TOM · The Owner's Manual · Old Testament

Nahum 1

Before you read Nahum: who, when, why

BOOK 34 OF 66 · OLD TESTAMENT · MINOR PROPHETS

Jonah: The Sequel

AUTHOR: Nahum the Elkoshite, 1:1. His name means comfort. Nothing else is known about him.
DATE: Between the fall of Thebes, about 663 BC, which he looks back on, 3:8 to 10, and the fall of Nineveh in 612 BC.
WRITTEN TO: Spoken against Nineveh, written to comfort Judah under Assyria's heavy hand.
ANCIENT MANUSCRIPTS: Parts of Nahum are in 4QXII g, a Qumran scroll of the Twelve Prophets, in the Greek scroll of the Twelve from Nahal Hever and in the Hebrew scroll from Wadi Murabbaat. A Qumran commentary, 4Q169, quotes it line by line.
KEY VERSE: Nahum 1:7. Yahweh is good, a stronghold in the day of distress.

The Oldest Copies of Nahum

Pieces of 4Q169, a commentary on Nahum from Qumran Cave 4, copied in the last decades before Jesus. It quotes Nahum line by line and explains each line. Copies of the book itself are in 4QXII g, a Qumran scroll of the Twelve, in the Greek scroll of the Twelve from Nahal Hever, and in the Hebrew scroll from Wadi Murabbaat. See The Murabbaat Scroll, Joel, and The Nahum Commentary. Photo Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority, Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.

The Setting

For more than a century Assyria had ruled the Near East by terror. It wiped out Israel, squeezed Judah for tribute and sacked cities as far away as Thebes in Egypt. Jonah's Nineveh had turned to God, but that was long ago. Now Nahum announces that the bully's time is up.

What Went Wrong

Cruelty. Nineveh is the city of blood, full of lies and plunder, 3:1, and everyone has felt its constant cruelty, 3:19.
Plotting Against God. A counselor of wickedness plotted evil against Yahweh, 1:11.
Idols. God will cut off the carved image and cast idol from the house of its gods, 1:14.
Sorcery. Nineveh is called the mistress of sorcery who betrays nations by her prostitution and clans by her witchcraft, 3:4.

Where to Find Jesus

Nahum 1:15. The feet of one who brings good news. Paul uses the same words for those sent to preach the gospel of Jesus, Romans 10:15.
Nahum 1:4. He rebukes the sea. Jesus rebuked the wind and the sea, and it was perfectly calm, Mark 4:39.
Nahum 1:7. A stronghold in the day of distress. Jesus' words are the rock to build on when the storm hits, Matthew 7:24 to 25.

Cool Stuff Most People Miss

Jonah: the Sequel. The same city, the same God, the same words from Exodus 34. Jonah stopped at the mercy, Nahum went on to the justice.
Nahum'S Village. Capernaum, Jesus' home base in Galilee, means village of Nahum in Hebrew, though no one knows which Nahum. See Where Was Elkosh?
A Commentary With Names. A Dead Sea Scroll explaining Nahum names real Greek kings, Demetrius and Antiochus. See The Nahum Commentary.
Both End With A Question. Jonah ends with God asking a question, and so does Nahum: who has not felt your constant cruelty? 3:19.

How Does It End?

Just as Nahum said. In 612 BC the Babylonians and Medes broke into Nineveh and burned it, and the last Assyrian king disappears from history a few years later. Nineveh was never a great city again. About two hundred years later a Greek soldier marched past its ruins and did not even record its name.

Chapter 1 in 30 seconds

Nahum opens with a storm of a poem: God is slow to anger, but He will not let the guilty walk. He is a safe place for those who trust Him and a flood for those who fight Him. Then the good news: Judah's chains are coming off, and Nineveh's name is going in the grave.

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In this chapterThe Big Question · Christians disagreeWhere Was Elkosh? · after verse 1 The Big Question · Christians disagreeWhy Judge Nineveh After Jonah? · after verse 6 The Big Question · Christians disagreeIs God Vengeful? · after verse 8

The Burden against Nineveh// Jonah 1:1–3

¹This is the burden against Nineveh, the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite:

NAH 1:1[NOTE]NAHUM. His name means comfort. His message was terrible news for Nineveh and comfort for Judah. See Where Was Elkosh?
NAH 1:1[NOTE]NINEVEH. The same city Jonah preached to more than a century earlier. See The Walls of Nineveh, Jonah, and Why Judge Nineveh After Jonah?

The Big Question · Christians disagree

Where Was Elkosh?

