God’s Word for You

Nahum 1:1 A difficult word

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, May 1, 2026

N A H U M

Most of a man’s lifetime—perhaps sixty years or more—had come and gone since Jonah the prophet had risen from his perch east of Nineveh after God scolded him, reminding him of his compassion for all of his creation (John 4:6-11). At that time the whole city was in repentance, showing their grief over their sin, their terror over their guilt, and their new faith in the one true God on account of the prophet’s preaching among them (Jonah 3:3-4, 10).

But sixty or so years, which is nothing before the Lord God (Psalm 90:4), can see a complete change in the hearts of sinful men and women. “Such are the hearts of men that when the punishment ceased, so did the repentance. They slipped back into the same wickedness under which they had labored before” (Luther). Their sinfulness once again rose up before the Lord as it had done before (Jonah 1:1), and now God set aside another prophet to preach his word. This time the sin of the city was actually a plot against the Lord himself (Nahum 1:11), and although no man can touch God on his throne or do anything to weaken the Almighty, a man and his kingdom could surely plot against the people of the Lord God, and plan wickedness against them. Therefore God gave Nahum this message to proclaim.

The Prophet’s Name

Nahum’s name means “Comforter” or “Consoler.” Compare Isaiah 40:1, were the word appears twice as a verb, “Comfort, comfort my people, says your God.”

The Date

In Nahum 3:8-10, the prophet mentions No-Amon “by the waters of the Nile,” a reference to Thebes, which fell in 663 BC. Combined with the book’s general prophecy about the coming fall of Assyria, places the writing of Nahum sometime between the fall of Thebes (663 BC) and the fall of Assyria (612 BC).

The People Addressed

Apart from places (Nineveh, Judah, Egypt, Cush) there are no people directly addressed in the book apart from “the King of Assyria” (3:18). In the time period that fits the text (663-612 BC), there were three kings on the throne in Judah:

King Manasseh (696-642 BC)

Manasseh began his time on the throne as co-regent with his father Hezekiah, partly on account of Hezekiah’s illness in 701. Manasseh was twelve at the time (2 Chronicles 33:1). Hezekiah died in 686, after which Manasseh (now in his twenties) was sole ruler of Judah. It was a long reign, fifty-five years, and very difficult on God’s people. “Manasseh led them astray, so that they did more evil than the nations the LORD had destroyed before the Israelites” (2 Kings 21:9). “Moreover, Manasseh also shed so much innocent blood that he filled Jerusalem from end to end” (2 Kings 21:16). Then at some point “the LORD brought against them the army commanders of the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh prisoner, put a hook in his nose, bound him with bronze shackles and took him to Babylon. In his distress he sought the favor of the LORD his God and humbled himself greatly before the God of his fathers. And when he prayed to him, the LORD was moved by his entreaty and listened to his plea; so he brought him back to Jerusalem and to his kingdom” (2 Chronicles 33:11-13). Manasseh died in 642 BC; it would therefore have been either Esarhaddon who took him captive (King of Assyria 681-669) or Ashurbanipal (669-633). Both of those kings record that Manasseh of Judah paid tribute to them.

Amon (642-640 BC)

Amon was as wicked as his father had been before his repentance, but the people would not stand for this wickedness any longer. Amon was murdered by his own officials in his palace (2 Chronicles 33:24).

Josiah (640-609 BC)

Josiah was a boy of eight when his father was murdered, and by the time he turned sixteen, he began to seek the Lord with a true heart. Since no king is addressed by name in Nahum’s book, it is possible and even likely that Nahum wrote during this young king’s childhood.

The Town of Elkosh

From where did Nahum preach? He says that he comes from Elkosh, but there is no Elkosh mentioned anywhere else in the Bible or in the Apocrypha. There seem to be four main possibilities:

1, An Elkosh in Assyria. Perhaps a village near Nineveh? This was a tradition that had its beginning in the sixteenth century by Assyrian Christians. Nahum could have visited Nineveh whether he lived there or not; it was the center of the known world at that time.

2, An Elkosh in Galilee. Was this the old name for Capernaum? There is a long-standing tradition that Capernaum, or caper-nahum, means “Village of Nahum,” or perhaps his grave.

