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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.com | DownloadGreater Men and Women of the Bible by James Hastings: 462. Nahum
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Literature
Douglas, G. C. M., The Six Intermediate Minor Prophets, 91.
Driver, S. R., Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament (1913), 334.
Duhm, B., The Twelve Prophets (1912), 36, 155.
Elmslie, W. G., in Book by Book (1892), 299.
Farrar, F. W., The Minor Prophets (Men of the Bible), 141.
Geikie, C., Hours with the Bible, v. (1883) 115.
Jordan, W. G., Prophetic Ideas and Ideals (1902), 119.
Kirkpatrick, A. F., The Doctrine of the Prophets (1892), 235.
McWilliam, T., Speakers for God (1902), 121.
Maurice, F. D., The Prophets and Kings of the Old Testament (1892), 351.
Orelli, C. von, The Twelve Minor Prophets (1893), 223.
Sanders, F. K., and Kent, C. F., The Messages of the Earlier Prophets (1899), 173.
Smith, G. A., The Book of the Twelve Prophets (Expositor's Bible), ii. (1898) 75.
Smith, J. M. P., Micah, Zephaniah, and Nahum (International Critical Commentary) (1912), 267.
Tipple, S. A., Days of Old (1911), 65.
Wiles, J. P., Half-Hours with the Minor Prophets (1908), 97.
Woods, F. H., and Powell, F. E., The Hebrew Prophets, ii. (1910) 13.
Dictionary of the Bible, iii. (1900) 473 (A. R. S. Kennedy).
Expositor, 5th Ser., viii. (1898) 207 (G. B. Gray).
Hebrew Student, ii. (1882-83) 37 (S. Burnham).
Journal of Biblical Literature, xxvi. (1907) (P. Haupt).
The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.- Nah_1:1.
2. The prophecy of Nahum is simple and unique. It concerns itself with only one theme-Nineveh is on the brink of destruction; there is no possibility of escape for her. In ecstatic contemplation of this “consummation devoutly to be wished” the prophet is wholly absorbed. He can, he will, see nothing else. The task of other prophets had been that of calling their countrymen to repentance and of pointing out to them a much more excellent way to assure themselves of the favour of God than that along which they had been travelling. The future of Israel was precious indeed in the sight of God; but only a radical readjustment of life in the present could make that future anything but disastrous. Of all this Nahum has not a word. In place of it there appears a certain fiery form of indignation against Judah's ancient foe, which exhibits a degree of animosity for which the great ethical prophets furnish no parallel. The pent-up feelings of generations of suffering patriots here burst forth into flame. The whole prophecy is a pæan of triumph over a prostrate foe and breathes out the spirit of exultant revenge.
The utterances preserved in the Book of Nahum are not easily adjustable to a particular time. They represent the feelings of nearly a century. When Sennacherib, in 701 b.c., suddenly returned to Assyria, he did not leave behind him an independent Judah. Jerusalem was inviolate, but the nation was a vassal, and so remained for three-quarters of a century. The prophecy was not delivered earlier than 660, for Nahum uses as an illustration the case of Thebes (No-amon,Nah_3:8), which was captured, in spite of her fancied strength, by Assurbanipal in 663 b.c. On the other hand, it cannot be later than 606, the year of Nineveh's destruction. Between these dates the prophet must have lived. The only clue to the exact date of the predictions is their contents, which describe a hopeless outlook for haughty Nineveh.
Such an outlook could hardly have been imagined before the closing years of Assurbanipal's long (668-625) and brilliant reign. Egypt then successfully revolted. The resolute and hardy mountaineers, the Medes, became dangerous foes. The Scythians swept down from the distant north, spreading unparalleled desolation through the wide and fertile Mesopotamian plains. While none of these foes ventured to attack the capital city, they robbed it of much of its prestige. When the great king died, his nation came to an end as speedily as did Northern Israel after the death of Jeroboam ii. Almost at once, according to Herodotus, the Medes attempted an assault of Nineveh, but were obliged to abandon the attempt because they were summoned back to defend their own homes. Nearly eighteen years later, about 608 b.c., they tried again, and within three years captured the city, and put an end to the Assyrian Empire.1 [Note: F. K. Sanders and C. F. Kent, The Messages of the Earlier Prophets, 174.]
