Nahum
Author: Nahum
Nahum of Elkosh announces the fall of Nineveh, the capital that had crushed nations and that Jonah had seen spared.
Outline
The Lord’s character (1)
The Lord is jealous and slow to anger, and he is good to those who trust him while he breaks Nineveh’s yoke.
The siege (2)
Chariots rage in the streets, and the lion’s den that stored prey is emptied.
The bloody city (3)
Nineveh is charged with harlotry and sorcery, and her fall is compared with No-amon.
Key verses
Nahum 1:7
In the midst of the threat, the Lord is good and a stronghold in the day of trouble.
Nahum 1:15
The feet of a messenger on the mountains bring good tidings that the wicked will no more pass through.
Nahum 3:1
Nineveh is called a bloody city, full of lies and robbery.
Nahum is an oracle against Nineveh. Jonah had preached there and the city had turned, for a time, under a king who covered himself with sackcloth. Nahum speaks later, when Nineveh is again the bloody city, the capital of the empire that took the northern kingdom and boasted over Judah. The book does not reopen a mission to the Assyrians. It announces that the Lord has an end for the city that sold nations.
The opening is a psalm about the Lord rather than a map of the walls. God is jealous, and the Lord avenges. He is slow to anger and great in power, and he will not at all acquit the wicked. The whirlwind and storm are his path. Bashan, Carmel, and Lebanon languish. Mountains quake. Who can stand before his indignation? The same chapter says the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and he knows those who trust in him. He will make an utter end of the place of his enemies. The river gates are in view. Judah is told that the yoke will be broken and the bonds burst. The feet of him who brings good tidings are on the mountains. Keep your feasts, O Judah. The wicked one will no more pass through you. He is utterly cut off. Comfort for Judah and ruin for Nineveh are one announcement.
The second chapter is the siege in motion. The destroyer comes up. Watch the way. Red shields and scarlet soldiers. Chariots rage in the streets and jostle in the broad ways. The gates of the rivers are opened, and the palace is dissolved. Nineveh is like a pool of water running away. The officers cry, stand, stand, and no one looks back. The lion tore enough for his whelps and filled his holes with prey. The Lord of hosts is against her. He will burn her chariots in the smoke. The voice of her messengers will no longer be heard. The image of the lion’s den is the empire’s self-portrait turned against it. What she stored from the nations is taken.
The last chapter will not let the reader admire the fall as spectacle only. Woe to the bloody city. It is full of lies and robbery. The prey does not depart. The noise of a whip, the prancing horses, the jumping chariots, the horseman lifting the bright sword. Corpses are without number. The charge is the multitude of her harlotries and the families she sold through her witchcrafts. Are you better than No-amon, the city of the Nile that also had rivers, walls, and allies, and that went into captivity? Nineveh’s people are scattered. All who look on her flee and say, who will bemoan her? The shepherds slumber. The nobles dwell in the dust. There is no healing of the bruise. Nahum’s book is short because the verdict is not a debate. The capital that passed through Judah as a wicked one will itself be cut off, and the goodness of the Lord is stated for the people who had lived under that yoke.