PART ONE
The Word of the Lord During Judahâs Last Years:
Nahum
Habakkuk
Zephaniah
These three prophets, along with Jeremiah and Ezekiel, share the distinction of proclaiming the word of the Lord during the last half century of Judahâs existence. It was the most turbulent of times. The Assyrian Empire had dominated the ancient Near East for one hundred years, and when that empire fell, an era came to an end. Under King Josiah, Judah enjoyed a brief period of independence and renewal and growth. But Assyriaâs rod was quickly replaced, first with that of Egypt and then with that of great Babylonia, and Judahâs life fell victim to the juggernaut of Babylonian conquest.
According to the prophets, all of these events were intimately connected, however, with the will and working of Israelâs God. And it was given to Zephaniah, Nahum, and Habakkuk, in that chronological order, to make clear those connections.
The details of the history of the period can be found in John Brightâs book, A History of Israel, but the following outline is furnished to the reader for quick and easy reference, since none of the prophetic books can be understood fully apart from such historical background.
OUTLINE OF THE HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF NAHUM, HABAKKUK, AND ZEPHANIAH
Dates B.C. | Events | Prophets/Scripture |
745-627 Assyrian Domination of the Ancient Near East | |
| Assyrian rulers: | |
745-727 | Tiglath-pileser III | 740-701 The preaching of Isaiah |
726-722 | Shalmaneser V | |
721-705 | Sargon II | |
722/1 | Fall of the northern kingdom of Israel; deportation of populace; replaced with aliens. | |
704-681 | Sennacherib | The preaching of Micah in Judah |
701 | Judah, under Hezekiah (715-687/6), crushed; paid heavy tribute. | |
680-669 | Esarhaddon Manasseh of Judah (687/6-642), a faithful vassal of Assyria. | |
| Widespread syncretism, idolatry, child sacrifice, injustice, persecution of prophets. | |
668-627 | Ashurbanipal Invasion of Egypt | |
663 | Sack of Thebes | Nahum 3:8 |
| Power threatened by rise of twenty-sixth dynasty in Egypt under Psammetichus I (664-610), by pressure from IndoâAryans (Medes, Cimmerians, Scythians), and by revolt in Babylonia. | |
| Ammon of Judah (642-640), vassal to Assyria, assassinated. | |
640-609 Rule of Josiah in Judah | Zephaniah chapters 1 and 2 |
| Assyria begins to totterârulers are weaklings | |
627 | Josiah comes of age; begins independence movement and expansionist policies; abolishes foreign influences. | 626-584 The preaching of Jeremiah |
626-605 | Rise of Neo-Babylonian empire under Nabopolassar. | |
625-585 | Rise of Medes under Cyaxerxes | |
622/1 | Deuteronomy found during temple repairs; widespread religious reform; abolition of alien cults and priests; centralization of worship at Jerusalem; covenant renewal. | II Kings 22-23; II Chronicles 34-35 |
614 | Medes take Asshur | The preaching of Nahum |
612 | Fall of Nineveh to Medes and Babylonians | 612-609 Zephaniah chapter 3 |
610 | Fall of Haran to Babylonians | |
609 | Assyrians, aided by Egypt, fail to retake Haran. Assyrian Empire finished. | |
| Josiah killed trying to halt Egyptian Pharaoh, Necho II, at Megiddo. | |
609-605 Egyptian Domination of Judah | |
| Josiahâs son Jehoahaz (Shallum) placed on Judean throne; deported to Egypt after three months. | |
| Jehoiakim (609-598) put on Judean throne: Egyptian vassal and tyrant, forced labor, syncretism, idolatry, persecution of prophets. | The preaching of Habakkuk |
605 | Egypt defeated by Nebuchadnezzar of Babylonia (605/4-562) | |
605-550 Babylonian Domination of the Ancient Near East | |
604 | Philistia (Ashdod) subdued | |
603/2 | Jehoiakim transfers allegiance to Babylonia | |
601 | Babylonian battle with Egypt: Nebuchadnezzar withdraws to recoup; Jehoiakim rebels. | |
600/599 | Nebuchadnezzar busy elsewhere; guerrilla raids against Judah. | |
598 | Death (assassination?) of Jehoiakim; Jehoiachin placed on Judean throne; tribute withheld, owing to Egyptian intrigue. | |
597 | First deportation to Babylonia Zedekiah (597-587) placed on Judean throne | |
587 | The fall of Jerusalem | |
THE BOOK OF
Nahum
Introduction
âAll scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good workâ (II Tim. 3:16-17). We give lip service to such an acknowledgment of the authority of Scripture, but in actual fact, we exempt the Book of Nahum from it. Indeed, we often wish Nahum were not in the canon, and the book has been almost totally ignored in the modern church. No lectionary reading is taken from it and no hymn suggests its words, other than the one line from William Cowperâs poem set to music in âGod Moves in a Mysterious Way.â (âHe plants his footsteps in the sea, and rides upon the storm,â cf. Nahum 1:3c.)
