Nahumchapter 1
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Speaks with:Zephaniah 2×1Exodus 20×1Zechariah 8×1Psalms 94×1Psalms 147×1Exodus 34×1
Summary
Chapter summary
'The burden of Nineveh': a century after Jonah, the verdict Jonah feared has come due. The chapter opens with a partial acrostic hymn on the character of God, holding both hands open at once: 'Jehovah is a jealous God and avengeth… Jehovah is slow to anger, and great in power, and will by no means clear the guilty.' His way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and the clouds are the dust of his feet; the mountains quake, the hills melt. 'Who can stand before his indignation?' And inside the storm, the shelter: 'Jehovah is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that take refuge in him' (1:7). Then feet on the mountains, publishing peace.
Context
Prophecy · Nahum — Nahum overview
- A. 1–6 A jealous God, slow to anger, whose way is in the whirlwind
- B. 7–11 A stronghold in trouble, and an utter end for his enemies
- C. 12–15 On the mountains, the feet of him who brings good news
The outline
A.A jealous God, slow to anger, whose way is in the whirlwindvv. 1 to 6
Read vv. 1 to 6 →B.A stronghold in trouble, and an utter end for his enemiesvv. 7 to 11
Read vv. 7 to 11 →C.On the mountains, the feet of him who brings good newsvv. 12 to 15
Read vv. 12 to 15 →
The world behind this chapter
Nahum 1The history
Assyria had run the Near East for the better part of three centuries by the time Nahum spoke. It had wiped the northern kingdom of Israel off the map in 722 BC and deported its population, and Sennacherib's army had stripped Judah's fortified towns in 701 BC. Judah survived as a tribute-paying vassal.
The opening of the book is a partial alphabet poem — the lines begin with successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet through part of the chapter. Grief and praise were both written that way; the form gave enormous weight to short lines.
The theology comes first and it is uncomfortable on purpose: the LORD is jealous and takes vengeance, slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked. Then, in the same breath, He is a stronghold in the day of trouble and knows those who trust Him. Nahum will not separate those two.
The imagery is drawn from the land itself. Bashan, Carmel, and Lebanon were the three most fertile regions people knew, and the poem has all three withering.
The chapter closes with a direct address to Judah: keep your feasts, perform your vows, for the wicked shall no more pass through you — he is utterly cut off. The tribute was going to stop.
What it meant to them
For Judeans, this said the Assyrian machine was not permanent and not beyond accounting. Nineveh had done what it did to real towns with real names, and there was a court that had noticed.
But the chapter refuses to make it merely political. The same God who is a stronghold to those who trust Him is the one dismantling an empire. Comfort and terror in this book come from the same source.
Sources cited
- D. J. Wiseman, Chronicles of Chaldaean Kings (626–556 B.C.) in the British Museum
- John Calvin, Commentaries on the Twelve Minor Prophets
The text of this chapter
This page carries no textual note on Nahum 1. Where this site has examined a place the manuscripts differ, the examination is in the manuscripts room. Every place this site examines →
This page draws on Jamieson, Fausset & Brown, Commentary Critical and Explanatory; John Calvin, Commentaries; John Wesley, Notes on the Old Testament and Matthew Henry, Complete Commentary.