Nahum

Nahum, book of the Old Testament attributed to the 7th-century bc Hebrew prophet Nahum. One of the 12 short prophetic books known, chiefly because of their brevity, as the Minor Prophets, it was probably written between 663 bc and the fall of the ancient Assyrian capital Nineveh in 612 bc.

The first distinctive part of Nahum (1:2-11) is an unfinished acrostic poem. Roughly half the letters of the Hebrew alphabet are used, each line of the poem beginning with a different letter. The poem depicts God as jealous and angry, ready to take vengeance on his adversaries. The rest of chapter 1 consists of oracles concerning the deliverance of Judah and an oracle of doom directed against Assyria, Judah's oppressor.

The second major part of Nahum (chap. 2-3) is an ode describing the siege and sack of Nineveh, condemned by God to destruction.

Nahum seems considerably different in theological emphasis from such books as Isaiah and Jeremiah, in which prophetic wrath against foreign nations is coupled with a predominating concern for the religious (and political) true well-being of Israel. Nahum is not, however, concerned exclusively with the fate of Nineveh. God is expressly depicted as universal and all-powerful (1:3-6); and it can be inferred throughout that he is against any wicked nation. The book has obvious literary merit, Nahum ranking with the masters of ancient Hebrew poetry.