3, Jerome thought that a village called Helkesei in northern Galilee might have been Elkosh. However, Nahum does not sound like he is speaking to the northern tribes, and there were few Israelites living in the north anymore. The Assyrian exile had happened in 722, and we think Nahum’s prophecy was made around 660, some sixty years later.

4, Was there an Elkosh in Simeon (that is, in southern Judah)? This seems the more likely of the possibilities, and it is often recognized as the likely candidate among scholars today. Johann Gerhard (d. 1637) held this view.

Since some of what the prophet says is addressed to Judah (1:15), this last possibility makes sense. Nahum mentions Nineveh three times (1:1; 2:8 and 3:7) but none of these is a direct address by the prophet for the capital of Assyria. It is not at all certain that Nahum ever went to Nineveh as Jonah did to preach directly to the people. He could simply have proclaimed his message from Elkosh, or from Jerusalem.

Christ in Nahum

At the end of chapter 1 (1:15), Nahum uses words similar to Isaiah’s about the good preachers who proclaim peace and salvation on the mountains (see Isaiah 52:7). This is a specific prophecy about the time of King Hezekiah and his dealings with Sennacherib, but it is also a general prophecy about Christ. It declares that the Gospel and the joyous worship of God, taught and confirmed by God’s Word, shall remain in Judah. Therefore the prophet is and is properly called a “Nahum” or Comforter. In addition, the law is preached most sternly: “The Lord will by no means leave the guilty unpunished” (1:3), and the Gospel is proclaimed most sweetly: “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him” 1:7). The prophet is a model of rightly dividing the Word of Truth (2 Timothy 2:15).

Outline:

“The book has three chapters that contain both the prophecy of destruction of the Assyrians (Nahum 1) and his explanation of the reasons for it (Nahum 2-3).”

I,  Title (1:1)
II,  Nineveh’s Judge (1:2-15)
    A, The Lord’s Kindness and Sternness (1:2-8)
    B, Nineveh’s Overthrow and Judah’s Joy (1:9-15)
III,  Nineveh’s Judgment (ch. 2)
    A, Nineveh Besieged (2:1-10)
    B, Nineveh’s Desolation Contrasted with her Former Glory
        (2:11-13)
IV,  Nineveh’s Total Destruction (ch. 3)
    A, Nineveh Sins (3:1-4)
    B, Nineveh’s Doom (3:5-19)

NAHUM 1:1

1:1 A difficult word concerning Nineveh.
The book of the vision of Nahum of Elkosh.

The word I’ve translated “difficult” is massa, often translated “oracle” (NIV) or “burden” (Luther). It’s the idea of a hard message given to an ambassador, the kind of thing he wouldn’t say unless compelled to. I have retained the translation “difficult word” here as I did in Malachi 1:1.

This word, given in a vision, concerns Nineveh. That was one of the chief cities of the Assyrian Empire, the place Jonah had gone to preach repentance years before. Now, the Lord’s prophet had a burden, a difficult message for that same city. This is nothing but Gospel for the people of Judah. A generation or so before this, the northern tribes had been carried away into captivity by the Assyrians, and now Judah was threatened by that same world power. But Nahum says by way of introduction to the people of God, “The ones who are threatening to crush you will be crushed. The ones who are threatening you are being threatened by God Almighty, the Maker of heaven and earth.” Where could the Assyrians run to? They were too big, too numerous, too obvious, to scurry away and hide in caves. They were caught by their own might. God was now their enemy, not the puny nations who never had a hope of standing up to them. Assyria had been like a bird terrorizing ants and worms, but now the net was crashing down on the bird.

Paul says, “God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong” (1 Corinthians 1:27). And again, “The Spirit helps us in our weakness” (Romans 8:26). And so when we are shown to be weak, as Judah was before the mighty war machine of Assyria, we have nothing to fear. The Lord is our ally; the Lord is on our side. Not that we who are Christians should go strutting around in the world trying to pick a fight. Jesus also says, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they will be called sons of God” (Matthew 5:9). But when we are threatened, when we are in danger, when we are in trouble that we see no way out of, we can pray with confidence: “Lord, have mercy on us and help us.” Nahum himself will proclaim this comfort in just a short while: “The Lord is good, a refuge in times of trouble. He cares for those who trust in him” (Nahum 1:7). Put your faith in our saving God. He will not desert us.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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