Introduction to Nahum

THE BOOK OF NAHUM darkly promises Judah’s release from the oppression and cruelty of Nineveh.1 “Everyone who hears the news about you claps his hands at your fall, for who has not felt your endless cruelty?” (Nah. 3:19). Nahum’s prophecy celebrates the fall of the sadistic empire and is a word of judgment against it. The book of Jonah is similar in its prophecy of doom to the Assyrian empire (Jonah 3:4; Nah. 1:1–2), and both end with questions from God, one of hope and one of despair (Jonah 4:11; Nah. 3:19). Both deal with God’s reputation as both a just judge and a forgiving God (as revealed in the golden calf incident in Ex. 34:5–6). Nahum focuses on judgment for the wicked and Jonah on grace to the repentant. Nahum ends without repentance, and history records Nineveh’s fall.

Nahum addresses the question of God’s perspective on unrestrained cruelty and evil action. Reading it aloud takes only about eight minutes, yet it is perhaps the least read book in the Old Testament. Many readers do not immediately identify with the subject matter, and it may be difficult to understand for those who have not been victims of a strong and devastating oppressor. Understanding the specific historical and psychological context of the prophecy is prerequisite for receiving instruction or encouragement from this word of God.

Nahum is primarily a book of hope and comfort to those who are being or have been victimized or oppressed. It is a book for survivors, for those who want to find hope beyond their oppression. Nahum is also a word of warning to believers who find themselves associated with oppressors. When the end comes and Yahweh’s slow anger is unleashed, it is critical to know in whom you place your trust.

Nahum also provides hope to believers who live in the midst of unmitigated cruelty. Modern Assyrian Christians can point to the faithful remnant that repented in the days of Jonah and remained faithful to Yahweh in the fall of Nahum’s Nineveh as their spiritual ancestors. The power and cruelty of Nineveh did not endure but, as Nahum prophesied, dried up and disappeared in the sands of time.

Content and Message

NAHUM IS AN “oracle” (Nah. 1:1). Understanding its language requires knowing something about the basic rhetorical context (e.g., who is speaking to whom) and the historical background (e.g., Nineveh’s reputation). The following overview of the many shifting rhetorical contexts helps to focus the book and oracle as a whole.

Form and Content

THE ORACLE IS divided into three chapters that methodically walk through Yahweh’s wrath against cruelty (ch. 1), the destruction of the destroyers (ch. 2), and the end of Nineveh’s long-running cruelty (ch. 3). These three chapters contain seven rhetorical sections. (1) Chapter 1 has two rhetorical parts, beginning with a description of the power of Yahweh’s wrath against cruelty (1:1–10) and ending with words of reversal for Judah and for Nineveh (1:11–15).

(2) Chapter 2 has two parts, beginning with a vivid description of the final battle inside Nineveh (2:1–10) and ending with a mock lament over the end of Nineveh’s “lions’ den” (a metaphor for the city as a safe haven for its violent military “lions,” 2:11–13).

(3) Chapter 3 has three parts. It begins with graphic descriptions of Nineveh’s cruelty and its then future destruction (3:1–7). It continues by describing its vulnerability (3:8–13) and concludes by describing vain efforts to prepare for the coming battle (against the Babylonians). It also describes the corrupt infrastructure and the joy of the surrounding nations over Nineveh’s fall (3:14–19). These seven subsections comprise the whole oracle.2 For the purposes of this commentary, the seven sections have been further subdivided (see the outline, below).

Nahum’s Name as a Message

THE NAME NAHUM (naḥum) means “comfort” (similar to Nehemiah, which means “Yahweh comforts”). It comes from a Hebrew word root that is translated many different ways, depending on its context.3 Its meanings include “comfort, be sorry, be consoled, be compassionate.” This “compassion” leads to the following translation in Jonah: “God relented concerning the calamity which He had declared He would bring upon them” (3:10 NASB).4 On the occasion of human repentance, therefore, a nuanced translation of the root nḥm means “relent in compassion.”

God’s naḥam also leads to the contra-intuitive translation “avenge.” See, for example, Ezekiel 5:13: “Then my anger will cease and my wrath against them will subside, and I will be avenged” (see also Gen. 4:24; Num. 31:2; 1 Sam. 14:24; 2 Kings 9:7). When victims are rescued from the hands of a violent, oppressive enemy, therefore, the root nḥm contains a dual meaning—compassion on the victims through vengeance on the oppressor. In the book of Nahum, nḥm carries both implications.

Key Concepts

NAHUM ANSWERS THREE primary questions about God:

The following verses are central to understanding Nahum:

An even shorter list of key verses, which form interpretive statements for the whole book, is comprised by the concluding verses of each chapter (1:15; 2:13; 3:19).

The Good News of Nahum

IN WHAT WAY is the book of Nahum a “comfort” and to whom? It is certainly not a comfort to the Ninevites—see 3:7: “All who see you will flee from you and say, ‘Nineveh is in ruins—who will mourn for her?’ Where can I find anyone to comfort you?” Nahum’s message provides comfort to and compassion for the oppressed.

The first sign of compassion is God’s comfort to the violated survivors of cruelty. The primary image of this comfort is the oppressive devouring locusts resting on a cold city wall that fly away when the warm sun of God’s judgment comes (3:17). In 2:13 he tells the oppressors, “I will leave you no prey” (also see 3:1, 19). God is dealing directly with the problem of evil in the world (1:2–3).

The second sign of compassion is the declaration that Yahweh is good, a refuge in times of trouble: “He cares for those who trust in him” (1:7). He sends peace, celebration, and freedom from the fear of violence (1:15). God is a powerful Creator (1:3b–6), who will bring comfort (naḥam) to his beloved creation.

