Chapter 1
Possibly written in 647 BC, with a question mark, and possibly by Nahum - again with a question mark. My big question is whether it was written before or after Jonah went to Ninevah? MSB says no mention of any Kings at the beginning of this book, so dating it comes only from internal clues, and MSB best guess is between 695-642 BC. There are also three widely divergent possibilities for the location of its writing - from Iraq to southern Israel. The background information says it was written a hundred years after Jonah. It also points out, and I did not know - or had forgotten - that Ninevah was the capitol city of Assyria. One of the notes says that Nahum was written after Assyria had recovered from Sennacherib's defeat. One final thing - after the fall of Ninevah to the Babylonians in 612 BC, it was not "rediscovered" until 1842. It lay buried during all that intervening time. Essentially wiped off the map.
1:1 says it's about Ninevah, and is a vision of Nahum of Elkosh. (Incidentally, they still don't know where Elkosh was). Some form of "vengeance" is used three times in vs 2. Next few verses go on to say first that God stores up wrath for his enemies, and then through verse five the power of God is announced - power over the sea and rivers, mountains, earth - the whole world. So God's power over all nature is established. (This is important, because Ninevah fell due to a flood of the Tigris river undermining the 100' walls of the city. (The account here makes no mention of a flood. Perhaps where ever I got that (I got it in vs 8 of chapter 1!) used "flood" metaphorically. The account here, https://www.gotquestions.org/Nineveh-destroyed.html , says two kings combined their power - the King of Akkad and the King of Media - and besieged and conquered Nineveh in 3 months. This seems an extremely short siege for such a great city...so perhaps natural causes had something to do with it. This conquest was in 612 BC, and is corroborated by at least one extra biblical source. A case where God used natural, rather than supernatural events to accomplish his ends.)
2022 - Recent correspondence made this verse of great interest:
"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." [Nah 1:2 ESV]
His wrath is ONLY for his enemies. And a bit later this one:
"The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him." [Nah 1:7 ESV]
"But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness." [Nah 1:8 ESV] WRATH
Then this verse:
8 But with an overflowing flood he will make a complete end of the adversaries, and will pursue his enemies into darkness. [Nah 1:8 ESV]
If I were a skeptic, I would be forced, absolutely forced, to argue not that the prophecy was a lucky shot, but that it was written after the fact. No one would ever "guess" that a flood would cause the end of a city like Ninevah. BUT, if this is just a metaphor for what happened, then I am not forced to do anything. Note vs 9:
9 What do you plot against the LORD? He will make a complete end; trouble will not rise up a second time. [Nah 1:9 ESV] It is true that Assyria never again played a role in history. They were "ended" in 612 BC.
What was it about Nineveh that made it the target first of God's redemption via Jonah, and then the target of his vengeance, as in vs 2, and because of the guilty, vs 3? It was the capitol of Assyria. God used Assyria to carry off the northern tribes. That is perhaps why Assyria was allowed to rise, and once God used them for the purpose He intended, they were just too powerful a force for evil to leave around. It is not like they paid homage in any form to the living God. Maybe this is part of the answer, though it still leaves a pretty big mystery:
11 From you came one who plotted evil against the LORD, a worthless counselor. [Nah 1:11 ESV] Who is this about, this counselor who may well have been the root cause of God's destruction of Nineveh? Nimrod, perhaps? Was this where he raised the tower? I get that the whole place was evil in Jonah's time, repented, and then likely turned right back to the old ways later. But perhaps this worthless counselor was where Nineveh crossed the line. MSB says this could refer to Satanic influence directly over a king or the kings of Assyria - Ashurbanipal or Sennacherib. Someone got them to invade first Israel, and then Judah - surely both an affront to God, even though he sent them. MSB says this same kind of language is used by Isa in 10:7, but I don't see the similarity.
Rest of the chapter makes clear that this action against Ninevah will be permanent. It will not rise again. Besides vs 8 above, vs 12 says they will be cut down and pass away, vs 14 says no more will your name be perpetuated. Ninevah is across the Tigris river to the East of the modern day city of Mosul in northern Iraq. It is not very far at all from the border with Turkey.
Then we get this verse, which seems out of place to me:
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. [Nah 1:15 ESV] Surely this must be copied from Isaiah 52:7??? Nahum must have read Isaiah's work? The verse was first used to celebrate the announcement of deliverance from Babylon. In this case, the news is of the fall of Nineveh and Assyria.
2022 - But...Babylon was AFTER the fall of Ninevah and Assyria. So something else is gong on here...This becomes almost a Millennial prophecy, and the bringer of good news is Christ at his second coming.
2024 - Or...if Nahum goes back further than Isaiah, perhaps Isaiah had read Nahum, and added to what Nahum had started here. I note that in Hebrew, 1:15 is actually 2:1, and it does seem like a pretty clean break with what went before.