Nahum 1-3

Nahum is, perhaps, one of the most ignored books of the Bible. This is probably due to various reasons, including:

1. It's short (we just miss it)
2. It's in the OT (which is less read than the NT)
3. It's about God's wrath (we prefer God's more 'positive attributes')
4. It's not about Israel
5. It's about Nineveh (and Nineveh don't exist, so what's the point?)

Nevertheless, Nahum is in the Bible, part of the Christian canon of Scripture. We would do well to understand its subject (Nineveh) and the content (Nahum's prophecy).

Nineveh

Nineveh (which was located in modern day northern Iraq, near Mosul) is a very ancient biblical city. It is first mentioned in Genesis 10:8-12 when Noah’s Great-Grandson Nimrod built it. Eventually, Nineveh became the capital of the Assyrian Empire (911-609). Jonah famously warned Nineveh of an impending judgment from God in about 785 BC. But against Jonah’s wishes, they repented of their wickedness and the judgment was cancelled.

In 722 BC, the Assyrian Empire destroyed the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Archaeologists have discovered that Nineveh’s reached its zenith between 705 and 633 BC. But Nineveh’s again became wicked and Nahum was commissioned to prophecy against it one final time at some point b/w 663 and 612 BC when Nineveh was destroyed by the Babylonians.

* Archaeology has given us much information about ancient Nineveh. It's walls were about 8 miles in circumference, at least 30 feet high and sometimes 50 feet thick. A 1650x800ft palace was unearthed with a 20,000 clay tablet library inside, including notes of Assyrian triumph over Babylonian & Jewish (Hezekiah) kings and the epic of Gilgamesh. The city could have housed about 150,000 people.

Nahum

Pretty much everything we know about Nahum we learn in Nahum 1:1. He seems to have been a Jewish prophet who received a vision concerning the future of Nineveh (the capital city of the enemy).

If I were to ask you to ask you to list some of God’s attributes, what words first come to mind?

How does our list match up with 1:2?

How does the story of Nineveh illustrate the fact that God is slow to anger (1:3)?

To whom did Nahum deliver these prophecies? To the Ninevites? To the Jews? Both? Consider 1:12-15.

What can we learn from the accurateness of the prophecy, especially seen in 1:8, 2:6 & 2:8?

What was Nineveh being punished for according to 3:1, 4, 16?

Why could they be assured that judgment was coming (3:8-11)?

Based on the final verse (3:19), what was God’s new purpose for Nineveh?