Nahum

Nahum is a short book with a single subject: the fall of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire. For more than a century Assyria had been the most feared power in the ancient world. Its armies destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel and took Samaria in 722 B.C., invaded Judah and surrounded Jerusalem in 701 B.C., and in 663 B.C. sacked the great Egyptian city of Thebes. Assyrian kings boasted in their own records of burning cities, deporting whole populations and cruelly punishing those who resisted. Judah, under kings such as Manasseh, paid heavy tribute and lived under Assyria’s shadow. Into that world came Nahum, whose name means “comfort,” with a message that the LORD had seen everything and that Nineveh’s day was coming.

Nahum is closely linked with the book of Jonah. About a hundred years earlier, Jonah had preached in Nineveh, the people had repented, and God had spared the city (Jonah 3:10). Jonah had even complained that God was “a gracious and compassionate God, slow to anger and abounding in love” (Jonah 4:2). Nahum describes the same God, “slow to anger but great in power,” and adds the other half of the description given to Moses: “the LORD will not leave the guilty unpunished” (Nahum 1:3; Exodus 34:6–7). Nineveh’s earlier repentance did not last, and Nahum shows that God’s patience, though great, is not endless. Read together, the two books show both God’s mercy and his justice toward the same city.

Chapter 1 begins not with Nineveh but with the LORD himself. “The LORD is a jealous and avenging God; the LORD takes vengeance and is filled with wrath” (1:2). “Jealous” here means that God is fiercely devoted to his people and will not allow their enemies to destroy them. The poem pictures the LORD coming in power like a storm: “His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds are the dust of his feet” (1:3). Seas dry up, mountains quake and the hills melt away before him. “Who can withstand his indignation? Who can endure his fierce anger?” (1:6). Then comes one of the most comforting verses in the prophets: “The LORD is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him” (1:7). The same power that protects those who trust him will, “with an overwhelming flood,” make an end of Nineveh (1:8).

The rest of chapter 1 turns back and forth between Nineveh and Judah. To Nineveh the LORD says that whatever it plots against him, he will bring to an end, and “trouble will not come a second time” (1:9). Though the Assyrians “have allies and are numerous, they will be destroyed and pass away” (1:12). Their idols will be destroyed, their name will not continue, and the LORD will prepare their grave (1:14). To Judah he speaks words of relief: “Although I have afflicted you, Judah, I will afflict you no more. Now I will break their yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away” (1:12–13). The chapter ends with a messenger running across the mountains: “Look, there on the mountains, the feet of one who brings good news, who proclaims peace! Celebrate your festivals, Judah, and fulfill your vows. No more will the wicked invade you” (1:15). Isaiah uses almost the same words for the good news of Jerusalem’s salvation (Isaiah 52:7), and Paul applies them to those who preach the gospel (Romans 10:15).

Chapter 2 is a vivid, fast-moving picture of the attack on Nineveh, written as if the prophet were watching from the walls. “An attacker advances against you, Nineveh. Guard the fortress, watch the road” (2:1). The LORD is about to “restore the splendor of Jacob” (2:2). The enemy soldiers carry red shields, and their chariots “storm through the streets, rushing back and forth through the squares. They look like flaming torches; they dart about like lightning” (2:4). The defenders stumble as they hurry to the wall. Then “the river gates are thrown open and the palace collapses” (2:6). Nineveh stood beside the Tigris River and had rivers and canals running through it, and ancient writers later told of floodwaters helping to break down part of its walls. The city is “like a pool whose water is draining away. ‘Stop! Stop!’ they cry, but no one turns back” (2:8). Its vast treasure is carried off: “Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! The supply is endless” (2:9).

The chapter closes with a powerful picture. The kings of Assyria often compared themselves to lions, and Nahum asks, “Where now is the lions’ den, the place where they fed their young…?” The lion “killed enough for his cubs” and “filled his lairs with the kill” (2:11–12). In other words, Nineveh had grown rich by tearing apart other nations. Now the hunter becomes the hunted. “I am against you,” declares the LORD Almighty. “I will burn up your chariots in smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will leave you no prey on the earth. The voices of your messengers will no longer be heard” (2:13).

Chapter 3 begins with a cry of woe: “Woe to the city of blood, full of lies, full of plunder, never without victims!” (3:1). In short, sharp phrases Nahum describes the battle in the streets: “the crack of whips, the clatter of wheels, galloping horses and jolting chariots,” and “piles of dead, bodies without number” (3:2–3). Nineveh is pictured as a prostitute and sorceress who lured and enslaved nations (3:4). Again the LORD says, “I am against you” (3:5), and the city will be exposed to shame. “Nineveh is in ruins, who will mourn for her? Where can I find anyone to comfort you?” (3:7). Then Nahum reminds Nineveh of Thebes, the great city on the Nile with water around her and powerful allies, which Assyria itself had conquered (3:8–10). If Thebes could fall, so could Nineveh. Its fortresses are like ripe figs that fall into the mouth of whoever shakes the tree (3:12), and its gates will be wide open to the enemy (3:13).

The final verses mock Nineveh’s preparations: “Draw water for the siege, strengthen your defenses!” (3:14). It will not help. Its merchants have multiplied “till they are more numerous than the stars,” but like locusts they strip the land and fly away; its guards and officials are like swarms of locusts that settle on walls on a cold day and vanish when the sun rises (3:15–17). The shepherds of the king of Assyria slumber, and the people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them (3:18). The book ends with a verdict and a question: “Nothing can heal you; your wound is fatal. All who hear the news about you clap their hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?” (3:19). History confirmed Nahum’s words. In 612 B.C. an alliance of Babylonians and Medes captured and destroyed Nineveh, and within a few years the Assyrian empire was gone. The city was so thoroughly ruined that its location was forgotten for centuries, until its ruins were uncovered near modern Mosul in the 1800s.

Several themes run through Nahum. God’s justice: the LORD is slow to anger, but he will not leave the guilty unpunished, and violence and cruelty do not go unseen (1:3; 3:1, 19). God is a refuge: the same power that judges oppressors protects those who trust him (1:7). God rules over the nations: no empire is so strong or so proud that it is beyond his reach; if Thebes fell, Nineveh could fall too (3:8–10). Good news for the oppressed: the end of a cruel power is comfort and peace for those it crushed (1:12–15). God keeps his word: the city that once repented under Jonah and returned to its ways met the judgment Nahum foretold. Readers understand some parts of Nahum in different ways. Some are troubled by a book that rejoices over a city’s fall, while others answer that Nahum celebrates God’s justice for the victims of Assyria’s cruelty, not cruelty itself, and that the book should be read alongside Jonah’s picture of God’s mercy toward Nineveh. The “one who plots evil against the LORD” (1:11) is taken by some as a particular Assyrian king, such as Sennacherib or Ashurbanipal, and by others as the Assyrian kings in general. The flood in 1:8 and 2:6 is read by some as a literal flood that helped breach the walls and by others as a picture of overwhelming judgment. The messenger of good news (1:15) first announced Nineveh’s fall, and many Christians, following Paul, also see in it a picture of the gospel. The date is debated within the years 663–612 B.C. (see the Date card). This outline simply follows the text.