Study and Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Nahum

The book of Nahum is number 34 in the canon of Scripture

Nahum, whose name means "comforter" or "full of comfort," is unknown except for the brief title that begins his prophecy. His identification as an "Elcosite" is not very helpful, since the location of Elcos is uncertain.

Capernaum, a Galilean city so prominent in Jesus' ministry, means "Village of Nahum," and some have speculated, but without concrete proof, that its name derives from the prophet. He prophesied to Judah during the reigns of Manasseh, Amon, and Josiah. His contemporaries were Zephaniah, Habakkuk and Jeremiah.

The Book of Nahum is a poem about the fall of Nineveh, the capital city of Assyria. For some one hundred and fifty years, Assyria had dominated the countries of the Middle East, but in 612 B.C., the Babylonians conquered Nineveh. The prophet Nahum sees the fall of the city as the punishment God sends upon a persecuting and cruel people who, in 722 B.C., had conquered Samaria, the capital of the Northern Kingdom, and taken the Israelites as prisoners to Assyria. The language of the prophet is brilliant, and by means of various figures he describes the siege and fall of the great and mighty city.