Nahum is, in its historical setting, a prediction and celebration of the fall of Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian Empire, in 612 B.C. Some interpreters have therefore scorned the Book of Nahum, because it seems to be a vengeful, nationalistic expression of Israelâs triumph over an enemy. It is the work of a false prophet, says one. Ethically and theologically it is deficient, writes another.
To be sure, many critics must acknowledge the literary value of the book. âNahumâs language is strong and brilliant; his rhythm rumbles and rolls, leaps and flashes, like the horse and chariots he describesâ (G.A. Smith, p. 90). Nevertheless, few critics approve the message of the book, and many value it simply as a literary masterpiece.
Nahum is not primarily a book about human beings, howeverânot about human vengeance and hatred and military conquestâbut a book about God. And it has been our failure to let Nahum be a book about God that has distorted the value of this prophecy in our eyes. We human beings sometimes want to remain the judges of human history, the sole arbiters of right and wrong, and the last warders of proper conduct. In our role, then, as magistrates over human life, we decide what God himself can and cannot do. We decide that God cannot destroy the wickedâthat it is Godâs role only to forgive and that, indeed, there are no wicked and righteous on the earth, but that all are equally guilty. Ancient Assyria was no more evil than Judah, is our decree with respect to Nahum; therefore Nahum is deficient in understanding its peopleâs sin and is an expression only of nationalistic vengeance. A loving God, as pictured in Jonah and in the New Testament, would forgive the sins of Assyria, just asâand this is the final prideâhe will always forgive our sins. We dismiss Nahum as inferior to our sense of what is proper.
It is interesting, furthermore, that we have unwittingly used the very tools of scholarship to further our prideful rejection of this prophetic book. The key to the message of Nahum lies in its opening hymn, 1:2-11. This hymn was apparently borrowed by the prophet from an earlier source and adapted by him for his theological purposes. Underlying it are traces of an earlier acrostic hymn, extending at least through verse 8. That is, each line of the hymn begins with a letter of the Hebrew alphabet and runs from a (âaleph) through i (yodh). But the prophet upset the acrostic progression and inserted his own material, notably in verses 2b and 3a. He also extended the hymn in verses 9â11. It is precisely this hymn, however, or portions of it, that is sometimes removed from Nahum or rearranged. By such alteration, the book is deprived of its theological key.
The entire book now lies before us in order, with remarkable symmetry. The opening hymn, 1:2â11, ends in verse 11 with the address to the enemy: âFrom your midst came forth one who devised/against Yahweh evil (raâah).â The final judgment oracle on Nineveh, 3:14-19, also ends with an address to the enemy in the form of a dirge; and the last line reads in the Hebrew, âFor upon whom has not come your continual evil (raâah)?â Thus, evil introduced and evil done away form the inclusio of the thought of the book.
Between these two sections, then, stand four judgment oracles against Nineveh: 1:12â15; 2:1â13; 3:1â7, 8â13. Each of these sections ends with a word of the Lord, introduced by âBehold!â (1:15; 2:13; 3:5, 13), and each of these pronouncements of the Lord means salvation for Judah at the same time that it brings judgment on Assyria. Whether this ordered arrangement of the book is the product of Nahum himself or of a redactor is moreover irrelevant, because it is the book as it now lies before us that communicates the message of the one called âNahumâ (comforting, comforter). To try to go behind that to some historical figure bearing the name simply vitiates the message of the book.
Internal evidence in the book places its date sometime between 663 B.C., when Thebes was destroyed (Nah. 3:8), and 612 B.C., when Nineveh finally fell to the Babylonians. Some scholars believe that 1:15 refers to the death in 627 of the great Assyrian ruler Ashurbanipal, which marked the beginning of the weakening that led to Assyriaâs fall. Others have speculated about the relation of the book to the Deuteronomic reform under Josiah, which began in 621 B.C., and have maintained that Nahum says nothing about the sins of Judah because Judahâs life has temporarily been renewed by the reform. But most scholars place the book shortly before 612 B.C. and view it as an actual prediction of Ninevehâs fall. Certainly the book has that concrete historical setting, but its meaning transcends its historical context and bears a relevance still today.
The book is the only prophetic corpus to have two titles: (1) âA burden (threatening word) concerning Ninevehâ (cf. Isa. 13:1; 15:1; 17:1); (2) âThe book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.â This is also the only prophetic corpus labeled a âbook,â but that does not imply that it was originally written and not spoken. âVisionâ means simply âprophecyâ or ârevelationâ (cf. Isa. 1:1; Obad. 1). We know nothing else about the prophet. The location of Elkosh is unknown, although the most acceptable traditions place it in Judah and connect Nahum with the tribe of Simeon. Nahum as a person has importance, however, only because of these words of his on behalf of the Lord that have been handed down faithfully to us by Israel and the church.
