The presumed author Nahum (1:1) is the only person with that name in the OT. Like Jonah in the previous century, Nahum prophesied judgment upon Nineveh. The Ninevites in Jonah’s time had repented (Jnh 3). But now that Nineveh’s leaders had resumed their wicked actions, the Lord called Nahum to reaffirm his coming judgment. Ironically Nahum’s Hebrew name means “comfort”—comfort for Judah (1:12-15) because its cruel overlord Assyria would be punished without any “comforters” (3:7). Except for the name of his hometown Elkosh (1:1), nothing certain is known about Nahum.
Two events circumscribe the earliest and latest possible dates for the composition of the book of Nahum: the capture and downfall of Thebes in about 663 BC and the announcements of Nineveh’s certain destruction (1:1; 2:8; 3:7) which would happen in 612 BC. The book’s emphasis on the fall of Thebes, seemingly a recent event, would favor a date shortly after 663 BC, during the reign of the notoriously wicked King Manasseh (ca 686–642 BC) and/or his evil son Amon (642–640 BC). Certainly Nahum 1:12 (Assyria was still “strong [or at full strength] and numerous”) suggests a time before the decline of that empire. This fits the reign of cruel Ashurbanipal (ca 668–627 BC) when Assyria was at the pinnacle of its power.
The book of Nahum provides a great view of a powerful, just God who maintains his absolute moral standards and offers hope to those who are despised and downtrodden. Nahum teaches us to trust God. Even when we despair of any help, we can know that God will stand with those who belong to him.
Nahum interweaved typical prophetic strands such as judgment songs against God’s enemies (1:9-11,14; cp. 2:13; 3:5-7), a woe oracle or mock lament (3:1-7), salvation oracles for his people Judah (1:12-15), a victory hymn to Yahweh the divine warrior (1:2-8; see Ex 15; Ps 98), and a sarcastic “word vision” of imminent enemy invasion (Nah 2:1-10; see 3:2-3). He colored this literary tapestry with satirical “taunt songs” mocking Nineveh’s soon-coming role reversal (2:11-12; 3:8-19; see 2:1-2; 3:4-5). He ridiculed Nineveh’s practice of scattering of peoples to other nations by announcing that God’s “scatterer” (2:1-2; 3:18-19) would pay her back in like manner. He taunted that her lion’s lair of military booty would soon be looted (2:11-13). He also mocked her as a witch-prostitute condemned to appropriate punishment: nakedness exposed with shame (3:4-7).
Using psychological warfare (as the Assyrians had used against Judah), Nahum taunted Nineveh’s dependence on allies and other supposed defenses (3:8-10; see Is 36:4-20). Esar-haddon, father of Ashurbanipal, had threatened King Manasseh of Judah in 672 BC with treaty curses from the gods if they rebelled. The Lord converted borrowed treaty terminology to reverse this curse on Judah. It would not be Judah but Assyria’s military men who would become defenseless like women (Nah 3:13). The Assyrians’ ravaging of the land like a swarming army of locusts (see Jl 1:4-12; 2:4-9) was evoked and modified in order to mock Nineveh’s merchants and military personnel, comparing them to harmless locusts on a wall, easily frightened and scattered (Nah 3:15-18). The incurable disease threatened from their gods would boomerang and inflict Assyria instead (3:19).
Yahweh as the caring warrior who would bring vengeance on his enemies, especially Nineveh, in order to save Judah, forms the backbone not only of Nahum’s purpose statement but also of the book’s literary structure.
Here is a man of God in the midst of the overwhelming flood, standing up and saying, “The Lord is good. The Lord is good.” There are some persons who, even in their theology, do not believe God to be good. “It cannot be,” they say, “that the wicked will be cast into hell if God is good.”
1The pronouncement concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
2The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
the LORD takes vengeance
and is fierce in A wrath.
The LORD takes vengeance against his foes;
he is furious with his enemies.
3The LORD is slow to anger but great in power;
the LORD will never leave the guilty unpunished.
His path is in the whirlwind and storm,
and clouds are the dust beneath his feet.
QUOTE 1:3
He will not cut down the tree that obstructs the ground until he has dug around and fertilized it. He will not at once slay the person whose character is the most vile until he has first cut him by the prophets; he will not chop him by judgments. He will warn the sinner before he condemns him. He will not strike the city without warning.
4He rebukes the sea and dries it up,
and he makes all the rivers run dry.
Bashan and Carmel wither;
even the flower of Lebanon withers.
5The mountains quake before him,
and the hills melt;
the earth trembles B,C at his presence —
the world and all who live in it.
6Who can withstand his indignation?
