A hymn to the Lord

Nahum 1:1 An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

God's Wrath Against Nineveh

2 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.
3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,
and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.
His way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
he dries up all the rivers;
Bashan and Carmel wither;
the bloom of Lebanon withers.
5 The mountains quake before him;
the hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
the world and all who dwell in it.

6 Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.
7 The Lord is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
8 But with an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries, [1]
and will pursue his enemies into darkness.
Nahum 1:1 The title

An oracle concerning Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

    V 1 describes the whole book as an oracle or ‘burden’. See the note on Zc. 9:1. The book of the vision implies at least that the prophet saw things which were not apparent to the natural physical eye. On Nineveh and Elkosh see the Introduction above.

1:2-8 A hymn to the Lord

2 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.
3 The Lord is slow to anger and great in power,
and the Lord will by no means clear the guilty.

    2-3a These verses tell us that God is a God who takes vengeance, but only in accordance with what is right. He is patient and punishes unwillingly, but he will not let iniquity go by the board. It has to be dealt with (see on the book’s message above). God is jealous for his name. The truth of these things is confirmed in the NT also (e.g. Mt. 7:21-27; Mk. 11:15-17; Rom. 1:18-32; Rev. 2-3).

is way is in whirlwind and storm,
and the clouds are the dust of his feet.
4 He rebukes the sea and makes it dry;
he dries up all the rivers;
Bashan and Carmel wither;
the bloom of Lebanon withers.
5 The mountains quake before him;
the hills melt;
the earth heaves before him,
the world and all who dwell in it.
6 Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.


    3b-6 These verses show God’s power over all the earth. They could easily be included in the Psalter as a psalm of praise to the Lord. They still have Nahum’s main concern strongly to the fore. We know from Isaiah that the Assyrians attributed their success over the nations to their own power and might and to their own gods (Is. 10:12-18; cf. Zp. 2:13-15). Nahum describes God in relation to various impressive and frightening natural phenomena. Compared to this the Assyrians and their gods are completely insignificant.

6 Who can stand before his indignation?
Who can endure the heat of his anger?
His wrath is poured out like fire,
and the rocks are broken into pieces by him.

    V 6 contains four words for anger (fierce anger is lit. ‘[burning–]anger of his anger’!). So this repetition marks strong emphasis, as in vs 2-3a.

    The people of Nahum’s day (unless they were quite rich and important) built their houses out of sundried mud bricks, with a roof made of wooden beams and twigs, covered with a layer of clay and whitewash. In a storm they would be aware of their smallness in the face of nature’s power. And yet, says Nahum, the Lord’s way is in the whirlwind and storm; he is quite at home there, that’s where he walks about. The clouds which seem so vast to us, are the dust of his feet. The Israelites were not a sea–going people, and the sea was something that inspired awe. With all our knowledge and technology, ships are still lost at sea. But God rebukes the sea and dries it up.

    There are at least two allusions which we should note here. There is a reference back to the dividing of the Red Sea to allow the Israelites to escape (and to drown the Egyptians who tried to stop them) and also to the crossing of the River Jordan when Joshua led the people of Israel over into Canaan. In both cases the water was held back by God to allow the people to cross. When Jesus stilled the waves on Lake Galilee (which was and is famous for its fierce and unpredictable storms) he was indirectly showing his deity (Mk. 4:35-41). The disciples responded, ‘Who is this? Even the wind and the waves obey him!’. Who could it be but the LORD, Yahweh himself?

    Bashan and Carmel (4), together with Lebanon, were the most luxuriantly wooded areas of Palestine. Lebanon was famous for its mighty, invincible trees. But before the Lord its bloom fades. The solid enduring mountains quake before him (5). This suggests the idea of trembling in fear as well as vibrating (cf. Ezk. 12:18). The earth is laid waste before him, the world and all who live in it. Nahum was probably thinking of the results of some of the storms, and possibly floods, that he had seen or heard of.

7 The Lord is good,
a stronghold in the day of trouble;
he knows those who take refuge in him.
8 But with an overflowing flood
he will make a complete end of the adversaries, [1]
and will pursue his enemies into darkness.

    7-8 Here we have something similar to v 3a: a balancing statement about God’s goodness, and a quick return to the main theme. The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for [lit. ‘knows’] those who trust in him. Quite often in the OT the word ‘know’ signifies not just head knowledge, but a concern to take care of something (e.g. Ex. 33:12; Ps. 103:13-14). The NIV introduces Nineveh into the verse (as also in 1:11, 14; 2:1). The prophet himself does not mention the name until 2:8, possibly to produce questioning and tension in his hearers, and a greater impact when the name is finally revealed.