyria: thy nobles shall dwell in the dust: thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them. There is no healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the bruit of thee shall clap the hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?

Nahum 3:18-19

The leaders were asleep (or dead), the people scattered with no one to gather them. Nineveh's wound was fatal. The whole world, having suffered under its cruelty, would clap for joy at the news. The book ends with a question, like Jonah: "upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?" Everyone had suffered from Assyria; no one would weep. Within three years of Nineveh's fall, the Assyrian Empire was gone for ever.

Part Three: Christ in Nahum

The Bringer of Good Tidings

"Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!" (1:15). The news of Nineveh's fall pointed forward to the greatest good news of all: the defeat of sin, death and Satan through Jesus Christ. Christ "came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh" (Ephesians 2:17), and He sends His people with "the preparation of the gospel of peace" (Ephesians 6:15; Romans 10:15).

The Breaker of Bonds

"For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder" (1:13). Assyria's yoke on Judah pictures the bondage of sin. Christ came "to preach deliverance to the captives... to set at liberty them that are bruised" (Luke 4:18). "Stand fast therefore in the liberty wherewith Christ hath made us free, and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage" (Galatians 5:1).

The Stronghold and the Judge

Wrath and Refuge

Nahum shows both sides of God's character that meet at the cross. God's wrath against sin is real and terrible: "who can abide in the fierceness of his anger?" (1:6). Yet "the LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble" (1:7). At Calvary, Christ endured the wrath of God for sinners so that He could become their stronghold. Those who reject Him face Nineveh's end; those who trust Him find refuge.

Part Four: Fulfilled Prophecies

The accuracy of Nahum's prophecy is so striking that some critics have argued it must have been written after the event. But Nahum's reference to the fall of Thebes (663 BC) as a recent example, and the absence of any reference to the Babylonians by name, fit a date decades before 612 BC.

Part Five: Key Passages in Depth

Nahum 1:2-3 — God's Justice and Patience

God is jealous, avenging and wrathful toward His enemies, yet slow to anger. His patience gives time for repentance (Romans 2:4), but it is not indifference. He "will not at all acquit the wicked." Those who mistake His patience for weakness, as Nineveh did after Jonah, store up wrath for themselves (Romans 2:5; Ecclesiastes 8:11).

Nahum 1:7 — A Stronghold in the Day of Trouble

In the middle of a chapter about God's terrifying wrath stands this precious promise. God's power, which makes mountains quake, is a fortress for those who trust Him. He knows them, not merely as facts but as His own. The same God is a terror to His enemies and a refuge to His people (Psalm 9:9; 46:1; Proverbs 18:10).

Nahum 1:15 — The Feet of the Messenger

The news of the oppressor's defeat brought freedom to worship. The gospel announces the defeat of the believer's greatest enemies: sin, death and the devil (Colossians 2:15; Hebrews 2:14-15). Those who carry this news have "beautiful feet."

Nahum 2:13 — "Behold, I Am Against Thee"

No power on earth can stand when God sets Himself against it. Nineveh, the superpower of its age, fell in a single campaign. Nations and individuals should fear having God as their opponent, and seek to have Him as their Friend (Romans 8:31).

Nahum 3:8-10 — The Lesson of History

Nineveh had destroyed Thebes, a city just as strong, yet failed to learn that it too could fall. Those who ignore the lessons of history, and of God's judgments on others, repeat them (1 Corinthians 10:11-12).

Nahum 3:19 — Wickedness Without Remedy

Nineveh's wound had no healing because it had abandoned the repentance it once showed. Persistent, unrepentant wickedness eventually brings judgment "without remedy" (Proverbs 29:1; 2 Chronicles 36:16). Yet for those who repent, there is healing through Christ.

Part Six: The Major Teachings of Nahum

1. God Is the Righteous Judge of Nations

He holds even the greatest empires accountable for their cruelty and pride (1:2; 2:13; 3:1-7).

2. God's Patience Has Limits

He is slow to anger, but He will not acquit the wicked for ever (1:3).

3. God Is Sovereign over Creation

Seas, mountains, storms and floods obey Him (1:3-6, 8).

4. God Is a Refuge for His People

"The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble" (1:7).

5. God Avenges His People

He breaks the oppressor's yoke and brings good tidings to the afflicted (1:12-15).

6. Violence and Exploitation Bring Judgment

The bloody city full of lies and robbery received what it gave (3:1-4; Galatians 6:7).

7. No Power Is Invincible Before God

Nineveh's walls, rivers, armies and wealth could not save it (2:1-10; 3:8-17).

8. Past Repentance Does Not Cover Present Rebellion

Nineveh's repentance in Jonah's day did not protect it when it returned to its sins (Ezekiel 18:24).

9. God's Word Is Certain

Every detail of Nineveh's fall came to pass.

Part Seven: Connections — How Nahum Links to the Rest of the Bible

Nahum in the New Testament

Nahum in the Old Testament

Themes That Run from Nahum Through Scripture

Part Eight: Practical Lessons

• Don't mistake God's patience for indifference (1:3).
• Fear God's power and justice (1:2-6).
• Run to the LORD, your stronghold, in trouble (1:7).
• Take comfort that God knows those who trust Him (1:7).
• God can break any yoke that oppresses you (1:13).
• Carry the good tidings of peace to others (1:15).
• Keep your vows and worship faithfully when God delivers you (1:15).
• No human defences can stand when God is against you (2:1-10; 2:13).
• Wealth gained by exploitation will be lost (2:9).
• Lies, violence and robbery bring judgment (3:1).
• Learn from the judgments God has brought on others (3:8-10).
• Past spiritual experiences do not excuse present sin (Jonah 3; Nahum 3).
• Seek healing in Christ before the wound becomes incurable (3:19; Isaiah 53:5).

Part Nine: Key Verses to Memorize

Conclusion

Nahum is the sequel to Jonah. A century and a half after Nineveh repented and was spared, the city had returned to its cruelty, crushing Israel, ravaging Judah, and boasting of its atrocities. Nahum, whose name means "comfort," announced that the God who is slow to anger "will not at all acquit the wicked." The proud capital with its rivers, walls and limitless treasure would be flooded, plundered, burned and hidden from the earth, and the whole world would clap its hands at the news. In 612 BC it happened just as he said. Yet in the middle of this book of judgment shines a promise: "The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him." And on the mountains run messengers with good tidings of peace. That message finds its fullest meaning in Jesus Christ, who bore God's wrath against sin, broke the yoke of our bondage, and sends His people to carry the gospel of peace, so that all who trust Him may find refuge from the day of wrath.

The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.

Nahum 1:7