Who can endure his burning anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire;
even rocks are shattered
before him.
a stronghold in a day of distress;
he cares for those who take refuge in him.
7The LORD is good,
QUOTE 1:7
God is eternally and unchangeably good. He cannot be better; he cannot be worse—he is absolutely perfect. There can be no improvement, and there can be no depreciation in him.
8But he will completely destroy Nineveh A
with an overwhelming flood,
and he will chase his enemies into darkness.
9Whatever you B plot
against the LORD,
he will bring it to complete destruction;
oppression will not rise up a second time.
10For they will be consumed
like entangled thorns,
like the drink of a drunkard
and like straw that is fully dry. C
11One has gone out from you, D
who plots evil against the LORD,
and is a wicked counselor.
12 This is what the LORD says:
Though they are strong E and numerous,
they will still be mowed down,
and he F will pass away.
Though I have punished you, G
I will punish you no longer.
13For I will now break off his yoke from you
and tear off your shackles.
14 The LORD has issued an order concerning you:
There will be no offspring
to carry on your name. H
I will eliminate the carved idol and cast image
from the house of your gods;
I will prepare your grave,
for you are contemptible.
15Look to the mountains —
the feet of the herald,
who proclaims peace.
Celebrate your festivals, Judah;
fulfill your vows.
For the wicked one
will never again
march through you;
he will be entirely wiped out.
1:3 “The LORD is slow to anger but great in power; the LORD will never leave the guilty unpunished. His path is in the whirlwind and storm, and clouds are the dust beneath his feet.” Perhaps we wonder by saying, “How is it he is slow to anger and yet will never leave the guilty unpunished?” Because his character is perfect, we do not see where these two things melt into each other—the infallible righteousness and severity of the ruler of the world and his loving-kindness, his patience, and his tender mercies. The absence of any one of these things from the character of God would have rendered it imperfect.
God’s being “slow to anger” means he never strikes without first threatening. Men who are passionate and swift in anger give a word and a blow—sometimes the blow first and the word afterwards. When subjects have rebelled against the king, he often has first crushed them and then reasoned with them afterwards. They have given no time of threat, no period of repentance. They have allowed no space for turning to their allegiance. They have at once crushed the rebels in their hot displeasure, making a full end of them. Not so God. He will not cut down the tree that obstructs the ground until he has dug around and fertilized it. He will not at once slay the person whose character is the most vile until he has first cut him by the prophets; he will not chop him by judgments. He will warn the sinner before he condemns him. He will not strike the city without warning. Sodom will not perish until Lot has been within her. The world will not be drowned until eight prophets have been preaching in it and Noah, the eighth, comes to prophesy of the coming of the Lord. He will not strike Nineveh till he has sent a Jonah. He will not crush Babylon till his prophets have cried through its streets. He will not slay a man until he has given many warnings—by sicknesses, by the pulpit, by providence, and by consequences. He strikes not with a heavy blow at once. He threatens first. He does not in grace, as in nature, send lightning first and thunder afterwards, but he sends the thunder of his law first, and the lightning of execution follows it.
God “will never leave the guilty unpunished” means God will not acquit the wicked because he is good. God’s goodness demands that sinners be punished. The judge must condemn the murderer because he loves his nation. The kindness of a king demands the punishment of those who are guilty. It is not wrathful in the legislature to make severe laws against great sinners. It is but love toward the rest that sin should be restrained! The goodness of God demands that people should perish if they will sin. And again, the justice of God demands it. God is infinitely just, and his justice demands that people should be punished unless they turn to him with full purpose of heart.
1:7 “The LORD is good, a stronghold in a day of distress; he cares for those who take refuge in him.” Here is a man of God in the midst of the overwhelming flood, standing up and saying, “The Lord is good. The Lord is good.” There are some persons who, even in their theology, do not believe God to be good. “It cannot be,” they say, “that the wicked will be cast into hell if God is good.”
According to them the ungodly will not be punished. The child of God, however, says that though they will certainly be cast into hell, God is good for all that. It is true that he will punish sin and punish it everlastingly, but God is good for all that. “No,” say others, “but if he is good, he cannot do so.” You may make unto yourselves another god and call him God, but the Christian says, “The Lord is good; Jehovah is good. God is eternally and unchangeably good. He cannot be better; he cannot be worse—he is absolutely perfect. There can be no improvement, and there can be no depreciation in him.
2One who scatters is coming up against you.
Man the fortifications!
Watch the road!
Brace A yourself!
Summon all your strength!
2For the LORD will restore the majesty of Jacob,
yes, B the majesty of Israel,
though ravagers have ravaged them
and ruined their vine branches.
