Another Bible Commentary: Nahum

Nahum prophesied this message about 125 years after Jonah got Nineveh to repent. This went unheeded, and Nineveh fell to Babylon and its allies (Medes, Persians, Chaldeans, Scythians, Cimmerians, etc.) in 612 BC. The Tigris and Khosar rivers flooded and breached the wall. Nineveh’s ruin is near Mosul, Iraq.

1:2 like Exodus 34:14.

1:3 like Exodus 34:6-7. Remember, we were already crucified with Christ, so there’s no more punishment coming for us.

1:7 “trust in Him” Faith saves.

1:8 “flood” They may have been thinking in grand Genesis 6 terms when they heard this, but then the wall cracked. Now, God’s enemies die at salvation (Galatians 2:20).

1:15 “the wicked” specifically refers to the Assyrians here. The Babylonians and the Romans were more than happy to pick up the slack.

2:1 Nahum functions like another “city lament” similar to those for Jerusalem and Babylon elsewhere in the Bible.

3:4 The prostitution refers to idols, likely Ishtar worship. Remember this verse when we get to Revelation 17 and Revelation 18.

3:5 like Isaiah 20:1-6, Ezekiel 16:37-39, Hosea 2:3,10. War captives were led away naked. Hookers were sometimes stripped to discourage people from paying for in the dark what they had seen for free in the unflattering light of day. Heirs stripped divorcees to make sure they left with nothing.

3:8 “Thebes” was the home of Amon-Ra, the alleged “king of the gods”, which had been sacked by Assyria.

3:10 like Assyria did to Samaria/Israel in Hosea 13:16.

3:11 Isaiah 51:17-23 explains the metaphor.

3:15-17 Joel’s locusts are here for Nineveh.

3:18 The image of sheep without a shepherd commonly applied to the Hebrews is applied to the Assyrians here.

3:19 like Jeremiah 46:11, but about Assyria.

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