Commentary on Nahum 2:1,3;3:1-3,6-7

Today we have a single reading from the very short Book of Nahum (just three chapters). Nahum is one of the so-called ‘minor’ prophets, as opposed to ‘major’ prophets such as Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Daniel.

Nahum made his prophecy just before the fall of the Assyrian capital of Niniveh in 612 BC. His joy over the city’s and the empire’s downfall is understandable when one considers the savage cruelty for which it was notorious over nearly three centuries. Rightly he calls it a “city of bloodshed”.

Today’s reading speaks of the imminent collapse of Niniveh, overthrown by the new juggernaut—Babylon. It is a triumphant song of joy over the fall of a great city (remember how the Book of Jonah said it took three days to cross—mostly likely somewhat of an exaggeration).

The passage opens with the messenger coming across the mountains of Judah with a wonderful message of peace. Such good announcements of deliverance are common in Scripture—here it is deliverance from the threat of Assyria. Later there will be the deliverance from exile in Babylon, and Paul in the Letter to the Romans will speak of our deliverance from sin through the “good news” of Jesus Christ and quotes from this passage:

How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news! (Rom 10:15)

The people are now urged to “fulfil your vows”, that is, the promises made to God during the times of distress:

for never again shall the wicked invade you;
they are utterly cut off. (Nah 1:15 in NRSVue)

This statement was fulfilled when Niniveh fell to the Babylonians in 612 BC. The Assyrian invasion in the days of King Manasseh was to be the last—but there were, unfortunately, other invasions to come.

The Lord was now restoring the vineyard, that is, uniting the two kingdoms of Israel and Judah, which had been ravaged and ruined by the enemy.

Niniveh, on the other hand, is a “city of bloodshed”. It is a city:

…utterly deceitful, full of plunder—
no end to the prey!

There is a graphic description of the Assyrian war machine which resulted in:

…piles of dead,
heaps of corpses,
dead bodies without end…

The wholesale killings of its conquered victims was well known. The Assyrians were notorious for their ruthlessness, brutality and terrible atrocities. Many of their victims were beheaded, impaled or burned.

There is a graphic run of short phrases giving a vivid picture of a mighty army at war, over-running its weaker enemies—the crack of the whip, rumbling wheels, galloping horses, racing chariots, charging cavalry, flaming swords, flashing spears bringing death and destruction—heaped corpses and endless bodies to fall over.

We are told that the Assyrian king Shalmaneser III boasted of erecting a pyramid of chopped-off heads in front of an enemy’s city. Other Assyrian kings stacked corpses like cord wood by the gates of defeated cities. The prophet’s descriptions are no exaggeration.

In verses which are omitted from our reading, Nahum describes Assyria as a doomed harlot:

Because of the countless debaucheries of the prostitute,
gracefully alluring, mistress of sorcery,
who enslaves nations through her debaucheries
and peoples through her sorcery,
I am against you,
says the Lord of hosts,
and will lift up your skirts over your face,
and I will let nations look on your nakedness
and kingdoms on your shame.

So now Niniveh, the proud and arrogant city, is to be humiliated, pelted with “filth”. Like a disgraced harlot, she will be shamed and made a show of. She will be punished like a prostitute receiving punishment for her adulteries. She is being punished less for her idolatry or her practice of ritual prostitution—for she was a pagan city anyway—but for the terrible cruelties to her victims. Now she is utterly destroyed and there is not a shred of pity for her fate. She has received her just deserts.

There must have been times during the Assyrian conquests that God’s people wondered if it would ever come to an end. But it did. The joy of that discovery pervades the reading. Evil can never last indefinitely. It has always within it the seeds of its own destruction.