Historical Context
Nahum’s prophecy is not linked to a specific king or kings, but it must be dated between the conquest of Thebes in 664 or 663 BC, since that is mentioned in 3:8, and the conquest of Nineveh in 612 BC which this book prophesies will take place.[1] In addition, the contents indicate that the book was written while Assyria was still strong.[2] Nahum 2:2 refers to Yhwh’s restoration of “the majesty of Jacob,” which would point to the latter part of Manasseh’s reign or to Josiah’s reign.[3] Thus, Nahum was written around the middle of the seventh century BC. He is therefore grouped with the other seventh-century prophets, Habakkuk and Zephaniah.[4]
The northern kingdom would have already fallen to Assyrian in 722 BC and had swept over all of Judah until Yhwh defeated Sennacherib at Jerusalem (Isa 36-37; 2 Kings 18-19).[5]
Place in the Book of the Twelve
Nahum is the final book in what Dempster calls the Assyrian triad (Jonah, Micah, Nahum). All three books occur in the Assyrian context, with Jonah and Nahum both concerning Nineveh directly.[6] In addition, Exodus 34:6-7 plays a key role in all three books. In Jonah its statement of God’s character as merciful motivated Jonah’s resistance to delivering God’s message. in Nahum it underwrites God’s just judgment of Nineveh.[7] Nahum ushers Assyria off the stage of redemptive history, and Habakkuk, the following book, introduces Babylon, both as an instrument of Judah’s judgment and as a nation to be judged by God.[8]
[1] Robertson, NICOT, 31; Patterson, WEC, 3; Armerding, REBC, 559; Tully, Reading the Prophets as Christian Scripture, 322.
[2] Robertson, NICOT, 31; Patterson, WEC, 5-7.
[3] Baker, TOTC, 18; cf. Maier, 27-31; Robertson, 31; Patterson, WEC, 7
[4] Timmer, Judah among the Empires, 10.
[5] Tully, The Prophets as Christian Scripture, 321.
[6] Dempster, THOTC, 54-56.
[7] Dempster, THOTC, 54-56; Renz, NICOT, 51
[8] Renz, NICOT, 52.