Annotations for Nahum

1:1 Nineveh. After its use here, the name of the Assyrian capital does not reappear until 2:8. In 1:8, 11; 2:1, the Hebrew has feminine grammatical forms that logically refer to Nineveh and so the NIV supplies the name in those verses. In 1:14 the Hebrew has masculine pronouns, so the king of Nineveh is more likely in view. Where the city is meant, it stands for the king in particular and for all the inhabitants in general. Nineveh had been a major settlement since prehistoric times since it controlled an eastern crossing of the Tigris River. Kings had built temples there to honor the goddess Ishtar and palaces for themselves, and Sennacherib made it his principal city in 704 BC, soon after his accession. He built a wall around the whole city, enclosing an area of 1,850 acres (750 hectares), with, eventually, 18 gates through it and a moat at some parts. The enclosure was bisected by the Khosr River, a tributary of the Tigris that rose in the hills to the northeast. After unusually heavy rains, that and other streams could undermine the foundations of buildings in Nineveh, so the king installed a system of canals, aqueducts and dams to harness and control those streams for the benefit of Nineveh, the sites of the waterworks being marked with sculptures and inscriptions. Sennacherib’s successors added to his buildings and continued erecting new ones. The most magnificent of these 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. According to Greek sources, the Assyrian king Sin-shar-ishkun set fire to his palace and perished in the flames. Excavations at various points in the defenses have revealed the attempts to defend the city and the fate of some of the defenders. Nahum. The name means “comforted,” but it may be a shortened form of Nehemiah, which means “the LORD has comforted,” or Naham-el, which means “God has comforted.” In Nehemiah’s name, the final three letters refer to Yahweh—this is referred to as the “theophoric” element of the name. At times names were shortened by omitting the theophoric element (cf. Ahaz and Ahaziah). the Elkoshite. Like Amos (Am 1:1) and Micah (Mic 1:1), Nahum is identified by his hometown (Elkosh), not by his father’s name. Several locations have been proposed for Elkosh, which is not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture. Possibilities include (1) an unlikely identification with Al-Kosh in northern Iraq, (2) the simplistic equation with Capernaum, which means “the village of Nahum,” on the shore of the Sea of Galilee and (3) the possibility of a place in Judah. None is wholly convincing, but Nahum probably did live in Judah.

1:2 jealous . . . avenging . . . vengeance. Nahum’s prophecy opens with a general declaration of the aspects of the character of Israel’s God that will be central to his message. The Lord will not allow any human power to challenge his position, his name and his reputation, for which he is jealous and which is bound up with the conduct and fate of the people who bear his name. Those who try to equal or supplant him will be the objects of his vengeance; he will not leave the guilty unpunished. This verse has a form typical of ancient Semitic poetry, building from the key words of the first line to repetition and elaboration in the following lines. The Lord’s attitude is comparable with the positions attributed by ancient writers to other deities who were concerned to protect their own reputations. In the “Curse of Agade,” a Sumerian poem, the god Enlil, furious at a presumptuous king who had attacked the god’s temple, decreed the king’s downfall and the invasion of the land by a barbarian tribe. To salvage the rest of the land, the other leading gods pronounced a great curse on the king’s capital city, Agade: nobody and nothing in it would function and it would never be inhabited again.

1:3–6 This description of God’s power echoes many Biblical passages—from the exodus and the crossing of the Red Sea (“the sea . . . dries it up,” v. 4) to the theophany at Mount Sinai (“the mountains quake . . . the rocks are shattered,” vv. 5–6) and the crossing of the Jordan River (“the rivers run dry,” v. 4)—while making the particular experiences through which Israel had known God at work into more general characteristics of him. Similar phrases occur in many poems (compare “Bashan and Carmel wither” [v. 4] with “the top of Carmel withers” [Am 1:2]), and some can be found in thirteenth-century BC poems from Ugarit in northern Syria that are applied to the god Baal. Sumerian poetry describes gods and goddesses as roaring like thunder, riding on the storm, stirring up the dust. In the Babylonian Creation Epic, when Marduk, the hero of the gods, advanced to face their enemy, Tiamat, “he mounted the terrible chariot, the unopposable Storm Demon” and at Ugarit, the god Baal is described as “rider on the clouds.” In another epic poem, the fire-god Ishum attacks the land of Babylon’s enemies in a mountainous region: “He raised his hand, he destroyed the mountain . . . He cut away the trunks of the cedar forest, / The thicket looked as if the deluge had passed over . . . he obliterated mountains and slew their wild life, / He convulsed the sea and destroyed its increase.” See the article “Divine Warfare.”

