Nahum's Oracle Against Nineveh

The event

Nahum's entire short book is aimed at a single target: Nineveh, the capital of the Assyrian empire that had terrorized the ancient Near East — including the northern kingdom of Israel, destroyed in 722 BC — for generations. Where Jonah had once preached repentance to that same city, Nahum announces that its long history of violence, deceit, and plunder ("bloody city, completely full of lies and pillage") has finally run out its patience with a holy God.

Nahum's poetry is some of the most vivid in the Old Testament, describing chariots racing through Nineveh's streets and the coming siege in vivid, almost cinematic detail — and his reference to the earlier fall of Thebes in Egypt, which fell to Assyria itself in 663 BC, helps anchor his ministry sometime after that event and before Nineveh's actual destruction.

Nahum's confidence rests on a foundational truth about God's character stated right at the book's opening: "The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and the LORD will by no means leave the guilty unpunished." Nineveh fell to a coalition of Babylonians and Medes in 612 BC, exactly as Nahum foresaw — a vivid reminder that God's patience with evil empires, however long it runs, is never permanent.

Dating

Nahum's ministry can only be bracketed: he treats the fall of Thebes (663 BC) as past and Nineveh's fall (612 BC) as future. The 663–654 placement follows the argument (classically Walter Maier's) that Nahum wrote before Thebes was rebuilt c. 654, while his taunt still had full force. Many scholars, including evangelicals, instead favor a later date — c. 650–630, or under Josiah as Assyria visibly declined toward 612. Any date within the 663–612 window is defensible.

Scripture references

• Nahum 1:1-3
• Nahum 3:1-10