Nahum
Name means consolation, comfort, or relief (from what?) We know nothing about him.
Main Idea(s)
The time is full for the destruction of Assyria. God is done holding back.
Target: Assyria, and to a lesser extent Judah
Time Period
- Contemporary of Jeremiah, Zephaniah, Habakkuk
- Occurs between the sack of No-Amon (Thebes, the Egyptian capital at that time) and the destruction of Assyria – puts it around 615 BC, about ten years prior to the first exile.
Famous verses and fragments
1:15a
Questions
- What other part(s) of Scripture do verses 1:2-3a remind you of?
- What is God saying to us in Chapter 1 regarding his nature and dealings?
- Why does He say that – what is the eventual point of it?
- If we were just limited to Chapter 1, excluding verse 1, would we know who God is talking about?
- What sins are mentioned in Chapter 1?
- What should Judah learn from verse 1:15? Is this specific to Assyria, or a general promise?
- How should we interpret 2:2?
- In Chapter 2, the attack is described. Describe what it might have been like.
- How total is the judgment? Is there any hint that repentance could avert it?
- How should we interpret 2:11-13?
- Chapter 3 – any more sins of Nineveh?
- 3:5-7 Why does God humiliate Nineveh?
- Why might God compare it to the sack of Thebes? (3:8-13)
- Is there any possibility of Nineveh getting out of this alive?
- What is the point of the summary in verses 18-19?
- Compare Nahum with Jonah.
- How is Nahum unique as a book of the Bible?