The Book of Nahum

Nahum is one of the shortest books of the Old Testament, and one of the most vivid. In the Catholic Bible it stands among the twelve minor prophets, after Micheas (Micah) and before Habacuc (Habakkuk). Its subject is a single city. A century or so earlier Jonas (Jonah) had preached in Ninive, and the city repented. By Nahum's day it had returned to its violence, and the prophet foretells its ruin. Each chapter page sets the Latin Vulgate beside the Douay-Rheims. Here we set out who wrote the book, when, where it takes place, what it says, and how the Church reads it.

Who wrote the Book of Nahum?

The Church has always received the book as the work of the prophet whose name it bears. Its first verse says so: "The burden of Ninive. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elcesite" (Nahum 1:1). The Hebrew name means "full of comfort". St Jerome renders it consolator, "comforter". The 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia notes that his name occurs nowhere else in the canonical Scriptures. Everything we know of him must therefore be gathered from his book. (The Nahum named in Our Lord's genealogy, Luke 3:25, is a different man.)

"Elcesite" means a native of Elcesh (Elkosh), a place mentioned nowhere else in the Bible, and tradition proposes three sites. St Jerome, in the prologue to his Commentary on Nahum, places it in Galilee, where a village of that name was shown to him. The ancient Lives of the Prophets, long attributed to St Epiphanius, says that Elcesh lay "beyond Beth-Gabre, in the tribe of Simeon", near the border of Juda; the Roman Martyrology follows this view and commemorates the prophet on 1 December at "Begabar", a corrupt spelling of Beth-Gabre. A third tradition shows a tomb of Nahum at Alqush, some 27 miles north of Mosul in Assyria, but the Catholic Encyclopedia notes that it cannot be traced back beyond the sixteenth century.

The Pontifical Biblical Commission issued no decision on Nahum. Until modern times no one doubted the unity of the book. Some recent scholars, noticing that the opening psalm of chapter 1 is an alphabetical (acrostic) poem, hold that it was added by a later hand. The Catholic Encyclopedia answers that their arguments "are not unanswerable", and that the poem is in any case "a most fitting preface to the prophecy".

When was the Book of Nahum written?

The book itself fixes the limits. In Nahum 3:8–10 the prophet reminds Ninive of the fall of No-Amon, which the Vulgate and the Douay render "populous Alexandria"; Challoner's note explains it as "No-Ammon. A populous city of Egypt". St Jerome understood an older city on the site of the later Alexandria. It is now known to be Thebes in Upper Egypt, which the Assyrian king Assurbanipal sacked in 664–663 BC. Nahum therefore wrote after that sack and before the fall of Ninive itself, which the Catholic Encyclopedia dates to 607–606 BC. The reckoning now generally used puts it in 612 BC. Challoner, in his note on Sophonias (Zephaniah) 2:13, dates the city's destruction to the sixteenth year of King Josias of Juda.

Older writers placed the prophecy earlier. Josephus has it uttered 115 years before Ninive fell. Others set it under Ezechias or in the early years of Manasses. The fall of Thebes rules out any date before 663. Within those limits, many writers place the book in the last decades of Assyrian power, after Babylon had regained its independence (625 BC) and while the Medes were pressing on the capital. Nahum is therefore later than Jonas, who prophesied under Jeroboam II of Israel (4 Kings 14:25).

The geography of the Book of Nahum

The book moves across the whole Near East of its day. Its centre is Ninive, the capital of the Assyrian empire, which stood on the Tigris opposite modern Mosul in northern Iraq. The prophet knows its rivers and its defences, the dams and sluices of the Tigris that broke open: "The gates of the rivers are opened, and the temple is thrown down to the ground" (Nahum 2:6); "as for Ninive, her waters are like a great pool" (2:8).

Against this city stands the land of Israel. In chapter 1 its richest pastures and forests, Basan, Carmel and Libanus (Bashan, Carmel, Lebanon), wither before the Lord: "Basan languisheth and Carmel: and the flower of Libanus fadeth away" (1:4). Juda, the kingdom of the first hearers, receives the good news in 1:15. To the south-west lies Egypt, where No-Amon (Thebes) on the Nile, with "waters round about it", fell in spite of its allies: "Ethiopia and Egypt were the strength thereof... Africa and the Libyans were thy helpers" (3:8–9). And somewhere in Galilee or in southern Juda, as we saw, lay Elcesh, the prophet's home.

What is the Book of Nahum about? A summary

The book is "the burden of Ninive": an oracle of judgment against the city that had carried the ten tribes of Israel into captivity and laid waste the cities of Juda. The Catholic Encyclopedia divides it in two parts: a hymn to God the Judge, which fills the first chapter, and the siege and fall of the city, which fills the other two.

