CHAPTER 1
1. The oracle [concerning] Nin’weh (the scroll of the vision of Nahhum the Elqoshite):
Oracle: or burden. The location of Elqosh is uncertain. It might be what was later named Kfar Nahhum (Capernaum), but he was addressing Yehudah, and that town is in the territory that had already been lost to Israel at this point. The name means “Elohim ensnares”, and bears relation to the message YHWH has for Nin’weh (the capital of Assyria; see photos above and at left).
2. “El is jealous, and YHWH is taking vengeance! YHWH is taking vengeance, and is a possessor of burning rage! YHWH is taking vengeance on those who show hostility toward Him, and is reserving it for His enemies.
3. “YHWH is slow to anger and great in strength, but will by no means exempt [the guilty] from punishment. YHWH is in the storm-wind, and His path is in the [terrifying] storm, and a cloud-mass is the dust of His feet!
He is paraphrasing Exodus 34:6-7.
4. “He scolds the sea, and has dried it out, and He will dry up all the rivers; Bashan has drooped [to exhaustion] along with Karmel, and the flower of Levanon has withered.
Bashan and Karmel are the most fruitful areas of Israel. Levanon was known for its huge trees, undoubtedly due to more favorable rainfall patterns prior to the great polar axis shift of 701 B.C.E., when according to Patten, Hatch, and Steinhauer, the planet Mars (until then on an orbit that crossed over earth’s every 54 years) swung very close, causing great electromagnetic conflagrations and crustal upheavals (see verse 5-6 below) and throwing both it and earth into their present orbits. Prior to that time, Levanon would have been in a climatic zone similar to that of northern California, where the redwood trees grew, giving the cedars of Levanon their fame. Now this region has about the same rainfall as the more barren southern California. Some of this languishing may also have been due to the fact that the Assyrian army was on the move.
5. “The mountains quake because of Him, and the hills have melted; the land, too, is lifted up due to His presence—the [contiguous, habitable part of the] world, and all who live on it.
6. “Who can stand in the face of His indignation? And who can rise up [and remain standing] at the kindling of His anger? His rage is molten like fire, and the rocks are pulled down because of Him.
The Aramaic targum compares this to the way the world shook when YHWH gave the Torah from Sinai. And indeed, vv. 4-6 are probably a vivid description of the destruction that would take place in 701 B.C.E., when Assyria (of which Nin’weh was capital) besieged Yerushalayim after conquering much of the rest of Yehudah. Although Nin’weh, some 8 miles (13 km.) long, boasted parks, a botanical garden, a zoo, and one of the world’s best water systems, could it stand up to such a cataclysm? Of course not.
7. “YHWH is first-rate, a strong refuge in the day of distress, and He knows the ones who flee to Him for protection.
Knows: or, acknowledges. Distress: the term is connected to a vexing rival wife—one who is jealous and wants to steal the joy from the one who is favored. This is haSatan’s relationship to Israel, YHWH’s choice of a replacement for “her”. It is the root word for Mitzrayim (Egypt). Assyria had already taken one of YHWH’s “wives” (see Y’hezq’el 23), Israel, and now was encroaching on Yehudah as well. On another level, Assyria had some relationship with YHWH since Yonah’s time, and was used to bring judgment on Israel, but was enjoying it too much. Her pride rose up and she considered it her own accomplishment (2 Chron. 32:17) rather than giving Him credit, and thus was now deserving of justice. YHWH is the one bringing the destruction on those for whom this cataclysm is designed (v. 8), so He will certainly spare those who agree to work along with Him rather than opposing Him.
8. “But when the engulfing downpour passes through, He will make a complete end of its place, and will ardently pursue His enemies.
Aramaic Targum: He will make an end of the nations which rose up and utterly destroyed the Sanctuary.
9. “What are you plotting against YHWH? He will accomplish a complete destruction; trouble will not rise up [more] times [than one].
The Aramaic interpretation sees this as addressing “the nations who have plundered Israel” (at this time, the title of the Northern Kingdom). More times than one: Assyria might have been saying, “We beat the people of YHWH once before; we can do it again.” But they would not destroy Yehudah as well. He let them rival his first wife, but He would keep this second kingdom in place. Nin’weh had been spared once before, but she was proving not to deserve mercy again.
10. “Because as long as thorns are interwoven, and they imbibe like drunkards, they will be devoured like fully-dried chaff.
