The Book of Nahum, Chapter by Chapter

We want to take you through the book of Nahum chapter by chapter. In our Jonah study we saw Nineveh repent and God spare the city. That was around 760 BC. About 100 years later God sent another prophet to Nineveh. This time there would be no second chance. Nahum is only 3 chapters. And all of it is about the fall of Nineveh. We will tell you what each chapter is about and how it fits into the message of the book. And how it points us to the one God that is revealed in Jesus Christ.

Nineveh did not stay humble. Assyria went back to its violence. It destroyed the northern kingdom of Israel in 722 BC. It invaded Judah and took the fenced cities (2 Kings 18:13). It surrounded Jerusalem in the days of Hezekiah. We saw that in our 2 Kings and Isaiah studies. For over 100 years Assyria was the terror of the world. And Judah lived under its shadow. Then God sent Nahum. His name means comfort. And his message was comfort for Judah. The cruel empire that had crushed God’s people was about to fall.

There are three things we want you to take away from this study. Nahum is about the justice of God. “The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked” (1:3). Nahum is about the goodness of the one God to those who trust him. “The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him” (1:7). And Nahum points to Jesus Christ. The one who rebukes the sea (1:4). The one whose feet bring good tidings and publish peace (1:15). We will explain these points as we go through the book. But we want you to keep them in mind as we begin.

“The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite” (1:1). A burden is a heavy message of judgment. We saw that word in our Isaiah study. We do not know where Elkosh was. Some believe it was in Galilee. And some have pointed out that Capernaum means village of Nahum.¹ Jesus made Capernaum his home base when he preached in Galilee (Matthew 4:13). We will not go into that here.

Nahum tells us that Nineveh would be like No (3:8). No was the great city of Thebes in Egypt. Assyria destroyed it in 663 BC. And Nahum talks about it as something that already happened. Nineveh fell in 612 BC to the Babylonians and the Medes. So Nahum preached sometime between those two dates.² That was during the reign of Manasseh or Josiah in Judah. Assyria was still at the top of its power. Nobody would have believed it was about to fall. But Nahum did. Because God told him.

The book has 3 parts. Chapter 1 is about who God is. Chapter 2 is the fall of Nineveh. And chapter 3 is why Nineveh fell. Notice also that Nahum is a lot like Jonah. Both books are about Nineveh. Both books quote what God said about himself to Moses. And both books end with a question. We will come back to that. We will go through the book one chapter at a time. Then we will look at Nahum and Jonah together. Then we will put together what Nahum teaches about the one God. Just like in our other studies we will be using the KJV for our scripture quotations. And we will let you know where you can find the work of the scholars we reference.

God Is Jealous

Nahum does not start with Nineveh. He starts with God. Before you can understand the judgment you have to know the Judge. “God is jealous.” We saw in our Exodus study that God said “the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God” (Exodus 34:14). God is jealous for his people like a husband is jealous for his wife. Not petty. Protective. He will not share them with another god. And he will not let anyone destroy them and get away with it.

Then 3 times in one verse. The LORD revengeth. Vengeance is not a dirty word when God does it. It means justice. Paul says “Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord” (Romans 12:19). We do not take revenge. We leave it to God. And God will do it right.

“The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked” (v.3). This comes from what God told Moses about himself. “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering … and that will by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:6–7). We covered that in our Exodus study. Notice. Slow to anger does not mean God will never get angry. It means he waits. He gave Nineveh over 100 years after Jonah. But he will not at all acquit the wicked. Waiting is not the same as forgetting. Peter says “The Lord is not slack concerning his promise … but is longsuffering to us-ward, not willing that any should perish” (2 Peter 3:9). Then the next verse says “But the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night” (2 Peter 3:10).

He Rebuketh the Sea

“The LORD hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet” (v.3). The clouds are the dust he kicks up when he walks. “He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers” (v.4). The mountains quake. The hills melt (v.5). “Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger?” (v.6).

Notice he rebukes the sea. We saw in our Jonah study that Jesus calmed the sea. Matthew says he “arose, and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm” (Matthew 8:26). The same word. Rebuke. The disciples asked “What manner of man is this, that even the winds and the sea obey him!” (Matthew 8:27). Nahum tells us what manner of man. The LORD who rebukes the sea. Jesus did what Nahum said only the LORD does.

