Nahum 1:1

New Living Translation

ERROR : An error happened: 7 Couldn't connect to server Failed to connect to ::1: No route to host

Contextual Overview

Bible Verse Review
  from Treasury of Scripure Knowledge

burden: Isaiah 13:1, Isaiah 14:28, Isaiah 15:1, Isaiah 21:1, Isaiah 22:1, Isaiah 23:1, Jeremiah 23:33-37, Zechariah 9:1

Nineveh: Genesis 10:11, Jonah 3:3, Jonah 3:4, Zephaniah 2:13

Reciprocal: Deuteronomy 32:16 - provoked 2 Kings 9:25 - the Lord 2 Kings 19:36 - Nineveh Isaiah 1:1 - vision Isaiah 32:19 - the city shall be low Isaiah 37:37 - Nineveh Jeremiah 28:8 - prophesied Jeremiah 50:18 - as I Jonah 1:2 - Nineveh Nahum 1:8 - the place Habakkuk 1:1 - General

Cross-References

:

Gill's Notes on the Bible

The burden of Nineveh,.... Of the city of Nineveh, and the greatness of it, :-;

:-; Jonah was sent to this city to threaten it with ruin for its sins; at that time the king and all his people humbled themselves and repented, and the threatened destruction was averted; but they relapsing to their former iniquities, this prophet foretells what would be their certain fate; very rightly therefore the Targum, and some other Jewish writings m, observe, that Jonah prophesied against this city of old; and that Nahum prophesied after him a considerable time, perhaps at a hundred years distance. This prophecy is called a burden; it was taken up by the prophet at the command of the Lord, and was carried or sent by him to Nineveh; and was a hard, heavy, grievous, and burdensome prophecy to that city, predicting its utter ruin and desolation; and which, as Josephus n says, came to pass hundred fifteen years after this prophecy; and which event is placed by the learned Usher o in the year of the world 3378 A.M., and which was 626 B.C.; and by others p in the year of the world 3403 A.M., of the flood 1747, in 601 B.C.; but by Dean Prideaux q and Mr. Whiston r, in 612 B.C.;

the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite; no other prophecy is called, a book but this, as Abarbinel observes; and gives this reason for it, because the other prophets immediately declared their prophecies, as Jonah; but Nahum never went to the Ninevites, but wrote his prophecy in a book, and sent it to them. It is called "the book of the vision"; what it contains being made known to him by the Lord in a vision, as was common; hence the prophets are called seers; and the prophet is described by the place of his birth, an Elkoshite; though some think he is so called from his father, whose name was Helkesi, and said to be a prophet too, as Jerom relates; and with this agrees the Targum, which calls him Nahum of the house or family of Koshi; but Jarchi says that Elkosh was the name of his city; Aben Ezra and Kimchi are in doubt which to refer it to, whether to his city, or to his ancestors; but there seems no reason to doubt but that he is so called from his native place; since Jerom s says, that there was a village in Galilee called Helkesi in his days, and which he had seen; though scarce any traces of the old buildings could be discerned, it was so fallen to ruin, yet known, to the Jews; and was shown him by one that went about with him; and which is, by Hesychius t the presbyter, placed in the tribe of Simeon. This is another instance, besides that of Jonah, disproving the assertion of the Jews, that no prophet rose out of Galilee, John 7:52.

m Tzemach David, fol. 15. 1. n Antiqu. l. 9. c. 11. sect. 3. o Annales Vet. Test. A. M. 3378. p Universal History, vol. 4. p. 331. q Connexion, &c. par. 1. B. 1. p. 47, 48. r Chronological Table, cent. 9. s Proem. in Nahum. t Apud Reland. Palestina Illustrata, tom. 2. p. 748.

Barnes' Notes on the Bible

The burden - Jerome: “The word משׂא mas's'â', ‘burden’ is never placed in the title, except when the vision is heavy and full of burden and toil.”

Of Nineveh - The prophecy of Nahum again is very stern and awful. Nineveh, after having “repented at the preaching of Jonah,” again fell back into the sins whereof it had repented, and added this, that, being employed by God to chasten Israel, it set itself, not to inflict the measure of God’s displeasure, but to uproot the chosen people, in whom was promised the birth of Christ . It was then an antichrist, and a type of him yet to come. Jonah’s mission was a call to repentance, a type and forerunner of all God’s messages to the world, while the day of grace and the world’s probation lasts. Nahum, “the full of exceeding comfort,” as his name means, or “the comforter” is sent to John 16:6, John 16:8. “reprove the world of judgment.” He is sent, prominently, to pronounce on Nineveh its doom when its day of grace should be over, and in it, on the world, when it and “all the works therein shall be burned up” 2 Peter 3:10.

