Nahum - Introduction

THE BOOK OF NAHUM
LESSON 1: INTRODUCTION

Nineveh before the Destruction
The picture is an artist's rendition of Assyrian palaces from "The Monuments of Nineveh" by Sir Austen Henry Layard 1853. Based on archaeological evidence, the painting reveals ancient Nineveh as it might have looked in the 8-7^th century BC.

The Book of Nahum is in the list of books of the Latter Prophets, a group of books in the Hebrew Bible that include the four major prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel) and the twelve Minor Prophets (Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi). Nahum is the seventh in the list of the Minor Prophets in the Hebrew and Greek manuscripts and the Christian Old Testament. Called "The Twelve" in the Hebrew canon, the Christian Bible refers to the collection as the "Minor Prophets," not because they are less important than the "Major Prophets," but because the books are shorter.

Nahum's name means "comfort" or "consolation." Nahum is likely the short form of Nahumiah, "Yahweh comforts." The poetry of the Book of Nahum reveals him as one of the great poets of Israel. His message of destruction for the Assyrian city of Nineveh was a source of comfort to the citizens of Judah. They had suffered from the cruelty of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, which included the conquest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and the deportation of its population into the Assyrian lands in 732 (2 Kings 15:29) and the final deportation of Samaria in 722 BC (2 Kings 17:1-6).

Nahum's book was written about a century after God's prophet Jonah successfully called the Ninevites to short-lived repentance in circa 760 BC (the Book of Jonah; also see the study on the Book of Jonah in the Agape Bible Study list of Bible studies). A century later, the people of Nineveh had returned to violence, idolatry, arrogance, and oppression of the poor. As a result, Nahum, as the voice of Yahweh, announced that the armies of the Kingdom of Babylon would eradicate the city so completely that it would never recover.

Genesis 10:11 relates that Ashur, the ancestor of the Assyrians, founded ancient Nineveh. The city was an important population center as far back as the 4^th millennium BC and was first mentioned in cuneiform literature at the end of the 2^nd millennium BC. Nineveh was the royal residence of Assyria from the time of Tiglath-Pileser I in the 11^th century to the reign of Sargon II (722-705 BC), who built a new capital. Assyrian King Sennacherib (705-681 BC) restored the royal residence to Nineveh, creating a new palace and massive fortifications, including a wall with a perimeter of about 7.5 miles. The ancient city covered more than twice the area of modern Mosul, Iraq.

Nahum's oracles and visions can be dated to several years before the fall of Nineveh. The city was besieged by the Neo-Babylonians and the Medes in 614 BC and taken by storm in 612 BC.
In addition to being the theme of the prophecies of Nahum, Nineveh is the scene of the ministry of Jonah. Zephaniah, a contemporary of the fall of Nineveh, also mentions the event of the city's destruction (Zeph 2:13). The remains of the ancient city of Nineveh lie on the left bank of the Tigris River across the stream from the modern city of Mosul. The destruction of Nineveh and the collapse of the Assyrian kingdom doomed the site almost to complete oblivion, and its ruins remained unidentified by archaeologists until the first half of the 19^th century AD.

The Neo-Assyrian Empire collapsed when the Neo-Babylonian army destroyed its major cities. Among Nahum's proclamation of doom for Nineveh was the condemnation of the inhumanities of the Assyrian army (Nahum 2:12) and the sins of Nineveh's citizens (Nahum 3:4). God's holiness, justice, and power made it inevitable that the wicked people of Ninevah would perish under His divine wrath (Nahum 1:2-10). The oracles and visions were probably delivered sometime after 663 BC, when Thebes, the capital of the Egyptian Empire (called "No Amon" in Nahum 3:8), was captured by Assyria. Since Thebes threw out the Assyrians and regained independence in 654 BC, and Nahum does not mention that event, many Biblical scholars speculate that the book may have been written between 663 and 654 BC. The fall of Nineveh and the Assyrian Empire was a demonstration of the Israelite belief that Yahweh does not permit the wicked and godless oppressor to go unpunished.

The Book of Nahum is divided into three parts:

The decree of the destruction of Nineveh (1:1-14/15).
The description of the destruction of Nineveh (2:1-13/14).
The deserved destruction of Nineveh (3:1-19).

BIBLICAL PERIOD	<#8: After the Assyrian conquest and exile of the Northern Kingdom of Israel but before the Babylonian conquest and exile of Judah.
FOCUS	Yahweh gives Nahum oracles and visions of Nineveh's destruction.
COVENANT	The Sinai Covenant
SCRIPTURE	1:1---------------------2:1----------------------------3:1--------------------------19
DIVISION	Oracle #1 The Destruction of Nineveh is Decreed	Oracle #2 The Destruction of Nineveh is Described	Oracle #3 The Destruction of Nineveh is Deserved
TOPIC	Principles of Divine Judgment	The Call to Battle	God's Reasons for the Destruction of Nineveh
	Destruction of Nineveh and Deliverance of Judah	The Destruction of Nineveh	Destruction of Nineveh is Inevitable
LOCATION	Judah
TIME	c. 660 BC

One of the most groundbreaking discoveries of 2021 was the recovery of more ancient scrolls near the Dead Sea that were hidden at the time of the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome, called the Bar Kokhba Revolt (132 – 136 AD). The scrolls are the first Dead Sea Scrolls discovered by archaeological excavation in more than 60 years. They contained Greek translations of the Books of Zechariah and Nahum and offered new light on the history of the Bible.
All Biblical passages in the lessons are from the New Jerusalem Bible translation, 1985 edition. The New Jerusalem Bible uses God's holy covenant name, Yahweh, as written in the original Hebrew text. Most modern English translations substitute the Divine Name of God with the word LORD. CCC is the abbreviation for the Catechism of the Catholic Church, and NABRE is the abbreviation for the New American Bible Revised Edition.