Right in the middle of all the wrath this verse. The same God who melts the mountains is a strong hold for his people. A fort. A safe place. The storm that destroys his enemies is the storm his people hide from in him. And he knoweth them that trust in him. Paul says “The Lord knoweth them that are his” (2 Timothy 2:19). He knows you by name. “But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof” (v.8). A strong hold for his people. A flood for his enemies. Same God.

Affliction Shall Not Rise Up the Second Time

Then God speaks to both sides. To Nineveh he says “affliction shall not rise up the second time” (v.9). One blow. That is all it will take. To Judah he says “Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more. For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder” (vv.12–13). Assyria had put a yoke on Judah. God would break it. To the king of Assyria he says “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” (v.14). God would dig his grave.

Picture a runner coming over the mountains to Jerusalem. He is bringing news. Nineveh has fallen. The enemy is gone. Peace. Isaiah used almost the same words (Isaiah 52:7). We saw in our Isaiah study that Paul quotes them about preachers of the gospel. “How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things!” (Romans 10:15). The good news in Nahum was that Assyria was defeated. The good news of the gospel is that sin and death and the devil are defeated. Jesus “came and preached peace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh” (Ephesians 2:17). He is the one who brings good tidings. And he is our peace.

Now Nahum sees the battle. “He that dasheth in pieces is come up before thy face: keep the munition, watch the way, make thy loins strong, fortify thy power mightily” (v.1). Get ready Nineveh. It will not help.

Then the attack. “The shield of his mighty men is made red, the valiant men are in scarlet” (v.3). The Medes and Babylonians wore red.³ “The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings” (v.4). Some have said this sounds like cars on a highway. But Nahum was describing the chariots of the army racing through the streets of Nineveh.

“The gates of the rivers shall be opened, and the palace shall be dissolved” (v.6). Nineveh sat on the Tigris river. Other rivers and canals ran through it. Old records say that when the city fell the river flooded and broke down part of the wall.⁴ That fits with what Nahum said in chapter 1. “With an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof” (1:8). “But Nineveh is of old like a pool of water: yet they shall flee away. Stand, stand, shall they cry; but none shall look back” (v.8). The officers yelled stand and fight. Everyone ran.

“Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold: for there is none end of the store” (v.9). All the treasure Assyria stole from the nations would be carried off. “She is empty, and void, and waste” (v.10). Then Nahum mocks Nineveh as a den of lions. The lion was the symbol of Assyria. The lion used to tear prey for his cubs and fill his den with it (vv.11–12). Now Nahum asks where the den of the lions is (v.11). “Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts” (v.13). When the LORD of hosts is against you it does not matter how strong your walls are.

Now Nahum tells us why. A bloody city. Lies. Robbery. It never stopped taking. Assyria filled the earth with bodies. Now its own streets would be filled with bodies. What they did came back on them. We saw the same rule in our Obadiah study. “As thou hast done, it shall be done unto thee” (Obadiah 15).

“Because of the multitude of the whoredoms of the wellfavoured harlot, the mistress of witchcrafts, that selleth nations through her whoredoms, and families through her witchcrafts” (v.4). Nineveh was like a beautiful harlot. She lured nations into her power with promises. Then she sold them. Revelation describes Babylon the same way. A great harlot who made the nations drunk and was full of witchcraft (Revelation 17:1–2; 18:23). The world system always looks beautiful. And it always sells people. “Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts” (v.5). God would expose her shame to the nations.

“Art thou better than populous No, that was situate among the rivers?” (v.8). No was Thebes. The great city of Egypt on the Nile. It had water all around it. It had Ethiopia and Egypt for strength (v.9). And Assyria destroyed it. “Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity” (v.10). Nahum said Nineveh you are no better. What you did to Thebes will be done to you.⁵

Then Nahum piles up pictures. Nineveh’s forts would be like fig trees with ripe figs. Shake the tree and they fall right into the mouth of the eater (v.12). Her soldiers would be like women (v.13). Go ahead and draw water for the siege. Make bricks. Strengthen the walls. The fire will still eat you (vv.14–15). Her merchants were more than the stars. Her leaders were like locusts. When the sun comes up they fly away and no one knows where they went (vv.16–17).

The shepherds were asleep. The people scattered. No one to gather them. And no healing. The wound would not heal. The word bruit means news. When the world heard Nineveh fell they would clap. Because everyone had suffered under it.

