Minor Prophets · Old Testament
Nahum
c. 660–630 BC
- Section
- Minor Prophets · Old Testament
- Events span
- c. 660–630 BC
- Written
- c. 640 BC critical view: c. 663–612 BC
- Author
- Nahum of Elkosh critical view: Nahum (otherwise unknown)
Nahum proclaims the coming fall of Nineveh, the brutal capital of Assyria — the very city that had repented under Jonah a century earlier but returned to cruelty. It is a message of comfort to Judah: God is just, and no empire escapes his judgment.
Chronological placement: Written c. 640 BC, foretelling the fall of Nineveh, which came in 612 BC — about a century after Jonah preached there.
Key themes
- Judgment on Nineveh
- God's justice
- Comfort for the oppressed
- Slow to anger yet avenging
- The fall of empires
Key events
- God is slow to anger but will not clear the guilty; he is a stronghold to those who trust him
- Nahum vividly foretells the siege, plunder, and fall of Nineveh
- Woe to the "bloody city": Nineveh will fall like Thebes, and none will mourn her
“The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.”