Thorns are interwoven: or, though they are entangled thorns. Sometimes this was a means of building a natural defense wall. Instead of taking the time to untangle them, He will just burn the entire mess and be done with them. The Aramaic takes the term for thorns (sirim) as a word play on the similarly-constructed word for princes (sarim): The princes of the nations which plundered Israel and made it go astray…
11. “One who devises evil against YHWH has come forth from you--one who gives worthless advice.
One: the Aramaic renders it “a king”. Worthless: or unprofitable; the same word as “do not ascend” in v. 15.
12. “This is what YHWH says: ‘Though [they are] completely unharmed, even [if there are] still many, indeed, they too will be sheared off when I have passed through. Though I have humbled you, I will not afflict you any more.
Aramaic: Though the nations which assemble to oppress you, O Yerushalayim, are perfect in counsel and many in number, and though they cross the Tigris and pass over the Euphrates and come to afflict you, even if I have brought you into servitude, I will not enslave you again.
13. “‘And now I will break his yoke from [being] upon you, and I will snap your bands [of chastening] in two!’
Snap your bands: Aramaic, cut away your chains.
14. “YHWH has also given orders concerning you: ‘None from your name will be sown again. I will cut off the idol from the House of your elohim, and I will transform the cast image into your grave, because you have become of little account.’
The Aramaic targum sees this as addressing the king of Assyria. None from your own name: When sons of different wives of a king vie for heirship to the throne, most of them usually end up dead. Two of Emperor Sennakheriv’s own sons assassinated him, and then dishonored his name with the ultimate disgrace: everywhere his image had been carved on inscriptions throughout the empire (and there were many), they removed his face and chiseled out the lotus-petals on his armbands that symbolized his authority. One of these sons then killed the other. You have become of little account: Aramaic, that is a light matter before Me.
15. [2:1 in Hebrew] “Look! There on the mountains are the feet of one who brings glad news, who is making ‘shalom!’ heard. O Yehudah, keep your feasts! Fulfill your vows, because those who do not ascend will never again—ever—pass through you; he is completely cut off.
Mountains: the Aramaic adds “of the Land of Israel”. Feasts: from a root word meaning to dance in a circle. This links well with the word “feet”, as in Ex. 23:14 the same term is used for the three pilgrimage festivals. Compare Yeshayahu 52:7, which includes the whole first part of this verse with some additions. Vows: not only those relating to Temple service, but all the way back at Sinai, when Yehudah’s ancestors, along with those of all the other tribes, promised “All that YHWH has spoken, we will carry out.” (Ex. 19:8 et al) Keeping Torah is the refuge in which we will hide under the shadow of His wings. (v. 7) As illogical as it seems, it is obedience, not weaponry or physical shelter, that will preserve us when the ultimate test comes—though this is not the reason to obey; love for YHWH is. Otherwise, after the indignation is past (Yeshayahu 26:20), what would motivate us to keep obeying? Those who do not ascend: here, the Assyrians, because they were no longer on the rise.
CHAPTER 2
1. The scatterer has come up over your face! Keep guard over the rampart! Keep watch over the road! Make your hips firm! Greatly solidify your strength,
The scatterer: Nin’weh (Assyria) was the land that had scattered Israel. This was her typical pattern. While most empires left the population of a conquered people in place and only changed its rulership, Assyria (Ashur) moved the entire population to another area they had conquered in order to both separate them from their elohim (since all but Israel’s Elohim are indeed assigned to a particular geographic area) and to remove them from familiar territory that they might be able to use against the conquering power in guerrilla warfare. (They would know where to find resources, where to cache weapons, where there were caves suitable for hiding out long-term,the best places for ambush, etc.; in a new territory they would know none of this.) Assyria would then move another conquered people(s) into their land. In the case of Israel, those they brought back were known as the Samaritans. (2 Kings 17:20-28) Now it is Assyria’s turn to be scattered.
2. because YHWH has brought back the exaltation of Yaaqov like the majesty of Israel, since devastators had emptied them out and ruined their vine-branches!
YHWH allowed Yehudah to recover strength to stand against Assyria, for though He had called on her to punish Israel, attacking Yehudah was her own idea. The crown of Efrayim passed to Assyria, then on to Babylon, Persia, Greece, and Rome, and we remain under its control. All but those who have recognized again that they are Israel remain under the influence of the Roman Church and her daughters. The crown of Yehudah was never taken by Assyria, but later, by Babylon. Ruined: or corrupted. Indeed, this series of captors did turn much of both Israel and Yehudah to paganism.
