Nahum 1
1. How did God convey his message concerning Nineveh to Nahum? Answer
2. What is Nahum's relationship with Jonah? Answer
3. Where is Elkoshite? Answer
4. Where was Nineveh located? Why was it important? Who ruled over the Assyrian Empire when Nahum gave his prophecy? Answer
5. How just and righteous are God's judgments? Answer
6. Where was Bashan and Carmel located? Answer
7. How serious was God's condemnation of Nineveh? Answer
8. Who was king of Judah when Nahum wrote encouragement to God's people (verse 15)? Answer
Nahum 2
9. What does verse 6 mean? Answer
10. What does verse 9 mean? Answer
Nahum 3
11. Why was Nineveh punished by God? Answer
12. What does verse 5 mean? Answer
13. What is the background of God's taunt in verse 8? Answer
14. What is a cankerworm (verses 15 - 16)? Answer
15. What is revealed about the battle for Nineveh in verses 15 to 17? Answer
Nahum 1 Answers
1. Nahum 1:1 states that the prophet got his message from God through a vision. Visons are one of the many ways God communicates his will to humans.
2. Jonah was the only other Minor Prophet to solely focus his prophecies against Nineveh. It should be noted that Zephaniah, another Minor Prophet, does offer a brief prophecy against Assyria and Nineveh in Zephaniah 2:13 - 15.
3. Elkosite is not referenced elsewhere in the Bible and its location has long been a mystery. Since the Kingdom of Judah still existed at the time Nahum wrote his book (Nahum 1:15), he was possibly a native of Judah.
4. Nineveh, founded by Nimrod (Genesis 10:11), was located on the Tigris River.
Nineveh as a city grew as the power and wealth of the empire also expanded. At the time of Jonah, more than 130 years before Nahum wrote his book, the city had more than 120,000 inhabitants (Jonah 4:11). From Jonah forward it experienced such explosive growth that, from 668 to 612 B.C., it was the largest city in the ancient world (Largest Cities in the World by Matt Rosenberg)!
Nineveh became the capital of the mighty Assyrian Empire when King Sennacherib took the throne in 705 B.C. It continued to be the head of the empire until it was sacked in 612. It was the Assyrians, in 723 B.C., who conquered the Kingdom of Israel (northern ten tribes) and took almost all the people out of the land as captives.
[Assyrian Empire at its Peak Map]
The brutal King Ashurbanipal (668 to 627) reigned over the Assyrians when Nahum gave his prophecy.
5. Although the Lord is slow to anger (Nahum 1:3) there comes a time when the unrepentant wicked must be punished. God's willingness to give people time to change their ways does not mean he condones what they are doing. When the time of correction arrives he carries out swift and decisive actions to convey his judgment upon those who disobey (1:2).
6. The territory of Bashan was located directly east and northeast of the Sea of Galilee.
The Carmel mountain range is a range which starts near the Mediterranean port city of Haifa and runs for about 13 miles (20.9 kilometers) in a south-easterly direction.
7. God's judgment of Nineveh was so serious that he promised to personally "dig" their grave because of their vileness (worthlessness)!
[Where Are Old Testament People Buried?]
And the Lord hath given a commandment concerning thee, that no more of thy name be sown . . . I will make thy grave; for thou art vile (Nahum 1:14).
8. Nahum's book could have been written within the reigns of three different rulers of Judah. King Manasseh, the longest ruling sovereign of either Israel or Judah, was on the throne from 696 to 642 B.C. King Amon ruled from 642 to 640 while righteous Josiah reigned from 640 to 609.
Nahum 2 Answers
9. Nahum 2:6 might be alluding to water being used to break Nineveh's walls which allowed the enemy to enter the city. An ancient Greek account states that Nineveh fell when the Tigris river overflowed and tore down its walls (Holman Concise Bible Commentary).
A related account is that the floodgates used to control the Khosr river through the city were initially closed to allow the buildup of water. They were then opened which sent a large quantity of water against the city's walls which then creating openings for the enemy. Once the enemy was inside Nineveh they set fire to it (see Nahum 3:13, 15).
10. The Assyrian Empire had grown exceedingly wealthy through the booty of military conquests as well as through trading and requiring nations pay it tribute. In Nahum 2:9 the prophet is encouraging those who take Nineveh to avail themselves of its vast store of silver and gold.
Nahum 3 Answers
11. There are several sins attributed to Nineveh. The Assyrians, especially those in Nineveh, worshipped false gods and made graven images of them. This broke both the first and second commandments (Exodus 20:1 - 5).
The Assyrians were also condemned as being bloody, as well as being full of lies and violence (Nahum 3:1). The empire's own records bear witness that, even by the standards of the time, they were considered uniquely brutal.
". . . atrocious practice of cutting off hands and feet, ears and noses, gouging out eyes, lopping off heads, and then binding them to vines or heaping them up before city gates [and] the utter fiendishness by which captives could be impaled or flayed alive through a process in which their skin was gradually and completely removed" (Bible Knowledge Commentary).
Assyria's other sins included using enticements, like a whore, to lure nations to be under her control (Nahum 3:4). She lusted after ruling over anyone she could so that she could victimize them and lead them into idolatry. Nahum 3:4 may also imply that Nineveh used literal sorceries and witchcraft in order to gain influence and power over others (Bible Knowledge Commentary).
[Can Black Magic Be Used for Good?]
[Is Lilith the Queen of Demons?]
12. Nahum 3:5 states the following.
Behold, I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts; and I will discover thy skirts upon thy face, and I will shew the nations thy nakedness, and the kingdoms thy shame (Nahum 3:5).
Part of Nineveh's punishment was that God would reveal her "nakedness" and shame to the world. The Lord may be referencing an ancient custom whereby prostitutes were stripped naked, or had their clothes pulled up over their heads, after which they were paraded in public. This would open them up to be disgraced, insulted and condemned.
Nineveh would ultimately be stripped of all her glory and defenses and receive the penalties she justly deserved for her actions.
13. God taunted Nineveh (Assyrian Empire) as being inferior to the Egyptian city of Thebes (called No in Hebrew) which had fallen.
Art thou better than populous No (Thebes), that was situate among the rivers, that had the waters round about it, whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea? (Nahum 3:8).
[Ancient Near East Empires Map]
Thebes (modern day Luxor) was located in the Upper Nile region. The city was conquered and sacked by the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal in 663 B.C. God was taunting Nineveh by stating it was not better than Thebes and would therefore suffer the same kind of ruin.
14. The cankerworm mentioned in Nahum 3 (also mentioned in Joel 1 and 2) was likely referring to locusts (Nahum 3:15, 17).
15. The battle for Assyria's capital city was compared to a plague of locusts. Nineveh's enemies were prophesied to strip the city and ultimately destroy it like a huge swarm of the insect. Nahum 3:18 then declares that the Assyrians would be slaughtered like a flock of sheep with no shepherds (nobles) to gather them up.