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Content Overview
Content Overview
Word Biblical Commentary's Outline
Word Biblical Commentary's Outline
Superscription 1:1
A psalm in praise of Yahweh 1:2–8
a. Yahweh—a jealous God 1:2–3a
b. Yahweh—God of creation 1:3b–5
c. Yahweh—God of love and judgment 1:6–8
Prophetic responses 1:9–2:3 (Eng. 1:9–2:2)
a. Disputation speech and judgment oracle against Assyria 1:9–11
b. Salvation oracle for Judah 1:12–13
c. Judgment oracle against the king of Assyria 1:14
d. Salvation oracle for Judah 2:1, 3 (Eng. 1:15, 2:2)
Tyndale Old Testament Commentary's Outline
Tyndale Old Testament Commentary's Outline
TITLE (1:1)
a. Subject (1:1a)
b. Form (1:1b)
A PSALM TO YAHWEH (1:2–8)
a. God’s character (1:2–3a)
b. God’s power (1:3b–6)
c. God’s character and power realized (1:7–8)
GOD’S WRATH PERSONALIZED (1:9–11)
GOD’S DUAL VERDICTS (1:12–2:2)
a. Judah: end of oppression (1:12–13)
b. Assyria: end of the line (1:14)
c. Judah: good news (1:15)
d. Assyria: prepare for battle (2:1)
e. Judah: ruin restored (2:2)
image from the Bible Project
Nahum - Chapter 1
Nahum - Chapter 1
1:2-6 - Revelation of God
1:2-6 - Revelation of God
1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.
2 The LORD is a jealous and avenging God;
the LORD is avenging and wrathful;
the LORD takes vengeance on his adversaries
and keeps wrath for his enemies.
3 The LORD is slow to anger and great in power,
and the LORD will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
he dries up all the rivers;
Bashan and Carmel wither;
the bloom of Lebanon withers.
5 The mountains quake before him;
the hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
the world and all who dwell in it.
6 Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.
What do these verses tell us about God?
What is repeated several times? Why?
Nahum 1:3 is an allusion to Exodus 34. Exodus 34:6-7 ESV reads like this:
6 The LORD passed before him and proclaimed, “The LORD, the LORD, a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger, and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness, 7 keeping steadfast love for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, but who will by no means clear the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children and the children’s children, to the third and the fourth generation.”
The Israelites had been delivered from Egypt, but then made a golden calf.
Exodus 33:12-16 ESV read this:
12 Moses said to the LORD, “See, you say to me, ‘Bring up this people,’ but you have not let me know whom you will send with me. Yet you have said, ‘I know you by name, and you have also found favor in my sight.’ 13 Now therefore, if I have found favor in your sight, please show me now your ways, that I may know you in order to find favor in your sight. Consider too that this nation is your people.” 14 And he said, “My presence will go with you, and I will give you rest.” 15 And he said to him, “If your presence will not go with me, do not bring us up from here. 16 For how shall it be known that I have found favor in your sight, I and your people? Is it not in your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?”
What is the history of Assyria, and why is it different that Israel? Was God merciful and gracious to Assyria, slow to anger?
Nahum 1:7-11 God's Care for Judah
Nahum 1:7-11 God's Care for Judah
7 The LORD is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
8 But with an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries,
and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
9 What do you plot against the LORD?
He will make a complete end;
trouble will not rise up a second time.
10 For they are like entangled thorns,
like drunkards as they drink;
they are consumed like stubble fully dried.
11 From you came one
who plotted evil against the LORD,
a worthless counselor.
What do these verses tell us about God?
How is God caring for Judah?
Notice the metaphorical language - the adversaries of God's people are compared to entangled thorns
Ironically, Sennacherib sacked and leveled Babylon, made a ditch, and flooded the city. In an attempt to bury and wash away the greatness of that city.