1:5 hills melt away. This figure of judgment is echoed in a fragment of poetry written about 800 BC on the plaster of a wall in the desert caravanserai at Kuntillet Ajrud on the road from Gaza to Elath: “when God shone forth . . . the mountains melted, and peaks grew weak.”

1:7 He cares for. This translation of the Hebrew verb usually rendered “to know” assumes a sense found in the Ugaritic phrase il dydnn, “the god who cares for me.” Oracles women gave in the name of the Assyrian goddess Ishtar reassured king Esarhaddon, “I will keep you safe,” “Do not be afraid, O king, I have spoken to you, I have not lied to you; I have given you faith, I will not let you be shamed,” and advised him, “Do not trust human beings, lift your eyes, look to me.” trust in him. Expressions of trust are found in Assyrian personal names, e.g., Tukulti-Ninurta (“my trust is in Ninurta”) and Mutakkil-Ashur (“the one who inspires trust is Ashur”).

1:10 entangled among thorns. If the obscure Hebrew words are correctly translated, they depict the impasse that will overtake the plotter. His road will be choked, as the Assyrian king Sargon described a route: “thorns, thistles and bush had grown over [the tracks].”

1:12 allies. According to the Babylonian Chronicle, Egypt and the Mannaeans of Iran (see “Minni” in Jer 51:27), were the only powers to support Assyria. Others were allies largely from fear and had no loyalty to Assyria.

1:13 yoke. See notes on Jer 5:5; La 3:27. Yoking conquered kings like animals pulling a plow or a chariot was a means Assyrian kings occasionally used to demean them. More often the term is a figure for control, as in Biblical texts. When he drove the Assyrians from Babylonia, after the gods had allowed the Assyrians rule there for decades, Nabopolassar (626–605 BC), the conqueror of Nineveh, proclaimed, “The Assyrian who had ruled Akkad [Babylonia] because of divine anger and had, with his heavy yoke, oppressed the inhabitants of the country . . . I removed them from Akkad and caused [the Babylonians] to throw off their yoke.” shackles. Shackles or handcuffs of bronze or iron were also common means of securing prisoners (see note on Ps 105:18).

1:14 Nineveh. Probably refers to the king of Nineveh (see note on v. 1). no descendants. Every ancient man feared dying without a son to continue his name, for that would mean he would be forgotten (compare Absalom, 2Sa 18:18, with Abraham, Ge 15:2–3; see also Isa 53:8) and, certainly in the societies around Judah, there would be no one to perform the rites that would allow his spirit to rest peacefully in the next world. The names of Assyrian noblemen who fell out of favor were erased from their monuments, and even the names of discredited kings and gods were chipped from carvings in Egypt. your gods. In their heyday, Assyrian troops had carried the statues of gods from conquered places to their cities, but they rarely destroyed them, for that was, in effect, to deny the existence of the gods they represented. Now Assyria’s gods would suffer that worse fate: they would be destroyed. The wealth of the temples and the statues decorated with precious metals and gems would be smashed and looted. Even Assur (the national patron god), Nabu (a favorite god), the war-god Ninurta and the great goddess Ishtar would disappear. your grave. A city could hardly have a grave, but the city can represent its inhabitants and, in particular, its king. Ancient people often made arrangements in advance for their burial, but that would not be the case for the people of Nineveh.

1:15 the feet of one who brings good news. The phrasing echoes Isa 40:9 and may point to knowledge of the earlier prophet’s words or to a common saying. While horses might be used in some regions, in Israel much of the terrain was rough, so it favored runners. Messengers could be regularly employed, carrying dispatches from king to king or from merchant to merchant, or they could be athletic young men chosen for a particular occasion. Their task was often dangerous as, besides wild animals, they might face bandits or, if traveling far, the soldiers of hostile rulers on their journeys. Messengers were expected to be trustworthy, conveying their messages accurately. Although not in view here, they might carry written messages and in Hittite texts of the second millennium BC agreement between the written message and the messenger’s words was the proof of authenticity. Celebrate your festivals . . . fulfill your vows. This would only be possible in times of peace, when people could travel safely and leave their homes without fear of raiders attacking in their absence. In the Babylonian Chronicle frequent entries report the failure to hold the major annual festival marking the New Year there, usually because of war or other forms of unrest.

2:1 fortress. Roads led to Nineveh from every direction, so it is likely that there were watch posts, at least, beyond the city walls, although none have been identified.

2:2 The LORD will restore . . . their vines. Destroying fruit trees was a severe action in war. When he devastated an unruly region, Sargon of Assyria said, “I cut down its extensive vines and so brought its drinking to an end.”