Nahum's Hometown

Nahum 1:1

WHAT THE BIBLE SAYS: Only that Nahum was the Elkoshite, 1:1. Elkosh is never named anywhere else in the Bible, and no one knows for sure where it was.

Where Was Elkosh? · Every View

Matthew 4:13 · John 7:52

VIEW 1: ALQOSH IN IRAQ: A town called Alqosh, north of Mosul, has a tomb said to be Nahum's. Jews kept it as a holy place for centuries, until they left Iraq around 1950. It was restored in recent years. The tradition is first known from about the 1500s.
VIEW 2: A VILLAGE IN GALILEE: Jerome, about AD 400, said Elkosh was a small village in Galilee, still known in his day.
VIEW 3: CAPERNAUM: Capernaum means village of Nahum in Hebrew. Some think it was named for the prophet, though Nahum was a common name.
VIEW 4: SOUTHERN JUDAH: An old book called the Lives of the Prophets places Elkosh in southern Judah, near Beth Guvrin, in the land of Simeon.
WHAT ALL SIDES AGREE ON: We know Nahum's message far better than his address.

²Yahweh is a jealous and avenging God;

Yahweh is avenging and full of wrath.

Yahweh takes vengeance on His foes

and reserves wrath for His enemies.

NAH 1:2[TEXT]AN ALPHABET POEM. In Hebrew, 1:2 to 8 is a broken acrostic: the lines start with the letters of the alphabet from aleph to kaph, with some letters missing or out of order.
NAH 1:2[NOTE]A HYMN, NOT A QUOTE. 1:2 to 11 is Nahum praising God, not God speaking, so it prints black. See Is God Vengeful?

³Yahweh is slow to anger

and great in power;

Yahweh will by no means

leave the guilty unpunished.

His path is in the whirlwind and storm,

and clouds are the dust beneath His feet.

NAH 1:3[NOTABLE]Jonah quoted the mercy half of Exodus 34:6 to 7; Nahum quotes the justice half. God is patient, but His patience has an end.
NAH 1:3[NOTE]SLOW TO ANGER, BUT. Jonah quoted the mercy in God's words to Moses, Exodus 34:6, Jonah 4:2. Nahum repeats slow to anger, then goes on to the justice: He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished, Exodus 34:7.

⁴He rebukes the sea and dries it up;

He makes all the rivers run dry.

Bashan and Carmel wither,

and the flower of Lebanon wilts.

NAH 1:4[NOTE]HE REBUKES THE SEA. Jesus rebuked the wind and the sea, and it was perfectly calm, Mark 4:39.

⁵The mountains quake before Him,

and the hills melt away;

the earth trembles at His presence—

the world and all its dwellers.

⁶Who can withstand His indignation?

Who can endure His burning anger?

His wrath is poured out like fire;

even rocks are shattered before Him.

The Big Question · Christians disagree

Why Judge Nineveh After Jonah?

The Same City Twice

Nahum 1:3 · Jonah 3:10 · 4:2

THE PUZZLE: In Jonah, Nineveh repents and God spares it, Jonah 3:10. In Nahum, more than a century later, God says He will destroy it. Did God change His mind?
THE TWO HALVES: Exodus 34:6 to 7 says Yahweh is compassionate and gracious, slow to anger, but He will by no means leave the guilty unpunished. Jonah stopped at the mercy, Jonah 4:2. Nahum repeats slow to anger and goes on to the justice, 1:3.

Why Judge Nineveh After Jonah? · Every View

Exodus 34:6 to 7 · Jeremiah 18:7 to 10 · 2 Kings 17:5 to 6

VIEW 1: THE REPENTANCE DID NOT LAST: Most say Nineveh turned back to evil. After Jonah, Assyria destroyed Israel in 722 BC, 2 Kings 17:5 to 6, attacked Judah, and boasted of its cruelty. God spared one generation, not every generation after it.
VIEW 2: GOD'S RULE: God told Jeremiah that if a nation turns from evil He will relent, and if it turns to evil He will change His plans for good, Jeremiah 18:7 to 10. Nineveh went both ways.
VIEW 3: A PAIR OF BOOKS: Many read Jonah and Nahum together on purpose. Jonah shows God's patience with enemies, Nahum shows that His patience has an end.
WHAT ALL SIDES AGREE ON: God did not change. Nineveh did, twice.

⁷Yahweh is good,

a stronghold in the day of distress;

He cares for those who trust in Him.

NAH 1:7[NOTABLE]In the middle of a poem about God's anger is one of the Bible's most comforting promises. The same God is a flood to His enemies and a fortress to those who trust Him.
NAH 1:7[NOTE]A STRONGHOLD. The same God who is a flood to His enemies is a fortress for those who trust Him.