טוֹב יְהוָה
Tov YHWH
'Yahweh is good' 'The LORD is good'
Tet Holem-Vav Bet Yod Heh Vav Heh
The Fall of Nineveh
The Fall of Nineveh
27.1 The rebels, elated at their successes, pressed the siege, but because of the strength of the walls they were unable to do any harm to the men in the city; for neither engines for throwing stones, nor shelters for sappers,55 nor battering-rams devised to overthrow walls had as yet been invented at that time. Moreover, the inhabitants of the city had a great abundance of all provisions, since the king had taken thought on that score. Consequently the siege dragged on, and for two years they pressed their attack, making assaults on the walls and preventing inhabitants of the city from going out into the country; but in the third year, after there had been heavy and continuous rains, it came to pass that the Euphrates, running very full, both inundated a portion of the city and broke down the walls for a distance of twenty stades. 2 At this the king, believing that the oracle had been fulfilled and that the river had plainly become the city's enemy, abandoned hope of saving himself. And in order that he might not fall into the hands of the enemy, he built an enormous pyre in his palace, heaped upon it all his gold and silver as well as every article of the royal wardrobe, and then, shutting his concubines and eunuchs in the room which had been built in the middle of the pyre, he consigned both them and himself and his palace to the flames. 3 The rebels, on learning of the death of Sardanapallus, took the city by forcing an entrance where the wall had fallen, and clothing Arbaces in the royal garb saluted him as king and put in his hands the supreme authority.
28.1 Thereupon, after the new king had distributed among the generals who had aided him in the struggle gifts corresponding to their several deserts, and as he was appointing satraps over the nations, Belesys the Babylonian, who had foretold to Arbaces that he would be king of Asia, coming to him, reminded him of his good services, and asked that he be given the governorship of Babylonia, as had been promised at the outset. 2 He also explained that when their cause was endangered he had made a vow to Belus that, if Sardanapallus were defeated and his palace went up in flames, he would bring its ashes to Babylon, and depositing them near the river and the sacred precinct of the god he would construct a mound which, for all who sailed down the Euphrates, would stand as an eternal memorial of the man who had overthrown the rule of the Assyrians. 3 This request he made because he had learned from a certain eunuch, who had made his escape and come to Belesys and was kept hidden by him, of the facts regarding the silver and gold. 4 Now since Arbaces knew nothing of this, by reason of the fact that all the inmates of the palace had been burned along with the king, he allowed him both to carry the ashes away and to hold be able without the payment of tribute. Thereupon Belesys procured boats and at once sent off to Babylon along with the ashes practically all the silver and gold; and the king, having been informed of the act which Belesys had been caught perpetrating, appointed as judges the generals who had served with him in the war. 5 And when the accused acknowledged his guilt, the court sentenced him to death, but the king, being a magnanimous man and wishing to make his rule at the outset known for clemency, both freed Belesys from the danger threatening him and allowed him to keep the silver and gold which he had carried off; likewise, he did not even take from him the governorship over Babylon which had originally been given to him, saying that his former services were greater than his subsequent misdeeds. 6 When this act of clemency was noised about, he won no ordinary loyalty on the part of his subjects as well as renown among the nations, all judging that a man who had conducted himself in this wise towards wrongdoers was worthy of the kingship. 7 Arbaces, however, showing clemency towards the inhabitants of the city, settled them in villages and returned to each man his personal possessions, but the city he levelled to the ground. Then the silver and gold, amounting to many talents, which had been left in the pyre, he collected and took off to Ecbatana in Media.
Diodorus Siculus II 27.1-28.7Nahum 1:12-13 - God's Prophecy about the Deliverance of Judah
Nahum 1:12-13 - God's Prophecy about the Deliverance of Judah
12 Thus says the LORD,
“Though they are at full strength and many,
they will be cut down and pass away.
Though I have afflicted you,
I will afflict you no more.
13 And now I will break his yoke from off you
and will burst your bonds apart.”
Nahum 1:14 - God's Justice for Nineveh
Nahum 1:14 - God's Justice for Nineveh
14 The LORD has given commandment about you:
“No more shall your name be perpetuated;
from the house of your gods I will cut off
the carved image and the metal image.
I will make your grave, for you are vile.”
Nahum 1:15 - News of Deliverance
Nahum 1:15 - News of Deliverance
15 Behold, upon the mountains, the feet of him
who brings good news,
who publishes peace!
Keep your feasts, O Judah;
fulfill your vows,
for never again shall the worthless pass through you;
he is utterly cut off.
What will God’s deliverance provide/enable Judah to do?
Cf. Isaiah 52:7; Romans 10:15
Application
Application
What do we learn from Nahum chapter 1?
We learn of the character of God.
We learn of the care and deliverance of Judah/Israel because of God's character.
How do these things apply to us today?
Information about Assyria
Information about Assyria
For further reference
For further reference
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