Renz, Thomas. The Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. The New International Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans, 2021.

I found Renz especially insightful regarding the structure of the book and intertextual references, especially within the minor prophets.

Timmer, Daniel C. Nahum. Zondervan Exegetical Commentary on the Old Testament. Grand Rapids: Zondervan, 2017.

Timmer was also helpful on the structure of the book. Though his other work, Judah among the Empires, I a obtained a sense of his understanding of the role of the book as a whole, and I found his comments valuable.

Armerding, Carl. “Nahum.” The Expositor’s Bible Commentary. Revised Edition. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2008.

Armerding’s observations of the links between Nahum and Isaiah was especially helpful.

Robertson, O. Palmer. The Books of Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah. New International Commentary on the Old Testament. 1990.

O. Palmer Robertson, as always, was theologically insightful.

Baker, David W. Nahum, Habakkuk and Zephaniah: An Introduction and Commentary. Tyndale Old Testament Commentaries. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1988.

In the brief time I had for this study, I found Baker useful even as I used the above resources more.

The major theme of Nahum is the judgment of God. God is a just God who will judge the guilty. His wrath will not be resisted and those who think they will not fall before it deceive themselves.

Linked to this overriding theme are the themes of sin and restoration for God’s people. The judgment is occasioned by the sin of Nineveh, most notably its vicious treatment of other nations. God’s judgment of Assyria, which Isaiah identified as a rod of God’s chastening, marked the hope that God would restore his people (1:2, 12-3, 15; 2:2; 3:19).

O. Palmer Robertson observes “the absence of virtually a trace of messianism” in this book.[1] But while the hope of the messianic Davidic king is not a theme of this book, Jesus is Yhwh, and he will come in the last day to judge the nations as Nahum foretold.

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[1] Robertson, NICOT, 17.

Paul, in Romans 10:15, quotes from the same Isaiah passage that Nahum quotes in 1:15 to demonstrate the need for preachers of the gospel. More significant is the book of Revelation. Timmer writes, “The message of Revelation is essentially the message of Nahum restated in light of God’s redemptive actions fully revealed in Christ.”[1] John concludes the sixth seal judgment, which draws on Joel 2:10-11, 31, by alluding to Nahum 1:6. Nahum asked, “Who can stand before his indignation? Who can endure the heat of his anger?” In context Nahum was probably speaking directly of the eschatological day of Yhwh of which the fall of Nineveh was a type. Of that day, John wrote, “for the great day of their wrath [that is the wrath of the one seated on the throne and of the Lamb] is come, and who can stand?” (Rev. 6:17). The enemy of Yhwh characterized as a prostitute (Nah 3:4) is also picked up in Revelation (17:2).

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[1] Timmer, ESVEC, 509.

Yhwh’s declaration of his own name and character in Exodus 34:6-7 is the cornerstone biblical text for Nahum. The fact that Yhwh is both “slow to anger” and “will by no means clear the guilty” explains why the judgment of Assyria is certain, though not immediate. The fact that Yhwh is described as “jealous” in 1:2 is also rooted in the Pentateuch (Ex 20:5; Dt 5:9; cf. Jos 24:19).

In drawing on Exodus 34, Nahum is following in the footsteps of earlier prophets. Joel roots his hope of Israel’s restoration in Exodus 34:6-7 and Jonah provides the same passage as the reason he did not wish to preach to Nineveh.[1] There may be some additional allusions to Joel with the references to heaven and earth shaking (Joel 3:16 with Nahum 1:5-7) and God serving as an avenger (Joel 3:21 with Nahum 1:3). In both Joel and Nahum, God’s judgment on the nations is linked with restoration for God’s people.[2] Amos1:2 mentions the withering of Carmel, which is an image that Nahum also uses (1:4). Within the Book of the Twelve the strongest contrast is between Jonah and Nahum. In Jonah Nineveh is shown mercy. God’s slowness to anger is on display. But Nineveh’s repentance did not last, and Nahum predicts the justice of God taking effect.

Isaiah had already predicted the destruction of Assyria (10:1-19). Nahum quotes directly from Isaiah 52:7, which prophesied that despite Assyria’s oppression, Yhwh’s people would come to know him and receive salvation and peace (Nah 1:15). It appears that in addition to this quotation a great deal of imagery from Isaiah, especially from chapters 51-52, is worked by Nahum into his prophecy.[3]

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[1] Renz, NICOT, 50.

[2] Renz, NICOT, 52.

[3] Armerding, REBC, 560-63; Bailey, NAC, 146-47.

