Bible Commentaries
Nahum 1

Verses 1-19

XXX

THE BOOK OF NAHUM

The title of the book of Nahum is simply this: "The Burden of Nineveh." It is committed largely to the prophecy of the destruction of the capital of the Assyrian Empire. The writer is Nahum. We know nothing about him. He mentions not even his father’s name. He simply mentions the fact that he was an Elkoshite. Where Elkosh was is disputed. There is a place in Assyria today called Alkush which the Arabians in the region say contains the tomb of Nahum, but the tradition regarding that only goes back as far as the sixteenth century and it is exceedingly questionable. There is a place mentioned by Jerome in Galilee called Elkesi, and Jerome and a great many other scholars believe that that was the home of Nahum, a little village in Galilee. This is doubted by others, and it has been found that there was a little village down in Judah called Elkesi also and some scholars maintain that Nahum had that as his home and that he lived in Judah. He evidently speaks from the standpoint of a Judean. Other scholars maintain that Nahum was one of the exiles transported from Judah and wrote his prophecy while in exile in Assyria. The reason for that is that Nahum seems to know exactly the fortifications and as we shall see the layout of the city of Nineveh, the siege of which he predicts. This theory is not to be credited at all.

The style of Nahum is the most vivid, perhaps, of all the Old Testament writers. In majesty it almost equals Isaiah. In the rapidity of its motion, its energy, its movement, in the imagination displayed he even surpassed Isaiah. This is one of the finest pieces of literature in all the world.

The date of this prophecy is somewhere between 663B.C. & 607 BC.; 663 B.C. being the date upon which Ashurbanipal, king of Assyria destroyed Noamon, or Thebes, the great city in Southern Egypt. To the destruction of that city Nahum refers in Nahum 3:8; so his prophecy took place after that event, possibly sometime after. It was such an important event as would be remembered for a long time. The destruction of a great city like Noamon would be impressed upon the world. The prophecy must have been written previous to 607 B.C., for that is the date of the fall of Nineveh, and this year marks one of the most important events in the political history of that age. Probably his prophecy comes somewhere between 630 B.C., and 610 B.C., not far from the destruction of Nineveh.

The occasion for the writing of this prophecy is the downfall of the Assyrian nation, with the sack and destruction of the great city of Nineveh. The history of Assyria and Nineveh is a history of conquests, a history of oppression, a history of remorseless warfare of indescribable cruelties, siege upon siege of every city that came in contact with any of Assyria’s possessions. No nation in all the world for two hundred years had rolled its resistless tide of savage warriors across the face of the earth as did Assyria. Not a nation in all the known world but what suffered from her attacks. Eastern Palestine, Northern Israel, and Southern Israel were overrun and deported, and the inhabitants of Damascus and Syria were deported also and scores of other nations and tribes were ruthlessly torn away from home and country and carried into exile. The blood, the agony, the tears, the sufferings, the sorrow which Assyria and Nineveh caused, only God himself could describe.

Not a nation during those two hundred years but that hated, but that dreaded her; not a nation but that cringed and trembled as she approached. And those two hundred years engendered in every nation a hatred that was intense, and almost ceaseless. Israel had felt her terrible hand; so had Babylon and all other Semitic nations. And now at last the Medes north and east of Assyria, gather together their nation, with Cyaxares at their head, and march against her. Nabopolassar, king of Babylon, also comes against her. PharaohNecho in the days of Josiah, king of Judah, marched up to the Euphrates to take Nineveh and secure her boundless treasures. Thus it became a contest, as to whether Cyaxares the king of the Modes; Nabopolassar, king of Babylon; or PharaohNecho, king of Egypt, should conquer this city with its incalculable riches. About 625 B.C. Nineveh withstood a great siege and buried back the Medes. But the country was much depopulated. Her allies were gone; a weak king sat upon the throne. The Medes grew more powerful, and at last about 609 B.C. or 608 B.C. Nabopolassar and Cyaxares came to an agreement. Nabopolassar apparently sent Nebuchadnezzar to meet Pharaoh-Necho and drive him back. He himself held the advances to Nineveh and prevented the allies of Assyria from coming to her relief. The king of the Medes came upon her from the North and the East, and after a siege of two years Nineveh fell, and there was not a nation upon the earth that did not feel a relief and there went up from every people and every heart this one cry, "At last! At last! At last! the old savage lion is dead and we are free." Nahum voices that sentiment. At last the old lion has gone, as all Europe and, perhaps, America, when Napoleon was defeated at Waterloo, said, "At last the scourge of the nation is gone."

