Not too long ago we read through the book of Jonah. It was one of a few prophetic books written specifically to non-Israelites. Although the message of the book was great (Salvation is for all who will turn to God and trust Him alone for salvation) it ended on a sad note. God’s messenger of love and forgiveness, Jonah, resented the fact that the Assyrians (Ninevah was the capital of the Assyrian empire) were allowed to turn back to God and be forgiven. Jonah ends with the prophet sitting on a hill mad over the death of a plant he was using for shade while wishing God would destroy the Ninevites. The events in Jonah occured about 760 BC.
Shortly after the time of Jonah the Assyrian empire had two politically weak kings but about 744 BC a new king came to power, Tiglath Pileser III, who started to build the empire again. He eventually invaded Israel (the Northern Kingdom) and took many people captive and scattered them through out his empire. Israel remained a separate kingdom though and paid tribute (taxes to honor the greater king) to Assyria. In 727 BC Tiglath died and the empire was taken over by Shalmaneser V. Hoshea, the king of Israel, revolted at the death of Tiglath and Shalmaneser responded by invading Israel. Eventually he besieged the capital city, Samaria. Before Shalmaneser could conquer Samaria he died and the kingdom was taken over by Sargon II (722 BC). Sargon completed the conquest of Samaria and destroyed the Northern Kingdom (Israel) scattering her people throughout the Assyrian empire and bringing in people for other parts to intermarry with those who remained. Sargon was succeeded by his son, grandson, and then his great-grandson. All maintained control of the empire through the used of brutal force. In 2 Chronicles 33:11 the King of Judah (the Southern Kingdom) is taken captive to a leading city in the Assyrian empire (Babylon, later to become the capital of the empire which would defeat the Assyrian’s). In that verse we are told that that king, Manasseh, was bound in chains and led with hooks. The practice was to chain up a prisoner and then put a hook in their lip to lead them. . We know from other references in history that the Assyrians would tear off arms and legs, poke out eyes, shove a post through people and put them up like a sign, boil them in tar, and make pyramids of heads of their victims. Starting with Sargon’s great-grandson, Ashurbanipal (669-633 BC), though the empire began to weaken and in 612 BC Assyria was conquered by the new Babylonian empire.
An interesting thing about the book of Nahum is that he does not identify who was king when he wrote like many of the other prophets do. To make dating the book even harder Nahum is mentioned nowhere else in the Old Testament. In Nahum 3:8 though there is a reference to a city in Egypt called No-Amon (Thebes) which had been destroyed. From history we know this happened in 663 BC so we know that Nahum prophecied after that time. Also In the first verse of Nahum he calls his book an “oracle” and a “vision”. The first word means burden and it is about Ninevah (that is the capital of the Assyrian empire). The word vision means “to see”. This is a vision of the future and again it is about Ninevah. The book of Nahum contains a prediction of the destruction of the Assyrian empire, something that happened in 612 BC as I mentioned above. Also in the book we see Assyria as still relatively strong. So it seems that the best fit for when Nahum prophecied was during the reign of Ashurbanipal (669-633 BC), probably around 650 BC or 110 years after Jonah saw the Ninevites repent and turn to God.
A second interesting fact about Nahum was mentioned above, we don’t have any other information about him except that he was from a town called Elkosh (Nahum 1:1). Again a mystery because archeologists and historians still do not know where Elkosh was. Both of these facts make some scholars doubt that Nahum was a real person and that Elkosh was a real place but that is pure guess work. In Luke 3:25 we see the name Nahum in the list of ancestors of Jesus. Although this is probably not the same Nahum we at least see that is was a real name in the history of Israel. We also should understand that the Nahum in Luke is probably not the only Nahum in the history of Israel. Also know that often people use the name of someone from history or their family as a name for their child (Tiglath Pileser III above named himself after Tiglath Pileser I who was a great warrior in Assyria’s past). Although we should see that both Nahum and Elkosh are real, the fact that we don’t know much about either may be a way of focusing our attention on something different. In this case that may be the meaning of both names. Often in the Old Testament names had important meaning See “What’s in a Name?”). Nahum means “comfort” and Elkosh means “God is the one who catches” (like in a trap). From Nahum 1:15-2:1 we can see that this vision was given to the people of Judah (the Southern Kingdom). Remember that the kingdom was under constant threat from the Assyrians. So the fact that Ninevah, or the Assyrian empire, would eventually be destroyed would have been a comfort to the people of Judah. They would be glad that God would eventually catch the Assyrians in his trap.
A couple of final details. The history of the Southern Kingdom in it’s final years was one of spiritual decline with a few high points. Above I mentioned a king named Manasseh who was take captive to Babylon by the Assyrians. Manasseh reigned in Jerusalem over the Southern Kingdom from 697-642 BC (though part of this time he was a captive in Babylon). In 2 Kings 21:9 we are told that Manasseh was a worse influence on the Jewish people that the people who the nation of Israel had pushed out of the land centuries before. Manasseh did not honor God with his life but rather worshipped the local false gods, Baal and Asherah. And even sacrificed some of his children to the false god Molech. While in captivity in Babylon Manasseh turned back to God and was restored as king in Jerusalem (2 Chronicles 33:12-13). Manasseh was succeeded by his son Amon who was also wicked and only lasted 2 years as king. Amon was followed by his 8 year old son Josiah who was a good king who restored worship of Yahweh to Judah. Josiah was followed b his three sons as king none of whom honored God. These were the final kings of Judah before it was conquered by the new Babylonian empire. The fact that Nahum encourages the people to “celebrate their feasts and pay their vows” (Nahum 1:15) points to the time of Manasseh for his prophecy. In this case the burden about Ninevah’s future destruction would have been both a comfort and an encouragement for the people of Judah to live for God.