Nahum: God's Wrath Against Nineveh


  1. A Look at the Book:
    1. Date:
      1. b/w the fall of No (3:8-10 No-Ammon, also Thebes in upper Egypt) @ 663 BC & the fall of Nineveh @ 612 BC.
      2. Perhaps during the reign of Josiah (@ 639-608 BC), the last good king of Judah, as there is no condemnation of Judah, though she would soon fall.
      3. Nahum's contemporaries probably included Jeremiah, and was somewhat cntemporary with Habakkuk and Zephaniah
    2. The Man:
      1. Nahum means "consolation"
      2. His message was good news to Judah (1:12-15)
      3. Capernaum means "village of Nahum"
    3. Theme: The destruction of Nineveh - 1:1
    4. Background:
      1. Jonah had preached to Nineveh about 100 years earlier, bringing repentance to all the inhabitants - Jonah 3:5
      2. The current wickedness was apparantly worse than the former (cf Matt 12:43-45)
      3. Nineveh is described as the "bloody city" (3:1) after her cruelties are described (2:11-12).


  2. Great Lessons from Nahum
    1. The supremacy of God
    2. The wrath & vengeance of God upon the wicked - 1:2-3. In ch. 1, the prophet uses 4 different words relative to the wrath of God:
      1. furious -- bah-al
      2. anger -- aph - burning
      3. indignation -- zah-am - froth at the mouth with rage
      4. fury -- che-maw - hot displeasure, rage, poison wrath


    1. The mercy of God -- 1:3 "The Lord is slow to anger"
      1. Exodus 34:5-7 (cf Num 14:18)
      2. 2 Peter 3:9, 15
    2. The righteousness of God -- 1:3 "and will not at all acquit the wicked." (cf 2 Thes 1:5-9)
    3. The power of God -- 1:3b - 6
    4. The authority of God over the nations - 2:13; 3:5-12
      1. Assyria had conquered the greater part of the western world, including the great empire of Egypt and Ethiopia.
      2. At that time, she probably appeared invincible, considering her location & her walls = 60 feet wide and 100 feet tall.
      3. However, God would use "Nebuchadnezzar . . . my servant" (Jer 27:6) to punish Assyria & later, Judah (25:9).
        1. This conquering was aided in great part by 2 things:
          1. a flooding of the Khosr river (some believe it was instead the Tigris) washing away the walls, and
          2. the city in a state of drunkenness because of her rejoicing after repelling a 3rd assault by the Medes & Babylonians following a two-year seige.
        2. this is exactly what Nahum prophesied in 2:6 and 3:11
      4. Nineveh's destruction would be shameful (3:4-6) and complete (1:8 - "maketh an utter end"; 3:7 - "laid waste")
        1. 200 years after Nineveh's fall, Xenophon marched thru with 10,000 men and thought the mounds were the remains of a Parthian city.
        2. Alexander the Great fought a battle there 300 years later and never new a city had been there. (Halley's, p 370)
      5. God "putteth down and setteth up" (Ps 75:7; Dan 2:20-21)
      6. Is this not the same lesson we receive from the Revelation?