Nahum 1:2â11
The interpretive riches of this opening hymn are almost beyond enumerating, for we have here only a little less than a complete presentation of the biblical witness to Godâs person: the testimony to his covenant love and to his patient mercy; his intimate knowledge of his own and his protection of them; his just lordship over his world and his might in maintaining his rule; his specific but also eschatological defeat of all who would challenge his sovereignty. The God portrayed here is really God, different from all lesser imitations, and different too from those impotent idols that we often project upon our universe.
The force of the hymn can be felt more clearly if the Hebrew word order is reproduced:
A jealous God and an avenger is the Lord,
An avenger is the Lord and owner of wrath,
An avenger is the Lord against his enemies,
and a keeper of anger is he against his foes (v. 2).
The threefold repetition of âavengerâ builds to the final âkeeper.â But there follows the recognition of the Lordâs long patience with sin, in verse 3a, and the same two thoughts of his mercy and judgment are once again presented side by side in verses 7 and 8.
The God of the Bible is throughout its pages a jealous God, because he has made for himself a people to serve his purpose; and he wills that that people neither stray from his purpose and devotion to him nor be deterred by any enemy from their covenant calling. The imagery of Godâs âjealousyâ is of his zealous will driving forward toward his goal of salvation for his earth. When any human foes would thwart that drive, God becomes their enemyâan avenger who is master or âownerâ of wrath against all challenges to his lordship. That is a threatening picture only to those who want to be their own gods and 8 rule the earth in their own ways, but to those who trust God it is a comfort and an affirmation that he is truly sovereign.
This hymn emphasizes the grace that is to be had from God. âGood is the Lord,â reads verse 7a in the Hebrew order, with the emphasis on âgood.â âThere is indeed nothing more peculiar to God than goodnessâ (Calvin, III, 430). Our very term âGodâ is a shortened form of âgoodâ and is an acknowledgment that all good flows from him. Human beings cannot have goodness in the world apart from God, and God is dependent on no other source for his goodness. His goodness does not depend on what happens to some person or on what our fortunes are. Thus, our Lord, on his way to the cross, could affirm, âNo one is good but God aloneâ (Luke 18:19), because it is the essence of faith that it confesses in any circumstance, âThe Lord is good to all, / and his compassion is over all that he has madeâ (Ps. 145:9). On a bed of pain, faith says, âTruly God is good.â In trouble and affliction and persecution, faith knows God is goodâthat all his history with his people has been the working out of his good for them and that all the future ahead will be guided by his goodness. So too here, Nahum, at the turbulent end of an age, with kingdoms tottering and armies clashing, affirms, âGood is the Lord.â
Nahum gives two illustrations of the goodness of God. He is âa stronghold in the day of troubleâ (v. 7b), & mighty fortress inside whose protecting arms we need not fear though the earth should change and the mountains shake in the heart of the seas (Ps. 46). He gives enduring protectionâfor strongholds are no temporary campsâfrom assaulting foes and safety from destruction. He provides the place of peace and quiet conscience midst the raging warfare of hellâs armies. He is the one to whom our Lord on the cross, with the forces of sin and death arrayed against him, could say in confidence as he breathed his last, âInto thy hands I commit my spiritâ (Luke 23:46//Ps. 31:5).
God is also good because âhe knows those who take refuge in himâ (v. 7c), that is, he knows those who rely on him for their life and sustenance and guidance. And Godâs knowledge is far more than simply nodding acquaintance, far more than recognition of a name at a distance. Godâs knowledge implies intimate care, tender concern, loving communion, like the knowledge of a loving husband for his wife or of a concerned father for his son (cf. Hosea). Indeed, Godâs knowledge of those who rely on him goes even beyond that, for he numbers the hairs of his beloved onesâ heads; he knows their needs, their 9 wants, their sufferings. He besets them behind and before and is acquainted with all their ways. There is not a word they speak that God does not know beforehand. There is not a path they have trod with which God is unacquainted or a road they travel of whose end God is not aware. He knows when they lie down and when they rise and is ever present with them. Such is the goodness of God to which Nahum here gives testimony.
But ⊠but ⊠twice Nahum uses that word (Hebrew waw): âbut the Lord will by no means clear the guiltyâ (v. 3b); âbut with an overflowing flood/he will make a full end of his adversaries (Hebrew: her place) and will pursue his enemies into darknessâ (v. 8). God is enemy of those who defy his lordship; and that too is part of his goodness, for God will not allow evil to triumph in the world. Instead, he will drive it into darkness, pursue it until it disappears into the lifeless realm of chaos and void and nothingness, in short, until it is totally at an end and Godâs goodness alone remains on earth.
It is almost incomprehensible that our age has so softened these thoughts of Godâs destruction of evil to which Nahum here gives expression. For if God does not destroy the evil human beings have brought into Godâs good creation, the world can never return to the wholeness he intended for it in the beginning. To div...