⁸But with an overwhelming flood

He will make an end of Nineveh

and pursue His enemies into darkness.

NAH 1:8[PROPHECY]With an overflowing flood He will make an utter end of Nineveh → HISTORY: The Babylonians and Medes took Nineveh in 612 BC. A Greek writer says a flooded river broke down part of the city wall. Recorded in the Babylonian Chronicle and by Diodorus 2.27.MEDIUM
NAH 1:8[NOTE]AN OVERWHELMING FLOOD. See How Did Nineveh Fall?

The Big Question · Christians disagree

Is God Vengeful?

A Jealous and Avenging God

Nahum 1:2 to 8

WHAT IT SAYS: Yahweh is a jealous and avenging God, full of wrath, 1:2. To many readers today that sounds like a bad temper, not a good God.
THE QUESTION: What does it mean that God is jealous and takes vengeance, and how does that fit with God is love?

Is God Vengeful? · Every View

Exodus 20:5 · Deuteronomy 32:35 · Romans 12:19 · Revelation 6:10

JEALOUS: In the Bible God's jealousy is like a faithful husband's: He will not share His people with idols, Exodus 20:5. It is love that refuses to let go.
VENGEANCE: Vengeance means justice for victims. Nineveh had crushed nation after nation, 3:19. If God did nothing, He would not be good. Because vengeance belongs to God, His people do not have to take it themselves, Deuteronomy 32:35 and Romans 12:19.
AN OLD OBJECTION: About AD 140 a teacher named Marcion said the angry God of the Old Testament was a different god from the Father of Jesus. The church rejected his teaching. Jesus Himself warned of judgment, and in Revelation the martyrs cry out to God for justice, Revelation 6:10.
VIEW: STILL HARD: Many Christians admit these words are hard to read. They answer that God's anger is aimed at evil, and that 1:3 and 1:7 stand right beside 1:2: slow to anger, and good to those who trust Him.
WHAT ALL SIDES AGREE ON: Nahum's God is slow to anger and good, 1:3 and 1:7, but He is not soft on evil.

⁹Whatever you plot against Yahweh,

He will bring to an end.

Affliction will not rise up

a second time.

¹⁰For they will be entangled as with thorns

and consumed like the drink of a drunkard—

like stubble that is fully dry.

¹¹From you, O Nineveh, comes forth

a plotter of evil against Yahweh,

a counselor of wickedness.

¹²This is what Yahweh says:

“Though they are allied and numerous,

yet they will be cut down and pass away.

Though I have afflicted you, O Judah,

I will afflict you no longer.

NAH 1:12[NOTE]THIS IS WHAT YAHWEH SAYS. From here God Himself speaks, so His words print red.

¹³For I will now break their yoke from your neck

and tear away your shackles.”

NAH 1:13[NOTE]BREAK THEIR YOKE. Judah had paid tribute to Assyria for about a century, since King Ahaz, 2 Kings 16:7 to 8.

¹⁴Yahweh has issued a command concerning you, O Nineveh:

“There will be no descendants

to carry on your name.

I will cut off the carved image and cast idol

from the house of your gods;

I will prepare your grave,

for you are contemptible.”

NAH 1:14[PROPHECY]Nineveh would have no one to carry on its name and God would prepare its grave → HISTORY: The Babylonians and Medes destroyed Nineveh in 612 BC. The last Assyrian king lost Harran by 609 BC, and Assyria was gone. Recorded in the Babylonian Chronicle.
NAH 1:14[DEMONIC]God will cut off the carved idols from Nineveh's temple

¹⁵Look to the mountains—

the feet of one who brings good news,

who proclaims peace!

Celebrate your feasts, O Judah;

fulfill your vows.

For the wicked will never again march through you;

they will be utterly cut off.

NAH 1:15[FORESHADOW]One would come on the mountains bringing good news and proclaiming peace → ROM 10:15MEDIUM
NAH 1:15[TEXT]THE VERSE NUMBERS. In Hebrew Bibles this verse is 2:1, so every verse of chapter 2 is one number higher in Hebrew; 2:1 here is 2:2 there.
NAH 1:15[NOTE]GOOD NEWS. Isaiah 52:7 uses nearly the same words, and Paul quotes Isaiah about those sent to preach the gospel, Romans 10:15.

Nahum 1

The Oldest Copies of Nahum

The Setting

What Went Wrong

Where to Find Jesus

Cool Stuff Most People Miss

How Does It End?

The Burden against Nineveh// Jonah 1:1–3

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