The certain fact is that at the time of Nahum's utterance the prestige of Nineveh was wholly gone. She was threatened with immediate destruction. The enemy was already in the land and her downfall seemed certain. This interpretation might have been placed by Nahum upon the situation as it was either in 625 b.c. or in 608-606 b.c. But the degree of animosity toward Nineveh accords better, perhaps, with the post-Deuteronomic date, 608-606 b.c., than with the pre-Deuteronomic period. The expectation of Nahum was certainly not fulfilled till about 606 b.c., and, if the prophet is to be credited with an adequate knowledge of the movements of his day, we shall be forced to interpret his utterance as applying to the final siege. On the whole, therefore, it is better to place him there than at the earlier date, until we have more definite information as to the course of events in Assyria during her last days and as to the exactness of the information in possession of the Hebrews regarding the political movements of the time. In any case, the significance of the prophecy will remain the same, whichever of the two dates be chosen.1 [Note: J. M. P. Smith.]
3. If Nahum lived and prophesied in the days immediately preceding the downfall of Nineveh, his lot was cast in desperate times. The good King Josiah had but recently fallen in battle at Megiddo. His successor, Jehoahaz, had been taken prisoner to Egypt, after a reign of only three months, and Jehoiakim had been imposed upon Judah as a vassal of Pharaoh-Necho. A heavy annual tribute was laid upon Judah, and it was Jehoiakim's ungracious task to collect and transmit it to Egypt. The practical freedom that had been enjoyed for some time under Josiah had given place to a galling servitude. The news of the approaching end of a former taskmaster was a ray of light amid Egyptian darkness.
As for Nahum himself, we know him only by means of this brief prophecy; and, if it reveals vividness of imagination and intensity of feeling, it certainly shows an unusual narrowness of range in one who possessed great gifts, and who saw these scenes with the poet's eye.
The title calls Nahum the Elḳôshite-that is, native or citizen of Elḳôsh. Three positions have been claimed for this place, which is not mentioned elsewhere in the Bible: Al-Kush, somewhat north of the site of ancient Nineveh; Elkese, a village of Galilee, mentioned by Jerome; and a village of Southern Judah. The first-mentioned locality is attractive in its suggestion that Nahum was an Israelite, expatriated a century before, but still loyal to his ancestral ideals, and that, as an eye-witness, he described with faithfulness the closing scenes in the career of fated Nineveh. One would like to accept the suggestion that here was a man who belonged to “the lost ten tribes” and was not lost; a member of that section of Israel which suffered most severely from Assyria commissioned to herald the doom of the proud, cruel empire. There would surely be more than “poetic justice” in that; such a view may be permitted as a “pious opinion,” but cannot claim to rank as a sure result of historical investigation.
4. Nahum's poetry is fine. Of all the prophets he is the one who in dignity and force approaches most nearly to Isaiah. His descriptions are singularly picturesque and vivid; his imagery is effective and striking; the thought is always expressed compactly; the parallelism is regular; there is no trace of that prolixity of style which becomes soon afterwards a characteristic of the prophets of the Chaldæan period. His language is strong and brilliant; his rhythm rumbles and rolls, leaps and flashes, like the horsemen and chariots he describes. He has an unexcelled capacity for bringing a situation vividly before the mind's eye. His constructive imagination lays hold of the central elements of a scene and with realistic imagery and picturesque phraseology recreates it for his readers. Through the whole scene there moves a mighty passion and a great joy which lift the narrative out of the commonplace into the majestic and make of it great literature.