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Nahum the prophet
Very little is known about the prophet Nahum. His name means 'comfort' or 'consolation'. His home town was Elkosh (1:1). Its location is unknown, but is probably in Judah. Like Jonah, Nahum's message was to the city of Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, which finally fell to the Babylonian armies in 612 BC. His contemporaries were Habakkuk, Zephaniah and Jeremiah.
Date of the book
There are two historical indicators of the date of the prophecy. The first is that Nahum refers to Ashurbanipal's sack of Thebes in Egypt as a past event, which occurred in 663 BC. "Are you better than Thebes that sat by the Nile, with water around her, her rampart a sea, water her wall?" (Nah 3:8). The Hebrew text uses the original Egyptian name for Thebes, No-Amon. This was during Ashurbanipal's first campaign against Pharaoh Tanutamon of Egypt.
This is the Ashurbanipal's account of the capture of Thebes on the Rassam Cylinder, "Tirhaka, King of Egypt and Ethiopia, heard in Memphis of the progress of my campaign, and summoned his warriors to prepare battle, weapons, and war in my front. Under the protection of Ashur, Bel, and Nabu, the great gods, my lords, who walked at my side, in battle upon the wide field I inflicted defeat upon his forces. Tirhaka heard in Memphis of the overthrow of his forces. The brilliancy of Ashur and Ishtar overwhelmed him, and he lost control of himself. The splendour of my kingship, wherewith the gods of heaven and earth have adorned me, fell upon him, and he abandoned Memphis and fled into Thebes in order to save his life. I captured that city, brought my forces into it, and settled them therein."
Secondly, he predicts the fall of Nineveh as a future event, which occurred in 612 BC. Three kings of Judah ruled between these dates: Manasseh (687-641 BC), Amon (642-640 BC) and Josiah (640-609 BC). Nahum brings no word of judgement or condemnation on Judah, but only words of encouragement (1:12-15). This would imply that Nahum prophesied either following the repentance of Manasseh (2 Chr 33:14-17), otherwise during or after the reforms of King Josiah (2 Chr 34:3).
Nahum predicts that Judah will be delivered from oppression by Assyria, "And now I will break off his yoke from you and snap the bonds that bind you." (Nah 1:13). By the time of Josiah's reforms, Assyria had already become weaker, and its influence on Judah decreased.
If Nahum was set during the reign of Manasseh, a date could be in the 640's BC, during the reign of Ashurbanipal (669-631 BC), the last powerful king of Assyria. If set during the reign of Josiah, then a date between 632 and 622 BC would be most likely.
The Jewish rabbinic chronicle Seder Olam Rabbah (The Great Order of the World) from the second century BC which describes biblical history from Creation to Alexander the Great states that the prophets Joel, Nahum, and Habakkuk prophesied in the days of Manasseh (Seder Olam Rabbah 20).
Content of the book
Nahum's message is primarily concerned with the impending doom of the city of Nineveh, which once it falls, will bring relief to the kingdom of Judah. So, the message is doom to Nineveh but comfort and consolation to Judah. Two sins of Nineveh are denounced: The first is Assyria's military might which had been used with indiscriminate ferocity (2:1-13). The second is that Assyria's commerce had deliberately corrupted the surrounding nations to provide the luxuries of the city. Morality and honesty counted for nothing, everything was secondary to the acquisition of wealth and pleasure (3:1-4)
To Judah, the messengers were bringing the good news that Nineveh had fallen. God's people were summoned as an act of thanksgiving for the destruction of the oppressor, to observe God's appointed feasts and to discharge their vows, their obligations and commitments to God (1:15).
Jonah's message to Nineveh was one of mercy, Nahum's was one of doom, but together they show God's dealings with the nations. They show that God prolongs the day of his grace, but when that day is exhausted, he comes in judgement for their sins. Jonah's message and Nineveh's repentance from a hundred years before had been forgotten by the time of Nahum. Nothing remained now but God's judgement.
Structure of the book
Ch 1 Judgement on Nineveh declared
Ch 2 Judgement on Nineveh described
Ch 3 Judgement on Nineveh defended
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