The book is taken up with prophesy against and destruction of Nineveh. It follows on the book of Jonah. There are no words of hope for the city, no offers of redemption through repentance. It is a complete contrast to Jonah – Jonah had preached that there was an opportunity for repentance but Nahum\u2019s message is that it was too late.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nineveh had been founded by Nimrod, the first man on earth to be \u2018mighty hunter\u2019 before The LORD (Genesis 10:8). He was the son of Cush who was a son of Ham, the son of Noah. Ham was cursed because of his sin (Genesis 9:20-25) regarding his father Noah when he got drunk. Nimrod founded his kingdom which included Babel (of Genesis 11 infamy), he also went into Assyria and built Nineveh (Genesis 10:11). Another son of Ham, Canaan was also responsible for extending into Sodom and Gomorrah (Genesis 10:19). Not very good legacies!<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Nahum\u2019s name means \u2018compassionate\u2019 or \u2018full of comfort\u2019. He was an Elkoshite. Nothing is known about Nahum or the city of Elkosh from where he came. The precise location is uncertain but it is possible that it was in the region of Galilee because the city of Capernaum was named after Nahum. <\/strong>(Kephar-Nahum, \u201cCity of Nahum\u201d). It is not known precisely when Nahum gave the prophecy, except that he mentions (3:8) about the destruction of Thebes, an Egyptian city also known as \u2018No Amon\u2019. Nahum must have written after that which had taken place in 663BC. It is thought, therefore, that Nahum wrote between 660 and 630BC as Nineveh was still at the height of its powers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n After the repentance of Nineveh recorded in the book of Jonah, it seems that they relapsed into idolatry and their old ways. Nineveh had dominated the world; it was a great city with high walls and numerous towers. It is said that the walls were so thick that chariots could be driven along them side by side like a highway. For Nahum to say that Nineveh would be destroyed, probably seemed impossible. It was a huge city probably towering over all others. Nineveh fell to the Medes and Babylonians in 612BC around 150 years after Jonah\u2019s preaching of repentance.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The book is taken up with prophesy against and destruction of Nineveh. It follows on the book of Jonah. There are no words of hope for the city, no offers of redemption through repentance. It is a complete contrast to Jonah – Jonah had preached that there was an opportunity for repentance but Nahum\u2019s message […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1453","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nahum"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n