The Lord, avenger and refuge (chapter 1)

Chapter 1 opens with a psalm on the majesty of God. "The Lord is a jealous God, and a revenger... The Lord is patient, and great in power, and will not cleanse and acquit the guilty" (1:2–3). Sea, rivers and mountains tremble before Him: "Who can stand before the face of his indignation?" (1:6). Then the tone changes: "The Lord is good and giveth strength in the day of trouble: and knoweth them that hope in him" (1:7). The enemy will be consumed "as stubble that is fully dry" (1:10). Juda's yoke is broken: "I will burst thy bonds asunder" (1:13). The chapter ends with the herald on the mountains announcing peace (1:15).

The siege and sack of Ninive (chapter 2)

Chapter 2 is a battle poem. The besieger comes up against the city: "the men of the army are clad in scarlet, the reins of the chariot are flaming". The chariots "jostle one against another in the streets" (2:3–4). The gates of the rivers burst, the palace falls, and the people flee: "They cry: Stand, stand, but there is none that will return back" (2:8). The spoil is beyond counting. The chapter closes on the image of the lion's den. Assyria had long filled its "holes with prey", and now its den is empty: "Behold I come against thee, saith the Lord of hosts" (2:11–13).

Woe to the city of blood (chapter 3)

Chapter 3 gives the reason for the judgment. "Woe to thee, O city of blood, all full of lies and violence" (3:1). Ninive was a harlot who "sold nations through her fornications" (3:4), and she will be put to shame before the nations. Thebes fell; Ninive will fall too. Her fortresses are "like fig trees with their green figs" that drop at a shake, and her guards scatter like locusts in the sun (3:12–17). The book ends without a word of pity: "all that have heard the fame of thee, have clapped their hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy wickedness passed continually?" (3:19).

The message of Nahum and the Catholic reading

God is just, and His patience has an end. The main message of the book stands in its opening lines: the Lord is "patient", yet He "will not cleanse and acquit the guilty" (1:3). Ninive had been spared once, at the preaching of Jonas, when it did penance (Jonas 3). It returned to its cruelty, and the sentence once revoked now falls. Old Tobias, living as a captive in Ninive, foretold the same end at his death: "The destruction of Ninive is at hand: for the word of the Lord must be fulfilled" (Tobias (Tobit) 14:6).

Our Lord recalls the city's first repentance as a reproach to the unrepentant: "The men of Ninive shall rise in judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it" (Matthew 12:41). Read with Jonas, Nahum teaches both halves of the truth about God: He is merciful to the penitent, and He judges the obstinate. We treat this further in What Does God Say About Justice? and, on the last reckoning of every soul, in The Four Last Things.

The anger of God is not a passion. Nahum's language of jealousy, revenge and wrath has troubled modern readers. The Church has always understood these words of God's just will to punish sin, never of a disordered passion like the sinful wrath that is a capital sin in man. St Augustine puts it plainly in The City of God (XV, 25): "The anger of God is not a disturbing emotion of His mind, but a judgment by which punishment is inflicted upon sin." We set out the difference between holy indignation and sinful wrath in What Does God Say About Anger?.

Consolation for the oppressed. The prophet's name is the key to his book. It was written for Juda, which had lived for generations under the Assyrian yoke. It tells the weak that no tyranny is eternal, and that "the Lord is good... and knoweth them that hope in him" (1:7). That verse belongs with What Does God Say About Hope?.

The herald of good tidings. Nahum 1:15 reads: "Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, and that preacheth peace". The words are almost those of Isaias (Isaiah) 52:7, "How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings". St Paul applies that verse of Isaias to the preachers of the Gospel: "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace" (Romans 10:15). Christian readers have therefore heard in Nahum's herald a figure of the Gospel. The fall of the oppressor makes way for the peace that Christ brings. The proud city, "the harlot that was beautiful and agreeable" (3:4), likewise prefigures every worldly power that sets itself against God. St Jerome's commentary on the book gives such spiritual senses alongside the literal one.

A note on Holofernes. Nahum 1:11 reads: "Out of thee shall come forth one that imagineth evil against the Lord". Challoner remarks that some take this of Sennacherib. Since that king's attack seems to precede the prophecy, Challoner says that "we may better understand it of Holofernes", the Assyrian general of the Book of Judith.

Famous verses of Nahum

• Nahum 1:3: "The Lord is patient, and great in power, and will not cleanse and acquit the guilty. The Lord's ways are in a tempest, and a whirlwind, and clouds are the dust of his feet." (Nahum 1)
• Nahum 1:7: "The Lord is good and giveth strength in the day of trouble: and knoweth them that hope in him."
• Nahum 1:15: "Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, and that preacheth peace: O Juda, keep thy festivals, and pay thy vows."
• Nahum 2:13: "Behold I come against thee, saith the Lord of hosts." (Nahum 2)
• Nahum 3:1: "Woe to thee, O city of blood, all full of lies and violence." (Nahum 3)

Its place in the Bible and the liturgy

Nahum is in every Bible, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Jewish. It is one of the protocanonical books, never disputed. The Council of Trent (Session IV, 1546) names it among "the twelve minor prophets, to wit, Osee, Joel, Amos, Abdias, Jonas, Micheas, Nahum, Habacuc, Sophonias, Aggaeus, Zacharias, Malachias". The name is the same in the Douay-Rheims and the King James Version; only its neighbours are spelled differently, Micheas (Micah), Habacuc (Habakkuk) and Sophonias (Zephaniah). The original language is Hebrew. St Jerome's Latin translation in the Vulgate is the text from which the Douay-Rheims was made.

