TOM · The Owner's Manual · Old Testament

Nahum 2

Chapter 2 in 30 seconds

Nahum gives a play by play of Nineveh's fall like a war reporter. Red shields, flashing chariots, the river gates burst open and the palace melts. The proud city of lions, which fed on the whole world, is now an empty den. And God says, I am against you.

Tap a color to hide it

In this chapterThe Big QuestionHow Did Nineveh Fall? · after verse 8 Field Notes · ArchaeologyAshurbanipal's Lion Hunt · after verse 11 Field Notes · ArchaeologyThe Nahum Commentary · after verse 13

The Overthrow of Nineveh

¹One who scatters advances

against you, O Nineveh.

Guard the fortress!

Watch the road!

Brace yourselves!

Summon all your strength!

²For Yahweh will restore the splendor of Jacob

like the splendor of Israel,

though destroyers have laid them waste

and ruined the branches of their vine.

³The shields of his mighty men are red;

the valiant warriors are dressed in scarlet.

The fittings of the chariots flash like fire

on the day they are prepared,

and the spears of cypress

have been brandished.

NAH 2:3[NOTE]SHIELDS RED. The attackers were Babylonians and Medes. Red shields may be painted, or red with blood.

⁴The chariots dash through the streets;

they rush around the plazas,

appearing like torches,

darting about like lightning.

⁵He summons his nobles;

they stumble as they advance.

They race to its wall;

the protective shield is set in place.

⁶The river gates are thrown open

and the palace collapses.

NAH 2:6[PROPHECY]The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved → HISTORY: When Nineveh fell in 612 BC, the river flooded and broke the walls, and the palace burned. Recorded by Diodorus 2.27.MEDIUM
NAH 2:6[NOTE]THE RIVER GATES. The Tigris ran by Nineveh, and the Khosr River ran through it. See How Did Nineveh Fall?

⁷It is decreed that the city be exiled

and carried away;

her maidservants moan like doves,

and beat upon their hearts.

NAH 2:7[TEXT]THEIR HEARTS. The Hebrew says upon their hearts; many Bibles say breasts. Beating the chest in grief.

⁸Nineveh has been like a pool of water

throughout her days,

but now it is draining away.

“Stop! Stop!” they cry,

but no one turns back.

The Big Question

How Did Nineveh Fall?

What Nahum Said

Nahum 1:8 · 2:6 · 3:13 · 3:15

WHAT NAHUM SAID: God would make an end of Nineveh with an overwhelming flood, 1:8. The river gates would open and the palace collapse, 2:6. The gates would be wide open and fire would consume their bars, 3:13. Fire would devour the city, 3:15.

How Did Nineveh Fall? · How It Came True

Diodorus 2.26 to 27 · Xenophon, Anabasis 3.4

FIRST: IT FELL: In 612 BC the Babylonians and Medes took Nineveh after a siege of about three months, plundered it and left it a heap of ruins. See The Fall of Nineveh Chronicle.
FIRE: Archaeologists found thick burn layers in Nineveh's palaces. At the Halzi Gate a team digging in 1989 and 1990 found the gate hastily narrowed, and the bones of people who died there in the attack.
FLOOD: THE GREEK STORY: Diodorus, a Greek writer of the first century BC, said a river flood broke down part of the wall in the third year of the siege. His story comes from an older writer and gets things wrong, like calling the river the Euphrates, so many scholars doubt it.
FLOOD: OTHER READINGS: Some think the attackers dammed and released the Khosr River, which ran through the city and its gates. Others read the flood of 1:8 as a picture of an army pouring in like water.
NEVER AGAIN: About 401 BC the Greek soldier Xenophon marched past the ruins and did not even record Nineveh's name.
WHAT ALL SIDES AGREE ON: The city that seemed too big to fall was gone within a few years of Nahum's words, and it was never a great city again.

⁹“Plunder the silver!

Plunder the gold!”

There is no end to the treasure,

an abundance of every precious thing.