Historical Context

ALMOST NOTHING IS known about the Judean prophet Nahum. He reports his vision of the fall of Nineveh about ninety-five years after the Ninevites carried the northern ten tribes of Israel and many Judean townspeople to slave markets and to death (722 B.C.). Nineveh fell to the Babylonians in 612 B.C., a few years after Nahum’s prophecy. Jerusalem fell to the Babylonians about eighteen years later (594 B.C.) and was totally destroyed in 586 B.C.5

Nahum is a difficult and engaging poetic book, but it is written in a specific kind of historical and sociological setting. It cannot be understood without understanding that setting. Nahum is easily misunderstood if abstracted out of the reality of Assyria’s heinous practices.6

The Audience of Nahum

TWO GROUPS OF people are directly addressed in Nahum: the oppressed of Judah (1:12–13, 15) and the oppressing Ninevites (1:11, 14; 2:1–2, 13; 3:5–19). What does this dual address teach us? The messages given to Judah are a word of comfort that their oppression will end. Most of the prophetic direct address, however, is directed toward Nineveh. They were warned in Jonah’s day, and now they hear the word of judgment again. The warnings of Jonah and Nahum can be compared to those given by the allies to Hitler’s Germany in the early and later parts of World War II. Eventually, the Nazis’ overwhelming human cruelty and the plundering of Europe’s treasures left the allies no option but military confrontation.

It is also possible that the message of doom was heard by believers in Nineveh. Previously Jonah had also spoken a word, and the enemy Nineveh heard a similar prophecy of doom (also given without the obvious option of repentance!). In Nahum’s day, some who still worshiped Yahweh could also have heard the prophecy and remembered the history. This time, however, the prophecy is more than one sentence (“Forty more days and Nineveh will be overturned,” Jonah 3:4). Nahum’s repetition of Nineveh’s doom leaves no doubt that the “overturning” (hapak) means destruction and not repentance.

The Ninevite believers are living in the midst of a cruel people and are ruled by a cruel king. Is there any hope for them? Nahum’s message gives them forewarning of the day when their country will fall under judgment. These believers are an implied minor audience of the text, whose perspective can also be applied to a reading of Nahum. Their implied hearing of the warning of Nineveh’s destruction raises questions of ultimate allegiance and security (as do modern civil religion issues). Will these believers’ first loyalty be to God or to their nation?

Endless Cruelty

NAHUM’S VISION COMES into the care and keeping of believing communities and does not only exist as a word against the endlessly cruel oppressor, Nineveh. The historical context (see above and Jonah’s introduction) provides a general background for understanding Yahweh’s compassion in Nahum’s oracle of destruction. The text of Nahum provides us with additional windows into Nineveh’s atrocities and cultural corruption.

Nineveh enslaved tens of thousands of people, including the northern ten tribes of Israel and many from weaker towns in Judah (Nah. 1:13: “Now I will break their yoke from your neck and tear your shackles away”). They were “vile” in their practices of idol worship. The primary demands of Assyrian gods and goddesses (Assur, Bel, Ishtar, Marduk, Nabu, etc.) were spoils of war. The kings were dedicated to building temples to fill with plundered property and wealth: “The LORD has given a command concerning you, Nineveh: ‘You will have no descendants to bear your name. I will destroy the carved images and cast idols that are in the temple of your gods. I will prepare your grave, for you are vile’” (1:14).

Nineveh employed a “scorched earth” policy in warfare, wreaking environmental disaster in the regions it conquered: “The LORD will restore the splendor of Jacob like the splendor of Israel, though destroyers have laid them waste and have ruined their vines” (2:2). Nineveh’s supply of wealth was “endless” (when it was later plundered by the Babylonians) because it had been plundering all the nations of the ancient east for over one hundred years: “Plunder the silver! Plunder the gold! The supply is endless, the wealth from all its treasures!” (2:9).

The Ninevites were self-satisfied oppressors who preyed on their victims: “Where now is the lions’ den, the place where they fed their young, where the lion and lioness went, and the cubs, with nothing to fear? The lion killed enough for his cubs and strangled the prey for his mate, filling his lairs with the kill and his dens with the prey” (2:11–12).

Nineveh is characterized as a “city of blood” (3:1). It enslaved whole cultures and peoples. It prostituted life and corrupted nature by reducing many societies to serve its national power, “all because of the wanton lust of a harlot, alluring, the mistress of sorceries, who enslaved nations by her prostitution and peoples by her witchcraft” (3:4).

Interpreting Nahum

NAHUM IS A difficult book to read, especially for Christians who take seriously Jesus’ command to love your enemies (Matt. 5:44; Luke 6:27–30). Nahum’s descriptions of God’s judgment are violent: “‘I am against you,’ declares the LORD Almighty. ‘I will lift your skirts over your face.’ … Yet she was taken captive and went into exile. Her infants were dashed to pieces at the head of every street” (Nah. 3:5a, 10a). It is offensive to read these verses and to accept such graphic violence as part of Scripture.

The easiest way to deal with Nahum’s scandalizing words is to create distance between ourselves and his word from God. Those interpreting the book have found many ways of creating such distance.

The difficult challenge for today’s readers is to hear the word of judgment as a living word against them. Only in this way will the text serve to call us to throw ourselves on God’s mercy. The text also serves as a close message of hope for those who have been the victims of oppressive regimes. Nahum may function best as a comfort (naḥam) to them. It declares that God’s justice will prevail against violent oppressors of nations and peoples.