Judgment.
When something bad happens to another person, it’s not right to feel good about it. But what if that person has abused you for years or hurt you seriously? You just might cheer when he or she is judged and must pay for the harm done.
Nahum sees God as a judge, pronouncing sentence on Nineveh. Nineveh was the capital of Assyria, a nation that invaded Israel and carried 200,000 of her people into captivity. The prophet describes how the Assyrians will suffer when their own capital is attacked. After decades of terror, it was right for Judah to rejoice. It was Assyria’s time to be judged.
God Claims Right to Take Vengeance
• See Nahum 1:1–8
God Takes a Stand Against Evil
• Report in Nahum 3:1–6
Assyria’s Wounds Prove Fatal
• Fall of Nineveh described, see Nahum 3:18–19
Preview
• Nahum announces divine judgment on Nineveh.
• Nineveh is enclosed by an 8-mile, 50-foot-high wall. But the city falls to the Babylonians, who use a strategy Nahum describes (2:5–9).
As Nahum preaches, Manasseh, the most evil of Judah’s kings, rules in Jerusalem. • The playwright Aeschylus dies. • Greek philosophers speculate that earth is a flat disc covered by a dome of sky.