3The shields of his C warriors are dyed red;
the valiant men are dressed in scarlet.
The fittings of the chariot flash like fire
on the day of its battle preparations,
and the spears are brandished.
4The chariots dash madly through the streets;
they rush around in the plazas.
They look like torches;
they dart back and forth like lightning.
5He gives orders to his officers;
they stumble as they advance.
They race to its wall;
the protective shield is set in place.
6The river gates are opened,
and the palace erodes away.
she is carried away;
her ladies-in-waiting moan
like the sound of doves
and beat their breasts.
8Nineveh has been like a pool of water
from her first days, E
but they are fleeing.
“Stop! Stop! ” they cry,
but no one turns back.
9“Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! ”
There is no end to the treasure,
an abundance of every precious thing.
10Desolation, decimation, devastation!
Hearts melt,
knees tremble,
insides churn,
every face grows pale!
11Where is the lions’ lair,
or the feeding ground of the young lions,
where the lion and lioness prowled,
and the lion’s cub,
with nothing to frighten them away?
12The lion mauled whatever its cubs needed
and strangled prey for its lionesses.
It filled up its dens with the kill,
and its lairs with mauled prey.
13Beware, I am against you.
This is the declaration of the LORD of Armies.
I will make your chariots go up in smoke, F
and the sword will devour your young lions.
I will cut off your prey from the earth,
and the sound of your messengers
will never be heard again.
3Woe to the city of blood,
totally deceitful,
full of plunder,
never without prey.
2The crack of the whip
and rumble of the wheel,
galloping horse
and jolting chariot!
3Charging horseman,
flashing sword,
shining spear;
heaps of slain,
mounds of corpses,
dead bodies without end —
they stumble over their dead.
4Because of the continual prostitution of the prostitute,
the attractive mistress of sorcery,
who treats nations and clans like merchandise
by her prostitution and sorcery,
5I am against you.
This is the declaration of the LORD of Armies.
I will lift your skirts over your face
and display your nakedness to nations,
your shame to kingdoms.
6I will throw filth on you
and treat you with contempt;
I will make a spectacle of you.
7Then all who see you will recoil from you, saying,
“Nineveh is devastated;
who will show sympathy to her? ”
Where can I find anyone to comfort you?
QUOTE 3:7
It is the business of the minister of Christ to seek comfort for those who are in distress. Part of our calling is to seek, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, the comforter, to bring words of consolation to those whose hearts are heavy.
8Are you better than Thebes A
that sat along the Nile
with water surrounding her,
whose rampart was the sea,
9Cush and Egypt were her endless source of strength;
Put and Libya were among her D allies.
10Yet she became an exile;
she went into captivity.
Her children were also dashed to pieces
at the head of every street.
They cast lots for her dignitaries,
and all her nobles were bound in chains.
11You E also will become drunk;
you will hide. F
You also will seek refuge from the enemy.
12All your fortresses are fig trees
with figs that ripened first;
when shaken, they fall —
right into the mouth of the eater!
13Look, your troops are like women among you;
your land’s city gates
are wide open to your enemies.
Fire will devour the bars of your gates.
14Draw water for the siege;
strengthen your fortresses.
Step into the clay and tread the mortar;
take hold of the brick-mold!
15The fire will devour you there;
the sword will cut you down.
It will devour you like the young locust.
Multiply yourselves like the young locust;
multiply like the swarming locust!
16You have made your merchants
more numerous than the stars of the sky.
The young locust strips A the land
and flies away.
17Your court officials are like the swarming locust,
and your scribes like clouds of locusts,
which settle on the walls on a cold day;
when the sun rises, they take off,
and no one knows where they are.
18King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber;
your officers sleep.
Your people are scattered across the mountains
with no one to gather
them together.
19There is no remedy
for your injury;
your wound is severe.
All who hear the news about you
will clap their hands
because of you,
for who has not experienced
your constant cruelty?
3:7 “Then all who see you will recoil from you, saying, ‘Nineveh is devastated; who will show sympathy to her?’ Where can I find anyone to comfort you?” It is the business of the minister of Christ to seek comfort for those who are in distress. Part of our calling is to seek, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, the comforter, to bring words of consolation to those whose hearts are heavy. We have other work to do, but this is a part of our commission. God would not have his people’s heads hang down. He would have their hearts full of joy and peace in believing. So he sends us with tender, sympathetic words to comfort all that mourn. While this is our duty, when we succeed in it, it is also our delight. To take the burden from the heavy heart is a great joy. Whenever I have comforted any mourners, I have had even more comfort than the comforted ones. You cannot impart consolation to others without, at the same time, to some extent at least, enjoying it yourself.