Nahum

Authorship, date, and setting

The heading names Nahum the Elkoshite but does not securely locate his hometown. Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, is the book's target. The reference to the fall of No-amon, or Thebes, in 3:8–10 and the announcement of Nineveh's ruin place the prophecy between those events of the seventh century BCE. Its exact date of composition is unknown.

Structure of the three chapters

Chapter 1 portrays the Lord's power over nature and announces relief for Judah. Chapter 2 depicts the assault on the city, its flight, and its plunder. Chapter 3 explains the verdict against the violent city and ends with a question addressed to those who suffered under its rule.

Themes and key passages

In 1:2–7, storm language joins judgment to refuge: the God who confronts opponents also knows those who trust him. The messenger of 1:15 announces peace to Judah. The lion image in 2:11–13, once a sign of Nineveh's strength, is reversed by the destruction of its den. In 3:1, the charge of bloodshed, deceit, and plunder gives the moral reason for the attack just narrated.

Summary by parts

Chapter 1 moves from divine appearance to a promise to break Assyria's yoke over Judah. In chapter 2, attackers advance, defenses give way, inhabitants flee, and the city's treasure is taken. Chapter 3 accuses the city of violence and exploitation. The memory of Thebes' defeat challenges the idea that a fortified place cannot fall. The ending depicts absent rulers and a scattered people, with no scene of Nineveh's rebuilding.

Reception and transmission

Nahum belongs to the Twelve Prophets in the Hebrew Bible and in Christian Old Testaments. Its three chapters were transmitted as an oracle against Nineveh. Its celebration of an empire's fall should be read alongside the explicit charge of cruelty in chapter 3; the text speaks from the experience of peoples subjected to Assyria.

Sources

• Emil G. Hirsch e Ira Maurice Price, Nahum, Book of (1906).
• Emil G. Hirsch e J. F. McLaughlin, Nahum (1906).