NAH 2:9[PROPHECY]The attackers would plunder Nineveh's silver and gold → HISTORY: The Babylonians and Medes carried off great spoil from Nineveh in 612 BC. Recorded in the Babylonian Chronicle.

¹⁰She is emptied!

Yes, she is desolate and laid waste!

Hearts melt, knees knock,

bodies tremble, and every face grows pale!

¹¹Where is the lions’ lair

or the feeding ground of the young lions,

where the lion and lioness prowled with their cubs,

with nothing to frighten them away?

NAH 2:11[NOTE]THE LIONS' DEN. Assyria's kings loved to show themselves as lions and lion hunters. See Ashurbanipal's Lion Hunt.

¹²The lion mauled enough for its cubs

and strangled prey for the lioness.

It filled its dens with the kill,

and its lairs with mauled prey.

NAH 2:12[ARCHAEOLOGY]4Q169, a Qumran commentary on Nahum that reads the lion of 2:12 as a Lion of Wrath who hanged men alive and names Demetrius king of Greece, see The Nahum Commentary Field Notes page
NAH 2:12[NOTE]THE LION. A Qumran commentary on this verse speaks of a Lion of Wrath. See The Nahum Commentary.

¹³“Behold, I am against you,”

declares Yahweh of Hosts.

“I will reduce your chariots to cinders,

and the sword will devour your young lions.

I will cut off your prey from the earth,

and the voices of your messengers

will no longer be heard.”

NAH 2:13[NOTE]I AM AGAINST YOU. The scariest words in the book. Nobody can stand against God.

Field Notes · Archaeology

The Nahum Commentary

Nahum 2:11 to 13 · 3:1 to 5 · Daniel 11

The biggest surviving piece of 4Q169, the Nahum Commentary, shown in two rows. Photo Shai Halevi, Israel Antiquities Authority, Leon Levy Dead Sea Scrolls Digital Library.

WHAT IT IS: A scroll from Qumran Cave 4, called 4Q169 or Pesher Nahum. Pesher means interpretation. It quotes a few words of Nahum, then says what they mean, line after line.
HOW OLD IT IS: It was copied in the last decades before Jesus. The events it talks about happened about 90 BC.
REAL NAMES: Almost no Dead Sea Scroll names real people, but this one does. It names Demetrius king of Greece, who tried to enter Jerusalem, and speaks of the kings of Greece from Antiochus until the rulers of the Kittim, most likely the Romans.
THE LION OF WRATH: On Nahum 2:12, about the lion that tears its prey, it tells of a Lion of Wrath who hanged men alive. Most scholars think this is the Jewish king Alexander Jannaeus. The historian Josephus says that after Demetrius III invaded about 88 BC, Jannaeus crucified 800 of his Jewish enemies.
THE SEEKERS OF SMOOTH THINGS: The scroll blames a group it calls the seekers of smooth things, people who looked for easy answers. Most think it means the Pharisees.
WHY IT MATTERS: It shows how some Jews before Jesus read the prophets: as messages about their own day. If hanging men alive means crucifixion, as most think, it also shows a Jewish king used it, long before Rome crucified Jesus.
HOW IT WAS FOUND: Bedouin and archaeologists found thousands of scroll pieces in Cave 4 in 1952. John Allegro first published part of this scroll in 1956.
NAHUM'S OWN WORDS: Because it quotes Nahum before each comment, it is also one of the oldest witnesses to Nahum's text.
WHO WROTE IT: The people of Qumran, a strict Jewish group. Most scholars think they were Essenes.
WHERE IT IS TODAY: The Israel Antiquities Authority keeps it in Jerusalem.
SEE ALSO: The Fallen Tent at Qumran, Amos, another Qumran scroll that explains the prophets.

CONFIDENCE: HIGH FOR THE SCROLL, DEBATED FOR WHO IS WHO

Nahum 2

The Overthrow of Nineveh

See the whole Bible light up in color.

Frequently asked questions