The following is an outline of the book:

Title: The theme and author (Nahum 1:1)

I. A verdict of vengeance (Nahum 1:2-15)

1. The character, majesty, and method of Jehovah (Nahum 1:2-8)

2. His verdict concerning Nineveh (Nahum 1:9-14)

3. His verdict of vengeance on Nineveh, an Evangel to Judah (Nahum 1:15)

II. A vision of vengeance (Nahum 2)
1. A description of the attack upon the city (Nahum 2:1-7)

2. An inside view during and after the attack (Nahum 2:8-13)

III. A vindication of vengeance (Nahum 3)
1. The wreck of the city and its causes (Nahum 3:1-7)

2. An example and its lessons (Nahum 3:8-19)

Nahum had a strong and deep conviction that Jehovah is the God who will punish iniquity, and therefore he breaks forth (Nahum 1:2-8) : "Jehovah is a jealous God and avengeth; Jehovah avengeth and is full of wrath; Jehovah taketh vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies." See the accumulated effect of his repetition here. He goes on: "Jehovah is slow to anger and great in power and will by no means clear the guilty. Jehovah hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet. He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers; Bashan languisheth, and Carmel; and the flower of Lebanon languisheth." This is the effect of Jehovah coming down: "The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire and the rocks are broken asunder by him."

Now in Nahum 1:7 he gives another view of Jehovah, and here is a beautiful text: "The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him." How different that is from the other, and how different God’s attitude toward his enemies, and toward those that trust him! "But with an overflowing flood will he make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies." As to his character, he is a God of vengeance, and yet the central fact of his nature is that he is slow to anger. Under the figure of a storm the prophet sets forth the overwhelming majesty of Jehovah. The method of God he describes as "good, a stronghold," toward his friends, but toward his foes, "He will make a full end."

Now he speaks against Nineveh (Nahum 1:9-14) thus: "What do ye imagine against the Lord? He will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time." Imagine what you like, he will make a complete end. The affliction shall not rise up the second time, and it didn’t. "For though they be tangled in thorns, and while they are drunken as with their drink, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry." It matters not what your condition, what your defense or how impossible it would seem that you should be destroyed. "There is one gone out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counsellor." We don’t know who that was. Perhaps it refers to the blasphemous boasts of Sennacherib. "Thus saith Jehovah, though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, and will burst thy bonds asunder." Then he describes how he shall destroy the gods of Assyria, the graven images, and molten images shall be utterly broken to pieces and buried.

Here (Nahum 1:15) he pictures a runner hurrying with news to Judah and Jerusalem: "Behold, upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace!" The cry, "Nineveh is fallen," was the best news that came to the whole world at that time. And Nahum thus voices the feelings and sentiments of ail these nations. “O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off."

The attack of the enemy upon Nineveh is described in Nahum 2:1-7. First, he describes the attack upon the fortifications: "He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the fortress, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily." Thus he ironically advised the city to defend themselves against the enemy’s approach. Nahum 2:3: "The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet, the chariots shall be as flaming torches in the day of his preparation, and the cypress spears shall be brandished. The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall Jostle one against another in the broad ways: their appearance is like torches, they run like the lightnings. He remembereth his worthies: they stumble in their walk; they shall make haste to the wall thereof and the mantelet shall be prepared." We can almost see and hear them; the appearance of their chariots is like torches, they run like lightning, as they approach the walls. The enemy now opens the sluice gates of the river which flows into the city and floods it. It is a fact found from excavation that Nineveh was partly destroyed from the water being turned in through the watergates. It is interesting to remember that Diodorus Seculus mentions an old prophecy, that the city would never be taken until the river became its enemy. He moreover declared that during an enemy’s attack the river burst its banks and washed away the wall for twenty stadia. Continuing, Nahum describes the city under the figure of a woman and her attendants. They flee and the enemy captures the spoil.

The inside view of the city during and after the attack is described in Nahum 2:8-13. Here the prophet describes the inhabitants of Nineveh as the besiegers are attacking the walls: "But Nineveh is from of old like a pool of water; yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry, but none shall look back." Thus Nineveh is described as water which has been gathered in a pool but she scattered in every direction. When the cry is made, Stand! Stand! they flee away and look not back. Now the enemy has entered the city and this is the cry: "Take ye the spoil of silver, take ye the spoil of gold, for there is no end of the store and glory of all the pleasant furniture." And they did take all the spoil, after which he thus describes her: "She is empty, and waste, and the heart melteth and the knees smite together, and much pain is in all loins, and the faces of them all are waxed pale." They are about to be sacked.

Then the prophet speaks sarcastically, looking at it from the distance, and seeing the old lion in his den thus besieged: "Where is the den of the lions and the feasting places of the young lions, where the lion and the lioness walked, the lion’s whelp and none made them afraid? The lion (that is, old Nineveh), did tread in pieces enough for his whelps and strangled for his lioness and filled his caves with prey, and his dens with ravens." He is representing Nineveh as a lion in his den, and it was all too true, for thousands and tens of thousands of the hapless inhabitants of other nations were literally strangled, and nation upon nation was seized in order that he might fill his den and his coffers with their wealth. Is it any wonder that the world felt relieved and Jehovah himself gave the prophet a message voicing the sentiment? Then in Nahum 2:13 he says, "I am against thee, saith Jehovah, and I will burn her chariots in the smoke, and the sword shall devour thy young lions; and I will cut off thy prey from the earth, and the voice of thy messengers shall no more be heard."

