Nahum 1 King James Version (KJV)
1 The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
2 God is jealous, and the Lord revengeth; the Lord revengeth, and is furious; the Lord will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.
3 The Lord is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: the Lord hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.
5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.
6 Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.
7 The Lord is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.
8 But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.
9 What do ye imagine against the Lord? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.
10 For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.
11 There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against the Lord, a wicked counsellor.
12 Thus saith the Lord; Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more.
13 For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder.
14 And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: out of the house of thy gods will I cut off the graven image and the molten image: I will make thy grave; for thou art vile.
15 Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.
Commentary
Most of the short book of Nahum is concerned with the coming judgment of Assyria, and particularly with the destruction of its capital, Nineveh. The Assyrians had been cruel enemies of Israel and Judah, but Nahum saw that the day of judgment for them was now approaching.
| Nahum Comentary |
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| Nahum 1 Commentary |
| Nahum 2 Commentary |
| Nahum 3 Commentary |
| Nahum KJV |
The Assyrian oppression
Assyria had risen to power more than a century before the time of Nahum. From its base in Mesopotamia, it established an empire that soon began to spread over nations of the Palestine region. It conquered Syria in 732 BC, and Israel (the northern part of the divided Israelite kingdom) in 722 BC, taking the peoples of both nations into captivity (2 Kings 15:29; 16:9; 17:3-6).
With the fall of Israel, the southern kingdom of Judah became open to Assyrian aggression, and for the next one hundred years had a constant struggle to keep itself independent. At times Judah was under the power of Assyria and had to pay it heavy taxes; at other times it managed to reassert its independence; but always it was in a state of tension, if not conflict, with Assyria (2 Kings 16:7- 20; 18:7-37; 19:37; 2 Chron 28:16,20-21; 30:6;
33:11).
By the time of Josiah, who began to reign in Judah in 640 BC, Assyria’s power had weakened considerably. This enabled Josiah to carry out much needed religious and social reforms without the threat of interference from Assyria. During Josiah’s
reign there was a revival of prophetic activity in Judah, with the ministry of the prophets Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Nahum and Habakkuk. (For the relation of Josiah’s reforms to this prophetic activity see background notes to Zephaniah.)
With Assyria weakening and Babylon growing stronger, Nahum foresaw what the people of Judah had desperately wanted for more than a century, the end of Assyrian power. His description of Nineveh’s overthrow is dramatic, colourful and full of feeling. He rejoiced that at last a fitting divine judgment was to fall upon the nation whose cruelty made it one of the most barbarous oppressors in history. In 612 BC Nineveh was conquered as Nahum foretold, falling to the armies of Babylon.