2:3 shields . . . are red. In Assyria it was common rhetoric to speak of cities and countrysides dyed red with the blood of enemies and the army marching through the blood of their enemies. Additionally, Isa 9:5 refers to a practice of warriors rolling their garments in blood. It would be logical, therefore, that armies would choose to wear red tunics, the decoration suggesting that they were covered with the blood of their enemies. Wall paintings uncovered in the Assyrian provincial palace at Tel Barsip on the mid-Euphrates show Assyrian soldiers of the late eighth century BC wearing red and blue tunics. Their shields are colored in concentric circles, alternately reddish brown and pale blue, but whether or not these colors are exact (they may have suffered chemical change during burial) and what they indicate are uncertain.

2:4 squares. Beside the palaces on their terraces, the houses of the city occupied the lower ground, with orchards and gardens interspersed among them. Some of the main streets of Nineveh were paved as part of Sennacherib’s beautification of the city. Paved areas were sometimes found inside of the city gates. torches. Clarification of the meaning of this unique Hebrew word has come from Ugaritic texts of the thirteenth century BC. In them a related word denotes a type of blanket or fabric, and so the Hebrew expression here can be understood as bright-colored trappings on the rushing chariots. The paintings at Tel Barsip (see note on v. 3) include a royal chariot with its body colored red, and one Assyrian text refers to the chariot of a goddess decorated with colored wool.

2:5 picked troops. Traditionally, Babylonian and Assyrian kings relied on soldiers levied from the population in return for plots of land that they could cultivate. In the Assyrian Empire squadrons of permanent soldiers were posted in key places, and this standing army included men from subjugated regions, some from Samaria being among those listed. protective shield. Garrisons of cities under attack would hang shields upon the battlements for extra protection against enemy arrows and slingstones. Sennacherib’s sculpture of the siege of Lachish shows them clearly.

2:6 river gates. Sennacherib created an extensive network of canals to irrigate the land around Nineveh and to control waters that might endanger his extended city, with dams to provide reservoirs. By breaching the dams, the attackers could cause a surge of water along the Khosr River, weakening the walls where the river entered the city and rapidly emptying the reservoirs.

2:7 is decreed. The Hebrew word is a unique form and past commentators tried to explain it as the name of an Assyrian queen, Hussab. Apart from the lack of evidence for a queen of that name, the introduction of such a figure here would be odd, for the prophecy names no other person. The translation “decreed” or “established” is the most satisfactory at present, followed by the assumption that the city is supplied as the subject of the next verb, “be exiled.” be exiled. The threat of exile hung over every small kingdom of the ancient Near East if they rejected the suzerainty of a greater power or rebelled against one. Examples are known from the third millennium BC onward of powerful kings deporting conquered populations to other parts of their realms. The Assyrian kings engaged in this policy extensively, listing the numbers of peoples they transferred from one place to another, Sennacherib accounting for over 500,000. The people of Samaria were removed to the east, and people from other regions settled in Samaria (2Ki 17:6, 24). When Sennacherib attacked Judah because King Hezekiah had broken the treaty his father Ahaz had made, he records that he took away 200,150 people from Judah. Exiles were not necessarily used as slave labor. Often the promise of the Rab-shakeh to the citizens of Jerusalem became a reality (2Ki 18:31–32); the exiles were settled on land from which they could make a living, but they could not return to their own country. The threat of exile was not, therefore, something the people of Israel and Judah became aware of only when it happened to them, as sometimes supposed; it was an ever-present possibility. female slaves moan like doves. The cries of doves were often compared with the laments of mourners in Hebrew literature (Isa 38:14; 59:11), in earlier Sumerian texts (e.g., the “Curse of Agade”) and in later Babylonian texts.

2:9 Plunder. A glimpse of the treasures of Nineveh appeared in AD 1988–1990, when Iraqi archaeologists opened tombs of Assyrian queens at Nimrud, ancient Calah, 25 miles (40 kilometers) south of Nineveh. Masses of golden jewelry, dishes and bowls of gold and other valuable objects lay in the vaults. For the first time, modern eyes are able to see the sort of riches that ancient texts describe and the sculptures in Assyrian palaces portray. The Babylonian Chronicle notes the “heavy plunder” Babylonian forces took in Nineveh and other places. Far more awaited the conquerors in the palaces of Nineveh, garnered from conquered kingdoms and harvested as tribute.

2:11–12 lions’ den . . . lion. From the earliest times, Mesopotamian imagery portrayed the king killing the lion, which was a threat to domestic animals and herds. See notes on Jdg 14:5; Isa 31:4; Jer 5:6. In the underlying ideology the lions represented the fierce enemies of the king being defeated.