And it happened just like Nahum said. In 612 BC Nineveh fell. It was destroyed so completely that it was forgotten. About 200 years later a Greek army marched right past the ruins and did not know what city it had been.⁶ People thought the Bible was making it up. Then in the 1840s archaeologists dug it up. There it was. Just like the Bible said. “I will make thy grave” (1:14). God did.

Jonah and Nahum belong together. They are two halves of one story. There are three things we want to point out.

First both books quote what God said about himself to Moses. “The LORD, The LORD God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abundant in goodness and truth … and that will by no means clear the guilty” (Exodus 34:6–7). Jonah quoted the first half. “Thou art a gracious God, and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness” (Jonah 4:2). Nahum quoted the second half. “The LORD is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked” (Nahum 1:3). It is the same God. In Jonah we see his mercy. In Nahum we see his justice. You cannot have one without the other. A God with no mercy would have destroyed Nineveh in Jonah’s day. A God with no justice would have let Nineveh go on killing forever.

Second Nineveh had its chance. When Nineveh repented God spared it. When Nineveh went back to its sin God judged it. God did not change. Nineveh did. Mercy refused becomes judgment. Hebrews says “if we sin wilfully after that we have received the knowledge of the truth, there remaineth no more sacrifice for sins, But a certain fearful looking for of judgment” (Hebrews 10:26–27).

Third both books end with a question. Jonah ends with God asking “should not I spare Nineveh, that great city?” (Jonah 4:11). Nahum ends with “upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?” (Nahum 3:19). The first question is about the mercy of God. The last question is about the sin of man. Both are true. And both meet at the cross. At the cross God showed his mercy to sinners. And at the cross God judged sin. Paul says God set forth Jesus “to declare, I say, at this time his righteousness: that he might be just, and the justifier of him which believeth in Jesus” (Romans 3:26). Just and the justifier. Nahum and Jonah in one verse.

Nahum shows us the one God who rules over the greatest empire on earth. Before we finish we want to put it all together. There are three things we want to point out.

First there is one God who is both just and good. “The LORD revengeth” (1:2). And “The LORD is good” (1:7). Not one god of wrath and another god of love. One God. Jealous for his people. Slow to anger. Great in power. A strong hold in the day of trouble. And against the wicked. “Behold, I am against thee, saith the LORD of hosts” (2:13; 3:5).

Second the LORD who rebukes the sea came in the flesh. “He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry” (1:4). And Jesus “rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm” (Matthew 8:26). The disciples asked what manner of man this is. He is the LORD of Nahum 1 in the flesh. The clouds are the dust of his feet. And he walked on the water.

Third we will all stand before him. “Who can stand before his indignation?” (1:6). Revelation asks the same question. The kings of the earth hide in the rocks and say “Fall on us, and hide us from the face of him that sitteth on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?” (Revelation 6:16–17). Trinitarians will say this shows two persons. The one on the throne and the Lamb.⁷ But notice the next words. “The great day of his wrath.” Not their wrath. His. The one on the throne and the Lamb are one God. The God who sits on the throne is the God who became the Lamb. And the only way to stand in that day is to be hidden in him. “The LORD is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble” (1:7). One God. Revealed in Jesus Christ. “For in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily” (Colossians 2:9).

We have gone through Nahum chapter by chapter. Here is what we can conclude. First Nahum is about the justice of God. Nineveh was the bloody city. Full of lies and robbery. It destroyed nations and sold families. God was slow to anger. He gave it over 100 years after Jonah. But he will not at all acquit the wicked. The gates of the rivers opened. The palace dissolved. And the city was buried so deep it was forgotten.

Second Nahum is about the goodness of the one God to those who trust him. For Judah the fall of Nineveh was good news. The yoke was broken. The bonds were burst. The runner came over the mountains with good tidings of peace. The LORD is good. A strong hold in the day of trouble. And he knows them that trust in him.

Third Nahum points to Jesus Christ. The one who rebukes the sea. The one whose feet bring good tidings and publish peace. The one who is just and the justifier of everyone who believes. The day of his wrath is coming. But today he is still a strong hold. Run to him.

Nahum saw Assyria fall. But Babylon was the one that knocked it down. And Babylon would be even worse. The next prophet asked God a hard question. How could a holy God use a nation more wicked than Judah to punish Judah. He climbed up on his watchtower to wait for an answer. That is where Habakkuk begins.