The following paper was prepared for Dr. Steven McKinion’s Hermeneutics class, with the constraint that it be between 600 and 625 words.

Nahum 1

The Meaning of the Text

The prophet Nahum hammers home this point: Yahweh is enormously powerful and terrible in his judgment of idolaters and enemies of his people. The book as a whole—and this chapter in particular—serve as extended pictures of Yahweh’s passion for his own glory and for the good of those on whom he has set his covenant love. Indeed, so great is Yahweh’s passion for his own glory and so deep is his covenant love for his people that this sort of judgment falls on idolaters and enemies of God’s people.

Intratextual Links

The book, situated just over halfway through the Book of the Twelve, follows closely on the heels of Micah. For seven chapters, Micah declares God’s judgment on Israel through Assyria, only to close with a single, pointedly contrasting stanza: “[Yahweh] does not retain his anger forever / because he delights in steadfast love.” To the reader’s obvious question—how?—Yawheh provides his answer through Nahum. Nineveh, capital of Assyria, the city that had been spared by God under the ministry of Jonah, now came under final judgment for its hard heart and reproach of God’s people. The sequence astounds: God judges Israel at Assyria’s hand, but judges Assyrian Nineveh for her wickedness. The terminology applied to Assyria in Nahum is strikingly similar to the language earlier prophets had used of God’s judgment on Israel (compare v. 5, Micah 1:4, Amos 4:13).

The mystery of God’s judgment of those whom he uses as judges is not left a riddle for the reader: Habakkuk takes it up as soon as Nahum closes. Just as God judges Assyria in Nahum, in Habakkuk his judgment falls on the Chaldeans, the very tools he uses to judge unrighteous Judah.

Intertextual Links

Intertextual links are almost too many to count. The first stanza doubly points back to Exodus: verse 3 paraphrases Exodus 34:6–7, while verse 4 more than suggests the image of the crossing of the Red Sea (perhaps with a nod to similar events in Joshua and 2 Kings). The language of God as “jealous and avenging” (v. 2) brimming with “wrath… like fire” (v. 6) clearly echo the fire of God at Sinai (Exodus 20:5, 34:14; Deuteronomy 4:24, 6:15). This theme is picked up again by the author of Hebrews in his exhortation to the New Israel to “offer to God acceptable worship, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28b–29).

Quotes to the Psalms and major prophets are dense in both allusion and borrowed language: mountains melting and quaking (Jeremiah 4:24, Ezekiel 38:20), a refuge in the day of trouble (Isaiah 25:1–6, c.f. Psalm 46:1), God coming in whirlwind and storm in judgment (Psalm 18:9–13).

Finally, Nahum’s prophecy heralds deliverance from Assyria in a proximate sense (compare Isaiah 52:7), but Paul makes clear that this deliverance climaxes in Christ and therefore in the proclamation of the risen Lord in the telling of the gospel (see Romans 10:15).

The Significance of the Text

Yahweh is good—a source of security and safety for those who trust him. By contrast, he is a fearful source of terrible danger to those who oppose him or who aim to harm his people. Indeed, much of Yahweh’s wrath poured out in this book flows directly out of the overwhelming depths of his covenant love for his people. It behooves all people, then, to call Yahweh their God and therefore to be under his protection rather than his wrath, to be among those whom he loves rather than those whom he hates—to join him in delighting in his glory rather than the worship of idols.