Historical Background
The prophecy of Nahum concerns the fall of Judah’s oppressor, the Assyrian Empire, and of Nineveh, Assyria’s capital city (612 BC), bringing relief for Judah. Nineveh had been a major settlement since prehistoric times, as it controlled a crossing of the Tigris River, standing on its eastern bank. Kings had built temples there to honor the goddess Ishtar (Astarte) and palaces for themselves, and Sennacherib made it his principal city in 704 BC, soon after his accession. He built himself a grand new palace on the ancient mound now called Kuyunjik and a palace for his heir at the modern Mosul site of Nebi Yunis, a shrine for the prophet Jonah that was destroyed in AD 2014. Sennacherib built a wall around the whole city of Nineveh, enclosing an area of 750 hectares (1,850 acres), with eventually 18 gates through it and a moat at some parts. Sennacherib’s successors added to his buildings and continued erecting new ones. The most magnificent was the palace of Ashurbanipal, which rivaled Sennacherib’s in wealth of decoration, especially stone panels carved with scenes of his triumphs in war and hunting.
This splendid city fell to the Babylonians and Medes late in the seventh century BC. The Babylonian Chronicle tablets tell how the Chaldean king Nabopolassar chased the Assyrians out of Babylonia between 626 and 616 BC, and then defeated Assyrian forces in their homeland. The Medes of Iran, commanded by Cyaxares, joined the assault and took the ancient capital of Ashur in 614 BC. Nabopolassar made an alliance with the Medes and the combined forces captured, looted and destroyed Nineveh after a three-month siege in 612 BC. The Assyrian king Sin-shar-ishkun set fire to his palace and perished in the flames, Greek sources report. Although some Assyrian forces under King Ashur-Uballit II held out in Harran and farther west with Egyptian support until 605 BC, Nineveh’s glory had passed; its yoke was broken. Excavations at various points in the defenses have revealed the attempts to defend the city and the fates of some of the defenders.
Message and Audience
Although Nahum addresses the Assyrians, readers should not suppose his words were directed toward them. Rather, these oracles were given to encourage the people of Judah at a time when the future appeared dark and uncertain. Whether Nahum spoke them first to an audience or wrote them down first cannot be determined, although the unique heading “the book [i.e., document] of the vision of Nahum” (Na 1:1) may imply the latter. In Assyria at that time, when people uttered prophecies concerning the king, they were written down for transmission to him, as had happened over a millennium before in Mari. Placed in an archive, the prophecies could be checked as time passed to verify or discount their forecasts. Prophecies concerning other people may also have been put into writing and a similar situation may be supposed for Israel and Judah. ◆
Key Concepts
• The prophets arose in troubled times to declare the messages God gave them.
• The prophets at times were perplexed about what God was doing.
• Even in times of crisis and confusion, God expects his people to be faithful and trust him.
• With God, there is always reason for hope.