With few words he directly comforts the people of God Nahum 1:15; elsewhere the comfort even to her is indirect, in the destruction of her oppressor. Besides this, there is nothing of mercy or call to repentance, or sorrow for their desolation (as in Jeremiah 3:12; Jeremiah 8:18, Jeremiah 8:21), but rather the pouring out of the vials of the wrath of God upon her and on the evil world, which resists to the end all God’s calls and persecutes His people. The Book of Jonah proclaims God, “a gracious God and merciful, slow to anger and of great kindness, who repents Him of the evil.” Nahum speaks of the same attributes, yet closes with, “and will not at all acquit the wicked.” : “The Merciful Himself, who is by Nature Merciful, the Holy Spirit, seemeth, speaking in the prophet, to laugh at their calamity.” All is desolation, and death. The aggression against God is retorted upon the aggressor; one reeling strife for life or death; then the silence of the graveyard. And so, in its further meaning , “the prophecy belongs to the close of the world and the comfort of the saints therein, so that whatsoever they see in the world, they may hold cheap, as passing away and perishing and prepare themselves for the Day of Judgment, when the Lord shall he the Avenger of the true Assyrian.”

So our Lord sets forth the end of the world as the comfort of the elect. “When these things begin to come to pass, then look up and lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh” Luke 21:28. This is the highest fulfillment of the prophecy, for “then will the wrath of God against the wicked be fully seen, who now patiently waiteth for them for mercy.”

The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite - ^o “He first defines the object of the prophecy, whereto it looks; then states who spake it and whence it was;” the human instrument which God employed. The fuller title, “The book of the vision of Nahum” (which stands alone) probably expresses that it was not, like most prophecies, first delivered orally, and then collected by the prophet, but was always (as it is so remarkably) one whole. “The weight and pressure of this ‘burden.’ may be felt from the very commencement of the book.”

Clarke's Notes on the Bible

THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET NAHUM

Chronological Notes relative to this Book, upon the supposition

that it was written about seven hundred and thirteen years

before the commencement of the Christian era

-Year from the Creation, according to Archbishop Usher, 3291.

-Year of the Julian Period, 4001.

-Year since the Flood, 1635.

-Year from the vocation of Abram, 1208.

-Year since the first celebration of the Olympic games in Elis by the Idaei Dactyli, 741.

-Year from the destruction of Troy, according to the general computation of chronologers, 471.

-Year since the commencement of the kingdom of Israel, by the Divine appointment of Saul to the regal dignity, 383.

-Year from the foundation of Solomon's temple, 299.

-Year since the division of Solomon's monarchy into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, 263.

-Year since the restoration of the Olympic games at Elis by Lycurgus, Iphitus, and Cleosthenes, 172.

-Year from the foundation of the kingdom of Macedon by Caranus, 102.

-Year from the commencement of the reign of Ardysus over Lydia, 84.

-Year since the conquest of Coroebus at Olympia, usually called the first Olympiad, 64.

-Fourth year of the sixteenth Olympiad.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to the Varronian computation, 41.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Cato and the Fasti Consulares, 40.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Polybius the historian, 39.

-Year from the building of Rome, according to Fabius Pictor, 35.

-Year of the era of Nabonassar, 35.

-Year since the destruction of the kingdom of Israel by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, 9.

-Year before the birth of Christ, 709.

-Year before the vulgar era of Christ's nativity, 713.

-Cycle of the Sun, 25.

-Cycle of the Moon, 11.

-Eleventh year of Zeuxidamus, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Proclidae.

-Twelfth year of Eurycrates, king of Lacedaemon, of the family of the Eurysthenidae.

-Sixth year of Gyges, king of Lydia.

-Tenth year of Hippomenes, decennial archon of the Athenians.

-Second year of Cordiccas, governor of the Medes, according to some chronologers.

-Seventeenth year of Perdiccas, king of Macedon.

-Third year of Numa Pompilius, the second king of Rome.

-Fourteenth year of Hezekiah, king of Judah.

CHAPTER I

This chapter opens the prophecy against the Assyrians and their

metropolis with a very magnificent description of the infinite

justice, tender compassion, and uncontrollable power of God,

1-8.

To this succeeds an address to the Assyrians; with a lively

picture of their sudden overthrow, because of their evil device

against Jerusalem, 9-11.

Then appears Jehovah himself, proclaiming deliverance to his

people from the Assyrian yoke, and the destruction of the

Assyrian idols, 12-14;

upon which the prophet, with great emphasis, directs the

attention of Judah to the approach of the messenger who brings

such glad tidings; and exultingly bids his people to celebrate

their solemn feasts, and perform their vows, as a merciful

Providence would not suffer these enemies of the Jewish state

to prevail against them, 15.

NOTES ON CHAP. I

Verse Nahum 1:1. The burden of Nineveh. — משא massa not only signifies a burden, but also a thing lifted up, pronounced, or proclaimed; also a message. It is used by the prophets to signify the revelation which they have received from God to deliver to any particular people: the oracle-the prophecy. Here it signifies the declaration from God relative to the overthrow of Nineveh, and the commission of the prophet to deliver it.

As the Assyrians under Pul, Tiglath-pileser, and Shalmaneser, three of their kings, had been employed by a just God for the chastisement of his disobedient people; the end being now accomplished by them, God is about to burn the rod wherewith he corrected Israel; and Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire, is to be destroyed. This prediction appears to have been accomplished a short time after this by Nebuchadnezzar and Cyaxares, the Ahasuerus of Scripture.

Nahum, נחום Nachum, signifies comforter. The name was very suitable, as he was sent to comfort the people, by showing them that God was about to destroy their adversaries.