After the superscription, Nahum can be divided into seven sections: 1:2-8; 1:9-15; 2:1-10; 2:11-13; 3:1-7; 3:8-17; 3:18-19.[1]

The book’s superscription (1:1) identifies its topic (Nineveh), that it is revelation (oracle, vision), and its author (Nahum of Elkosh). Nothing beyond this book is known of Nahum, and even the location of Elkosh is unknown and debated.[2]

The first poem in Nahum (1:2-8) is not specifically about Nineveh; it is universal in scope.[3] It begins by asserting that Yhwh is jealous. Three times Yhwh is said to be avenging or to take vengeance. Twice the poem affirms his wrath. This is directed toward his adversaries and enemies. This opening verse “provides a very strong, highly focused introduction to what the book of Nahum is about. It also does all but state outright that divine vengeance is the primary theme of the book.”[4] Verse 3 roots this assertion of God’s vengeance in the character of Yhwh by citing Yhwh’s revelation of himself to Moses in Exodus 34:6-7. Unlike Jonah’s citation of this passage, however, Nahum moves beyond the fact that Yhwh is “slow to anger” and also mentions that “Yhwh will by no means clear the guilty.” What follows is a description of God’s judgment that starts, not in Nineveh, but in the most fertile regions around Israel and then spreads to encompass the world, concluding with an allusion to the Flood―a worldwide judgment, which may also prefigure Nineveh’s destruction.[5] Thus, Nahum contextualizes his prophecy of judgment on Nineveh by directing his readers first to Yhwh’s ultimate judgment upon the whole world. The judgment on Nineveh therefore is a type of Yhwh’s coming judgment. Though day of Yhwh terminology is not used in Nahum, this book is about the day of Yhwh upon Nineveh as a type of the day of Yhwh on the whole world. In the midst of all of this talk of judgment, however, verse 7 stands out as an island of hope: “Yhwh is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him.”

In 1:9-15 Nahum turns his attention to Nineveh and Judah. First, he addresses Nineveh (1:9-11). Yhwh has observed their plots against him, and he will consume them. Then Yhwh turns to Judah (1:12-13). Yhwh affirmed to Judah that despite Assyria’s strength, and Yhwh’s chastisement of Judah, he will now cease from his chastisement and deliver Judah. In verse 14 the address turns back to Nineveh, and Yhwh affirms that he will destroy Assyria and its gods. In verse 15 Yhwh turns the address back to Judah, here quoting words from Isaiah 52, which prophesied that despite Assyria’s oppression, Yhwh’s people would come to know him and receive salvation and peace. Through this quotation Nahum directs his readers beyond physical deliverance to salvation in all its aspects.[6]

In 2:1-10 Nahum turns to describe in vivid poetic language the invading army that conquers and then plunders Nineveh. Verse 2 links the destruction of Nineveh with the restoration of Israel.

The Assyrian kings presented themselves as lion hunters. So Nahum 2:11-13 follows the prophecy of Nineveh’s destruction with a the imagery of one searching for a lion’s den. There the lion is found with the prey for his cubs and lionesses. But it then becomes clear that the lion hunter is Yhwh and the king of Assyria is the hunted lion who will be destroyed with his cubs.

Nahum 3:1-7 is another highly poetic passage, parallel to 2:1-10, in which the invasion is again described, in this case with an emphasis on the death, destruction and shame of Nineveh.

In 3:8-17 Nahum turns to another illustration (as he did with the lions after the poem in 2:1-10). He asks Nineveh if it is “better than Thebes,” another seemingly impregnable city that Assyria had conquered. Just as Assyria conquered Thebes, Nineveh will be conquered.[7] The empire that had devoured other nations like a lion (2:11-13) will itself be devoured like ripe figs falling into the mouth.[8] It will be devoured with fire. It will be devoured like locusts devour. The imagery then shifts so that Nineveh’s merchants and princes and scribes are like locusts—that are swept away.

The final two verses (3:18-19) are addressed directly to the king of Assyria. He is told that this destruction is certain—and that it will bring universal joy from all those he has injured.

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[1] This structure draws on Timmer, ZECOT, 53-56; Renz, NICOT, 35; Tully, Reading the Prophets as Christian Scripture, 323-24, though not following any of them precisely.

[2] Robertson, NICOT, 31; Patterson, WEC, 7; Armerding EBC, 452; Longman, 765-66; Rooker, The World and the Word, 459; Maier, 24-25.

[3] Timmer, ZECOT, 54.

[4] Timmer, Judah among the Empires, 18.

[5] “An ancient historian named Diodorus writes that during the siege of Nineveh, heavy rains swelled the Tigris, breaking the defensive wall and flooding the city. This would have “softened” the city’s defenses and allowed the invaders to enter much more easily. Another possibility is that the Medes and Babylonians flooded the city after it fell as a symbol of its defeat.” Tully, Reading the Prophets as Christian Scripture, 326.

[6] Timmer, Judah Among the Empires, 27.

[7] Timmer, ZECOT, 55; Timmer, Judah among the Empires, 40.

[8] Tully, Reading the Prophets as Christian Scripture, 323 notes the parallel.

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]

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[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.