Then the wreck of the city is described in Nahum 3:1-7. The fall of the city of Nineveh and the causes thereof, are stated in Nahum 3. In the first three verses we have a description of the sack of the city, thus: "Woe to the bloody city I It is all full of lies and rapine; the prey departeth not; the noise of a whip and the noise of the rattling of the wheels, and of the prancing horses, and of the jumping chariots. The horseman mounting and the flashing sword and the glittering spears and there is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcasses; and there is no end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses." The cruelty and savagery of those two hundred years impressed itself upon all those nations, and these soldiers broke into that city, and as Nineveh had never shown any mercy they showed Nineveh no mercy. Now he goes on with the description of her as a harlot: "Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the well-favored harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredom, and families through her witchcrafts. Behold I am against thee, and I will show the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame." All the nations were interested in her destruction. "And I will cast abominable filth upon thee, and make thee vile, and will set thee as a gazing stock. And it shall come to pass, that all they that look upon thee shall flee from thee, and say, Nineveh is laid waste: who will bemoan her? whence shall I seek comforters for thee?" They bemoaned when Tyre fell, they bemoaned Thebes, they bemoaned Egypt, and John pictures how they bemoaned the downfall of Rome, but they never bemoaned Nineveh.

The prophet cites an example in Nahum 3:8-15. He compares the fall of Thebes, or Noamon, with the fall of Assyria, and says, "Art thou better than Noamon, that was situated among the rivers, that had the waters round about her, whose rampart was the sea?" She had mighty allies, too, Ethiopia and Egypt, and had no end of strength. Now he says, "You are no better than she; she suffered; she was carried away into captivity." Then he gives a further description of how the country is infatuated and all the outlying fortresses were taken: "Thou shalt be drunken, thou shalt be hid; thou also shall seek strength because of the enemy." Then he pictures the inhabitants (Nahum 3:13) : "All thy strongholds shall be like fig trees with the first ripe figs; if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater. Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open unto thine enemies; the fire shall devour thy bars." Then in sarcastic and grim irony he tells the people of Nineveh to go to work and try to defend themselves: "Draw water for the siege, fortify thy strongholds: go into clay, and tread the mortar, make strong the brick kiln. There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off; it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm ; make thyself many as the locust."

Nineveh was the greatest commercial center of the age (Nahum 3:16-17). He describes her great commercial prestige thus: "Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the canker-worm spoileth, and fleeth away. Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are." And that is how they all dispersed when the enemy entered the city.

The last two verses close with a grim humor, containing a very significant statement regarding her: "Thy shepherds slumber, O Assyria," are slumbering yet and will continue to slumber. "Thy nobles shall dwell in the dust; thy people are scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them," and they have never been gathered since, and never will be. "There is no assuaging of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous; all that hear the report of thee shall clap their hands over thee." Everybody rejoiced when she went down. “For upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?"

It must have been sometime before this, perhaps, two hundred years before this, that Jonah was sent to Nineveh to preach her destruction in forty days, and Nineveh repented and was saved, but there was no Jonah to preach to her now. Her time had come, her wickedness was too great, she was past redemption, and in 607 B.C. the city of Nineveh ceased to be forever. Excavators have been digging there, and they have found the remains of this great city, the walls and the whole plan of it.

QUESTIONS

1. What is the title of this book, who the author, what of his family, and what the traditions and theories about him and his book?

2. What can you say of the style of Nahum?

3. What is the date of this prophecy?

4. What is the occasion of this prophecy, and what the relation of Nineveh to other nations?

5. Give an account of the capture and downfall of Nineveh.

6. Give an outline of the book of Nahum.

7. What t is he character, majesty, and method of Jehovah as revealed in this prophecy (Nahum 1:2-8)?

8. What is his verdict concerning Nineveh (Nahum 1:9-14)?

9. How is the announcement of Nineveh’s fall to Judah described (Nahum 1:15)?

10. Describe the attack of the enemy upon Nineveh (Nahum 2:1-7).

11. Describe the inside view of the city during and after the attack (Nahum 2:8-13).

12. Describe the wreck of the city and cite the cause (Nahum 3:1-7).

13. What example does the prophet cite and what the lesson (Nahum 3:8-15)?

14. What says the prophet here of the commerce of Nineveh and her merchants (Nahum 3:16-17)?

15. What is the permanent condition of this great city as described in the last two verses?