3:3 Many casualties, piles of dead. Assyrian armies had inflicted these horrors on conquered enemies. The inscriptions of Ashurnasirpal give the most frightful reports: “I captured many soldiers alive. The rest of them I burnt. I carried off valuable tribute from them. I built a pile of live (men and) heads before his gate. I erected on stakes 700 soldiers before their gate. I razed, destroyed (and) turned in to ruin hills the city. I burnt their adolescent boys and girls.” When Sennacherib conquered Babylon, he related, “I left no one. I filled the city squares with their corpses.” Relief sculptures depict Assyrian soldiers bringing the heads of their enemies for secretaries to record. In a treaty in Aramaic, the suzerain threatens to “pile corpse upon corpse” in the vassal’s town should he prove unfaithful.

3:5 nakedness. Public exposure was a recognized punishment for a rebellious or unfaithful wife in Babylonia. In an Aramaic stele from Sefire (mid-eighth century BC), one curse should a partner be disloyal to a treaty is as follows: “[Just as a pros]ti[tute is stripped naked] so may the wives of Mati’el be stripped naked.” Prisoners are shown stripped bare, humiliated and powerless in Mesopotamian pictures from the beginning of history, on seal designs of the late fourth millennium BC, and on the famous Royal Standard of Ur from about 2,500 BC—although on Assyrian sculptures only those about to be executed are naked. The Babylonian god Erra counts among the evils he inflicts on the world the following: “I shall cut off the garment from a man’s body, / And I shall make the young man walk naked in the city square.”

3:7 Nineveh is in ruins. The Babylonian Chronicle says the enemies reduced the city to “a heap of rubble,” and when the Greek adventurer Xenophon passed the site some 200 years later, he was apparently unaware that Nineveh had stood there (see 1:14).

3:8 Thebes. Identified as the “city of Amun,” ancient Thebes is now occupied by modern Karnak and Luxor. Assyrian troops entered and ransacked Thebes under the command of Ashurbanipal in 663 BC, after the Egyptian pharaoh Tirhakah had died and his successor had fled from the city. Ashurbanipal’s annals report the massive plunder taken back to Nineveh, including two obelisks made of electrum, weighing 2,500 talents (about 93.75 tons or 83.5 metric tons).

3:9 Put and Libya. Earlier commentators understood Put as the ancient Egyptian name for Somalia, Punt, from which exotic goods were brought to Egypt, but the names are not etymologically equivalent. Put is better identified with an ancient name for Libya or part of it; therefore, the expression is best understood as “Put, that is, Libya.”

3:10 Lots were cast for her nobles. As the leaders of Egypt were forced to surrender, they were distributed as slaves, along with the rest of the loot, among the Assyrian commanders. Provisions for the division of spoils, including the casting of lots, is also found in Homer’s Iliad, the Mari texts and Joel 3:3.

3:13 your troops—they are all weaklings. The idea that soldiers might become weaklings, so losing their strength to fight occurs elsewhere in the Prophets (of Egyptians in Isa 19:16; of Babylonians in Jer 50:37; 51:30) and was also used as a curse on enemies. A variation appears in an inscription of the Assyrian king Tukulti-Ninurta I (c. 1244–1208 BC), who prayed that the goddess Ishtar change his enemy “from a man to a woman, may she cause his manhood to dwindle away.” It also appears in an inscription of Esarhaddon of Assyria (680–669 BC): “May Ishtar turn him from a man into a woman.”

3:14 strengthen your defenses. Excavations in the gateways of Nineveh have revealed how the citizens tried to control entry into the city by building extra walls within them in an attempt to narrow and control passage into the city.

3:17 officials. Many of the officials in the Assyrian court, some of them eunuchs, were foreigners or sons of foreigners brought as hostages or deportees (cf. Daniel) and so, despite the absence of racism in Assyria, may have felt no loyalty to the Assyrian king.

3:18 King of Assyria. Since the date of the book of Nahum is uncertain, it is not possible to determine which king of Assyria is referred to in this final oracle. Most scholars would say that the earliest date would be shortly after the capture of Thebes in 663 BC and the terminus date would be the actual fall of Nineveh in 612 BC. It may be that Nahum was written as encouragement to the people of Judah to revolt as the Assyrian Empire began to break apart after Ashurbanipal’s death in 627 BC. Alternatively, the reference may be to Sin-shar-ishkun, who was the Assyrian king when Nineveh fell. no one to gather them. Although a forlorn remnant of Assyria held out in Harran for a few years, the kingdom and the country lost any political power. Assyria became a province of the Babylonian and the Persian Empires, and then it disappeared.

3:19 your wound is fatal. When medical skills were rudimentary, any wound could prove fatal. Neither the attentions of the best physicians nor the priestly incantations, well attested among Babylonian texts, could effect a cure. A long-standing Babylonian curse prayed that the goddess of healing might put a persistent, unhealable wound or sore on the enemy’s body.