Nahum
Nahum was a minor prophet whose prophecy is recorded in the Tanakh, the Old Testament. His book comes in chronological order between Micah and Habakkuk in the Bible. Nahum's name means "comforter" or “Consolation” or “Consoler”, and he was from the town of Elkoshite, "God the ensnarer".[1]
There is a question as to the time and purpose of this writing. There are those who suggest that his writings are a prophecy written in about 615 BC or they may be an historical account written as a liturgy just after its downfall in 612 BC to remind people lest they forget. The form we now have may be both the result of the Prophecy and subsequent recorded final writing of an earlier prophecy.
He supposedly preached during the reign of King Manesseh, an evil kings in Judah’s long history. Not only did the king need to learn the lessons of being a good king and the people needed to repent of their idolatry in a nation that had completely turned its back on The Way of God. So, this would mean Nahum was written near the end of the Assyrian Empire, and its capital city, Nineveh.Cite error: Closing </ref> missing for <ref> tag and conquering the northern kingdom of Israel and exercising their power over Judah in the south (2 Kings 17:1–6; 2 Kings 18:13 through 2 Kings 19:37).
A great deal of confusion has followed the interpretations of Nahum by men like Calvin. God has created a cause and effect universe and tyrants would have no power to wreak their havoc if the people had not already rejected the way of God and His righteousness as they had done in 1 Samuel 8. Charles L. Taylor, Jr. writes "it is one of the world’s classic rebukes of militarism…. All tyrants are doomed. They make enemies of those whom they attack and oppress; they become corrupt, dissolute, drunken, effeminate; they are lulled into false security… ". [2]
Nahum | Nahum 1 | Nahum 2 | Nahum 3
Preceded by: Micah - Followed by: Habakkuk
- ↑ 0512 אֶלְקשִׁי ‘Elqoshiy [el-ko-shee’] patrial from a name of uncertain derivation; adj pr gent; [BDB-49a] [{See TWOT on 90 }] AV-Elkoshite 1; 1 Elkoshite= "God the ensnarer"
- 1) a native and/or descendant of Elkosh (location unknown)
- ↑ Taylor, C. L.-I. (1956). The Interpreters' Bible (first ed., Vol. VI Lamentations through Malachi, p. 954). (S. T. George Arthur Buttrick, Ed.) Nashville: Abingdon Press.