In the Roman Breviary the book is begun at Matins on the Monday after the fifth Sunday of November. The first lessons are Incipit Nahum Propheta and the opening verses of chapter 1. The Church reads the minor prophets in these last weeks of the liturgical year, as the Office turns toward judgment and the coming of Christ. You can pray that Office in our Breviary and follow the season in the liturgical calendar.

How to read the Book of Nahum

The book takes a quarter of an hour. Read it in one sitting, and read Jonas first, so that you see the same city spared and then judged. Read chapter 1 slowly, as a psalm. Then let chapters 2 and 3 move at the pace of the battle they describe. Keep in mind who first heard it: a small people long oppressed, hearing that their God had not forgotten them. Then read Sophonias 2, which foretells the same end of Assyria. The Latin beside the English on each chapter page shows the force of the original images, such as civitas sanguinum, "city of blood".

Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Book of Nahum about?

The Book of Nahum is a prophecy of the fall of Ninive, the capital of Assyria. Chapter 1 praises God as the just judge of His enemies and the refuge of those who hope in Him. Chapters 2 and 3 describe the siege, sack and shameful end of the "city of blood". The book was written to comfort Juda, long oppressed by Assyria.

Who wrote the Book of Nahum?

The prophet Nahum, called "the Elcesite" in the first verse, wrote it. The Church has always received it as his work. His name means "comforter", and nothing is known of him beyond his book. Tradition places his home, Elcesh, either in Galilee (St Jerome) or near Begabar on the border of Juda (the Lives of the Prophets and the Roman Martyrology).

When was the Book of Nahum written?

It was written after the sack of Thebes (No-Amon) in 664–663 BC, which the prophet mentions in 3:8–10. It was written before the fall of Ninive in 612 BC (606 BC in older reckoning). Many writers place it near the end of that period, when Assyria was already declining.

What is the main message of the Book of Nahum?

The Lord is patient, but He does not leave the guilty unpunished. Ninive had once repented at Jonas' preaching. When it returned to violence, its judgment came. For God's people the book is a message of comfort: "The Lord is good and giveth strength in the day of trouble: and knoweth them that hope in him" (1:7).

How many chapters are in the Book of Nahum?

The Book of Nahum has three chapters: chapter 1, chapter 2 and chapter 3. In the Vulgate and Douay-Rheims, chapter 1 has 15 verses and chapter 2 has 13. Hebrew-based Bibles move the last verse of chapter 1 to the start of chapter 2.

Where is the Book of Nahum in the Bible, and which book comes before and after it?

Nahum is the seventh of the twelve minor prophets in the Old Testament. The book before it is Micheas (Micah), and the book after it is Habacuc (Habakkuk). This order is the same in Catholic and Protestant Bibles.

Is the Book of Nahum in the Catholic Bible and the King James Bible?

Yes. Nahum is in all Bibles, Catholic, Orthodox, Protestant and Jewish, since it was never disputed. The Council of Trent lists it among the twelve minor prophets. It is in the Douay-Rheims and in the King James Version under the same name.

Does the Book of Nahum relate the destruction of Edom?

No. Nahum foretells the destruction of Ninive and the Assyrian empire. The prophecy against Edom is the Book of Abdias (Obadiah), a single chapter placed earlier among the minor prophets.

Was the Book of Nahum written before Jonah?

No. Jonas prophesied under Jeroboam II, king of Israel, in the eighth century BC (4 Kings 14:25), and Ninive repented at his preaching. Nahum wrote in the seventh century, after the fall of Thebes, when the city had returned to its cruelty. The two books are best read together.

Read the whole Book of Nahum verse by verse, in Latin and English side by side, in the Iter Fidei Catholic Bible app.

Sources. Holy Scripture, Douay-Rheims (Challoner revision, with Challoner's notes) and Clementine Vulgate: Nahum; Jonas 1–4; Tobias 14; Sophonias 2; Isaias 52; 4 Kings 14; Judith; Matthew 12; Luke 3; Romans 10. St Jerome, Commentary on Nahum; St Augustine, The City of God XV, 25; Lives of the Prophets (attributed to St Epiphanius); Flavius Josephus, Jewish Antiquities IX.11.3; Council of Trent, Session IV, Decree on the Canonical Scriptures (1546); Catholic Encyclopedia (1913), "Nahum"; Roman Martyrology, 1 December; Breviarium Romanum (1962), Monday after the fifth Sunday of November.