Nahum

About 700 B.C., Sennacherib made Nineveh the capital city of his Assyrian Empire. In Nahum’s day, the city fell under the sentence of divine judgment and with it the entire empire.

An outline

The prophecy begins with a brief superscription (1:1) followed by a majestic description of the instruments of God’s wrath when His patience finally has an end (1:2-8).

The first chapter concludes by assuring comfort for Judah as Nineveh “is utterly cutoff” (1:9-15).

Chapter two vividly portrays what is about to befall Nineveh as her present glory is contrasted with the coming desolation.

Reasons are given for demolishing the “bloody city” (3:1-7). Then Nahum compares the ruin of Nineveh with an earlier Assyrian aggression against Thebes of Egypt (3:8-14). The prophecy ends with further assurances to Judah that Nineveh’s destruction will be complete, “for there is no healing of thy bruise” (3:15-19).

Background

The prophecy was given after the Assyrian capture of Thebes (called “No” in KJV) in 664 B.C. and before the fall of Nineveh in 612 B.C.

Nahum means “comforter,” which speaks of the comfort Judah would receive from the prophecy. Tradition suggests that he came from Galilee. The idea is supported by the fact that Caper­naum means “village of Nahum.”

Nineveh

This is the same ancient city described in Genesis. “Cush was the father of Nimrod, who grew to be a mighty warrior on the earth…he went to Assyria where he built Nineveh…” (Gen. 10:8,11 NIV). As the founder was renowned for violence, so his descendants carried on in this same manner.

The Assyrians were an aggressive people who waged holy war on the surrounding nations that did not acknowledge the sovereignty of Ashur, their national god. The religious fervor of the Assyrians may account for the single-minded cruelty of their assaults. When they captured a city, enemy leaders were tortured and mutilated before they were executed. Prisoners, impaled alive, were often hung up by their hands or feet to die slowly. In one Assyrian inscription, Shalmaneser III (859-824 B.C.) boasts of the piles of chopped-off heads he placed in front of the enemy city.

There was good reason for calling Nineveh the “bloody city” (3:1), and for describing Assyrian warriors as lions tearing in pieces and strangling (2:12).

Contact with God’s nation

In 853 B.C., Shalmaneser III led the Assyrians against Ben-hadad of Syria and Ahab of Israel. This began a series of conflicts that lasted for more than two centuries.

About 735 B.C., King Pul of Assyria (Tiglath-Pileser III) attacked and destroyed many parts of the northern king­dom, carrying captives back to Assyria (II Kgs. 15:30). Shalmaneser V and Sargon II continued the attacks.

In 701 B.C., Sennacherib campaigned against Judah, conquering 46 towns and threatening to overthrow Jerusalem. Rabshakeh, his messenger, insisted that the God of Israel, like the gods of the surrounding nations, did not have enough power to withstand the king of Assyria. That spelled disaster for the Assyrian forces. God’s answer was: “For I will defend this city to save it for mine own sake, and for my servant David’s sake. Then the angel of the LORD went forth, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians a hundred and fourscore and five thousand” (Isa. 37:35,36).

Other prophecies about Nineveh

Years before Nahum’s prophecy, Jonah had reluctantly obeyed God’s command and visited Nineveh. From the streets, he cried out his message of doom: “Yet forty days, and Nineveh shall be overthrown” (Jonah 3:4). Surprisingly, the Ninevites, on the advice of their king, heeded Jonah’s warning and pleaded for a reprieve. Seeing their repentance, God turned back from destroying them and the city was spared. The reprieve lasted until Nahum’s day, perhaps 150 years later.

Nahum’s prophecy of destruction is corroborated by his contemporary, Zephaniah. That prophet declared: “And he (God) will stretch out his hand against the north, and destroy Assyria; and will make Nineveh a desolation, and dry like a wilderness and flocks shall lie down in the midst of her…” (Zeph. 2:13,14). The prophecy was fulfilled to the letter. The desolation was so complete that Nineveh was not discovered until 1845. The name of the mound under which it was found, Tell Kuyumjik, means the mound of many sheep.

Phrasing conveys the action

The battle for Nineveh is revealed in vivid detail: “The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall jostle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like lightnings” (2:4). Short abrupt phrases provide the reader with a sense of the action.

Reassurance

In the midst of declaring the destruction of this great human power, Nahum exhorts us that: “The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him” (1:7). We trust in Him; let us hold fast to that trust as the great human powers around us are shaken by the LORD who “will not at all acquit the wicked.”