NAHUM 1
Judgement upon Nineveh
1 The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.
Nineveh located on the east bank of the Tigris River in northeastern Mesopotamia (in Iraq). At the time of Nahum in the 7th century BC, Nineveh was the capital of the Assyrian Empire, which dominated the ancient Near East.
2 El is jealous, and Yahweh revengeth; Yahweh revengeth, and is furious; Yahweh will take vengeance on his adversaries, and he reserveth wrath for his enemies.
3 Yahweh is slow to anger, and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked: Yahweh hath his way in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebuketh the sea, and maketh it dry, and drieth up all the rivers: Bashan languisheth, and Carmel, and the flower of Lebanon languisheth.
Bashan: A fertile plateau region in northeastern Israel noted for its lush vegetation.
Carmel: A ridgeline in northwestern Israel noted for its lush vegetation.
Lebanon: An extended coastal mountain range located northwest of Israel. Lebanon (or Phoenicia) is famous for its cedar trees.
5 The mountains quake at him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at his presence, yea, the world, and all that dwell therein.
6 Who can stand before his indignation? and who can abide in the fierceness of his anger? his fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by him.
7 Yahweh is good, a strong hold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him.
8 But with an overrunning flood he will make an utter end of the place thereof, and darkness shall pursue his enemies.
9 What do ye imagine against Yahweh? he will make an utter end: affliction shall not rise up the second time.
10 For while they be folden together as thorns, and while they are drunken as drunkards, they shall be devoured as stubble fully dry.
11 There is one come out of thee, that imagineth evil against Yahweh, a wicked counsellor.
The Assyrian king who reigned from 705-681 BC. In 701 BC, Sennacherib invaded Judah, destroying 46 cities before preparing a siege of Jerusalem.
Assyria cut down
12 Thus saith Yahweh; Though they be quiet, and likewise many, yet thus shall they be cut down, when he shall pass through. Though I have afflicted thee, I will afflict thee no more.
13 For now will I break his yoke from off thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder.
And it came to pass that night, that the angel of Yahweh went out, and smote in the camp of the Assyrians an hundred fourscore and five thousand: and when they arose early in the morning, behold, they were all dead corpses. So Sennacherib king of Assyria departed, and went and returned, and dwelt at Nineveh (2 Kings 19: 35,36)
14 And Yahweh hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown: 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.
Ishtar a favourite god(dess) of the Assyrians. Worshipped as the goddess of fertility and protector of ale houses and prostitutes
15 Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! O Judah, keep thy solemn feasts, perform thy vows: for the wicked shall no more pass through thee; he is utterly cut off.
The Apocalypse In Nahum.
This must be future, because the wicked are not yet cut off, but are in possession of the Holy Land...
NAHUM saw Israel oppressed by Nineveh; and predicted its overthrow, because its monarch was wicked, and imagined evil against Yahweh. But Israel's deliverance from the Assyrian by the fall of Nineveh was only the type of a greater deliverance at the apocalypse of Messiah.
Eureka 1.4.