CHAPTER ONE

 

 

1:1:  “Book” = It is interesting to observe that no other prophecy is called a “Book” except this one.

 

“the Elkoshite” = Although some Bible commentators think he is so called from his father, whose name was Helkesi, and said to be a prophet also, as Jerome relates in his work, “Proem. in Nahum.”  This agrees the “Targum,” which calls him “Nahum of the house” or “family of Koshi.”  “Elkoshite” is also thought to be a small town named “Hesychius,” residing in the tribal territories of Simeon.  However, Jerome states that the town was called “Elkes,” or “Elcos,” which was a small town in Galilee.

 

1:3-6:  “The Lord is slow to anger” = “With unerring accuracy the Infinite One still keeps account with the nations.  While His mercy is tendered, with calls to repentance, this account remains open; but when the figures reach a certain amount which God has fixed, the ministry of His wrath begins.  The account is closed.  Divine patience ceases. Mercy no longer pleads in their behalf.”  RH, June 3, 1915; PK:364.

 

1:11:  “a wicked counsellor” = From Nahum 2:6 we learn that all of this discourse is again Nineveh.  Therefore, this “wicked counsellor” could be referring to “Rabshakeh,” in Second Kings 18:29.

 

1:14:  “out of the house of thy gods will I cut off” = According to R. Campbell Thompson and R. W. Hutchinson, in their work, “Annals of Archeology and Anthropology,” 19, pages 55-56, “The statue of the goddess Ishtar lay headless in the debris of Nineveh’s ruins.”

 

“I will make thy grave; for thou art vile” = This change from taking care of Israel’s enemies to apparent reversal, must not be that (a reversal), but our Lord must be speaking against Israel’s captures; in this case, the Assyrians.

 

 

CHAPTER TWO

 

 

2:3:  “The shield of his mighty men is made red” = That “shield” was the banks of the Tigris River, which overflowed its banks, the city of Nineveh become flooded, and the calamities described in verses 3-6 occurred.

 

2:6:  “the rivers shall be opened” = According to Diodorus Siculus, in his work, “Bibliotheca Historia,” 2.26.9; 2.27.13, “In the 3rd year of the siege heavy rains caused a nearby river to flood part of the city and break part of the Walls.”  And Xenophon, in his work, “Anabasis,” 3.4.12, refers to a terrifying thunder associated with the city’s capture.

 

2:7:  “Huzzab” = The name of the queen of Nineveh.

 

2:8:  “Nineveh” = Nineveh becomes Babylon.  In Nahum 2:8 & 10-13; 3:11, we have prophecies against Babylon which are fulfilled in Daniel 5:6.

 

“yet they shall flee away” = According to Diodorus, in his work, “Bibliotheca Historia,” 2.420, “Sardanapalus (another name for King Sin-shar-iskun) sent away his three sons and two daughters with much treasure into Paphlagonia, to the governor of Kattos, the most loyal of his subjects.”  And according to Luckenbill, in his work, “Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia,” 2.420, speaking of the Assyrian army, they “deserted the king.”  Literally running away before the king.

 

2:9:  “take the spoil” = According to Luckenbill, in his work, “Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia,” 2.420, “Great quantities of the spoil from the city, beyond counting, they carried off.  The city [was turned] into a mound and ruin heap.”

 

2:13:  “I will burn her chariots in the smoke” = According to R. Campbell Thompson and R. V. Hutchinson, in their work, “A Century of Exploration at Nineveh,” London, 1929, “There was no question about the clear traces of burning of the temple (as also in the palace of Sennacherib), for a layer of ash about two inches thick lay clearly defined in places on the southeast side about the level of the Sargon pavement.”

 

 

CHAPTER THREE

 

 

3:3:  “a multitude of slain” = According to Diodorus, in his work, “Bibliotheca Historia,” 2.26.6-7. “In two battles fought on the plain before the city the rebels defeated the Assyrians. . . So great was the multitude of the slain that the flowing stream, mingled with their blood, changed its color for a considerable distance.”

 

3:7:  “Nineveh is laid waste” = According to Luckenbill, in his work, “Ancient Records of Assyria and Babylonia,” 1:146, Ashurnasirpal II (B.C. 883-859), boasted, “I stormed the mountain peaks and took them.  In the midst of the mighty mountain I slaughtered them; with their blood I dyed the mountain red like wook. . . The heads of their warriors I cut off, and I formed them into a pillar over against their city; their young men and their maidens I burned in the fire.”

 

Keep in mind that all these prophecies of Nahum’s were written about 140 years before it actually took place.

 

3:8:  “populous No” = Rather, as in the Hebrew, “No-ammon.”  “No” was the Egyptian name for “Thebes” in Upper Egypt.  The meaning is the portion or possession of Ammon, the Egyptian “Jupiter” (whence the Greeks called the city Diospolis), who was especially worshipped there.  The Egyptian inscriptions call the god, “Amon-re,” that is, “Amon the Sun.”  He is represented as a human figure with a ram’s head seated on a chair (see Jer. 46:25; Eze. 30:14-16).

 

3:11:  “Thou also shalt be drunken” = According to Diodorus Siculus, in his work, “Bibliotheca Historia,” 2.26.4, “The Assyrian king. . . distributed to his soldiers meats and liberal supplies of wine and provisions. . . while the whole army was thus acrousing, the friends of Arbakes learned from some deserters of the slackness and drunkenness which prevailed in the enemy’s camp and made an unexpected attack by night.”

 

3:13:  “the gates of thy land shall be set wide open” = According to A. T. Olmstead, in his work, “History of Assyria,” Chicago University of Chicago Press, 1951, page 637, “The main attack was directed from the northwest and the brunt fell upon the Hatamti gate at this corner. . . within the gate are traces of the counterwall raised by the inhabitants in their last extremity.”

 

3:14:  “Draw thee waters for the siege” = This speaks of the Ninevites preparing bricks and mortar for the emergency defense of the walls.  In fact, again, according to A. T. Olmstead, in his work, “History of Assyria,” Chicago University of Chicago Press, 1951, page 637, “To the south of the gate, the moat is still filled [to this very day] with fragments of stone and mud bricks from the walls, heaped up when they were breached.”

 

3:15:  “cankerworm. . . locusts” = A possible reference to the Macedonians and Antiochus Epiphanes (cankerworm) and the Medes and Persians (locusts).

 

Here is my Joel 1:4 Note:  According to the “International Standard Bible Encyclopedia,” in Jerome's time, the 4 names of the locust in Joel 1:4 were supposed to designate (1-palmerworm) the Assyrians and Babylonians, (2-locust) the Medes and Persians, (3-cankerworm) the Macedonians and Antiochus Epiphanes, and (4-caterpillar) the Romans.

 

By contrast, the ravages caused by “locusts” is forementioned (prophesied; foretold) by Moses (Deu. 28:38-39) and Solomon (1Ki. 8:37 & 46).  But again, Joel 1:6 states that they have “teeth” like that “of a lion,” meaning the passage cannot be referring to literal “locusts.”

 

3:17:  “crowned” = According to “Albert Barnes Notes On The Bible,” “ ‘The crowned’ are probably the subordinate princes, of whom Sennacherib said, ‘Are not my princes altogether kings?’  Isa. 10:8.  It has been observed that the headdress of the Assyrian Vizier has the ornament which ‘throughout the whole series of sculptures is the distinctive mark of royal or quasi-royal authority.’  Continuing on, “One such Jeremiah Jer. 51:27, in a prophecy in which he probably alludes to this, bids place over the armies of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz, to marshal them against Babylon, against which he summons the cavalry like the rough locust.”

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