Nahúm

The destruction of Nineveh is the one burden of Nahum. The prophet’s name means Comfort, and his word of comfort is for Judah, “The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble, and He knoweth them that trust in Him” (Nahum 1:7). “Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings and publisheth peace,” points forward to the proclamation of the good tidings of the Prince of Peace.

Nineveh. The rest of the prophecy is wholly concerned with Nineveh. The dwelling-place of the prophet is uncertain. It may have been Capernaum, “the city of Nahum.” The time in which he prophesied, from internal evidence, seems to have been between the fall of No-Amon (Thebes) in Upper Egypt, 663 B.C., and the fall of Nineveh, 606 B.C., for he speaks of the one as past (Nahum 3:8–10) and the other as future (Nahum 1:8, 14).

“The prophecy of Nahum is both the complement and the counterpart of the book of Jonah” (Dr. Pussy). God revealed His Name to Moses as showing His two-fold character. “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, long-suffering and forgiving iniquity, and that will by no means clear the guilty.” Jonah dwells on the first side of God’s character (Jonah 4:2), Nahum brings out the second. “A jealous God and Avenger is the Lord…. The Lord is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked.” God had shown His long suffering to the great city. It had repented at the preaching of Jonah. But though multitudes of individuals were, no doubt, truly turned to the Lord, its repentance as a nation was short-lived, and we find it guilty again of the very sins from which it had repented, violence and insatiable cruelty (Nahum 2:11–12). But beyond all this, Nineveh seems to have been guilty of an open defiance of the living God, as shown in the blasphemous attitude of Sennacherib, and in the allusions of Nahum 1:9, 11.

The doom of the city was delayed two hundred years, but it fell at last, and Nahum’s prophecy was one of unconditional and final destruction. With an over-running flood would God make a full end of her; her name should be utterly cut off, and He would dig her grave. The mustering of the armies round Nineveh, the marshalling of the forces within the city, are described with graphic eloquence.

The destruction of Nineveh was complete. It occurred almost at the zenith of her power. According to Nahum’s prophecy, it came true that the Tigris assisted the attacking army of the Medes and Babylonians in its overthrow (Nahum 2:6), and it was partly destroyed by fire (Nahum 3:13, 15). So deep and so effectually did God dig its grave that every trace of its existence disappeared for ages, and its site was not known. But its excavations since 1841 have been confirming the truth of God’s Word.

The City of Thebes. Among other revelations, we have the actual fall of the city of Thebes, No-Amon, alluded to by Nahum, described on the monuments in the words of Assur-banipal, the Assyrian king, who was its conqueror. He tells us how completely he took the city, carrying off its gold and silver and precious stones, and two lofty obelisks, covered with beautiful sculptures, weighing 2500 talents (over 90 tons), which he raised from their place and transported to Assyria, with a great and countless booty.