3. The shield of his heroes has been intensely reddened; the men of the army are arrayed in scarlet. The [chariot] riders [will be] with flaming steel in the day He is preparing, and the stately trees will be made to shudder.
Reddened: possibly with actual blood, to appear more of a threat. Riders will be with flaming steel: Aramaic, the plates of their chariots are prepared in the fire for the day of their display, and their army commanders are attired in fine-colored garments.
4. The [chariots] ride like mad through the streets; they rush to and fro [jostling one another] in the wide-open [plazas]. Their appearance is like torches; they dart like flashes of lightning!
They rush…: Aramaic, the noise of the rattling of their weapons is heard in the city squares. The Assyrian army is accustomed to seeing such battle scenes, for they were the aggressor. But this time, they are the recipient of the attack. What Assyria had done is now being done to them. If we rejoice when an enemy falls, YHWH may bring the same upon us. (Prov. 24:17-18)
5. He will remember His proud ones; they will stumble [over themselves] as they march. They will rush her walls; the screen [to stop their approach] has been [prepared and] fastened.
6. The gates of the rivers have been opened, and the palace melted away.
This sounds very much like the fall of Bavel, in which the attack was successful because the conquerors stopped the flow of the Ferath (Euphrates) River and came in under the wall where it normally flowed in. From this verse it seems Bavel had forgotten their own trick, for it sounds as if Bavel had done the very same thing when conquering Nin’weh beforehand.
7. She who was firmly established has been uncovered; she has been carried away, and her slavegirls are moaning like doves, beating on their hearts.
She who was firmly established: Aramaic, the queen sits in a litter. Carried away: Even Assyria’s technique of sending her conquered into exile is now used against her.
8. And Nin’weh—she is like a kneeling-pool of water from her [earliest] days, yet they are fleeing. “Stand! Stand [your ground]!” But there is none who looks [back].
Aramaic, From the days of old Nin’weh is like a gathering of waters. A kneeling-pool: so named because camels would kneel down at it to drink. Undoubtredly it is a pool of still water—a place of rest. Yet they are fleeing: They recognize clearly when there is no possibility of withstanding the attack. It is no longer the refuge it once was.
9. Seize [the] silver! Plunder [the] gold! There is no end to what can be weighed out of the heavy, precious articles.
10. She is hollow, empty, and laid waste! Not only is the heart melted; the knees knock together, and there is anguished trembling in all hips, and the faces of all of them have collected glowing heat.
She is full of fear and shame. The first phrase is a word play in Hebrew: buqah, um’buqah, um’balaqah.
11. Where is the lair of the lions? It is also a feeding place for young lions. Where the lion and lioness walked, there is a lion’s cub, and there is none who will make them tremble.
Lions: A lion likes to gloat over its catch. The Aramaic targum takes this as an idiom for kings. Bavel (Babylon) had winged-lion motifs all over hear walls, being the symbol of their city. Yirmeyahu 50:17 likens both Assyria and Bavel to lions who scattered the “sheep” of Israel. Yirmeyahu 51:38 uses the imagery of lions again regarding the fall of Bavel as well. But a cub is much less threatening.
12. The lion tears off enough for his cubs and strangles for his lionesses, and has begun to fill his cave with torn-up meat, and his lairs with [prey] that is torn.
These are idioms for storing up plunder.
13. “Here I [come] toward you!” declares YHWH [Master] of Armies, “And I have kindled [a fire on] her chariots [so they will go up] in smoke, and your young lions will devour a sword, and I will cut off from the earth what is torn, and the voice of your emissaries will never be heard again.”
What is torn: meat that is forbidden for Israelites to eat. Ex. 22:31) What is strangled (v. 12) was the apostles’ way of summarizing meat that is not kosher as well. (Acts 15:20, 29) Since kosher means “acceptable”, is this YHWH’s way of declaring Assyria’s behavior unacceptable? Instead of devouring their prey, they will “eat” a sword—i.e., be destroyed. Never be heard: Eventually (by the end of the Greek empire), Assyria was no longer an entity, but prior to this it lost its political clout, so that emissaries from her would be the supplicants rather than the bearers of commands to other lands. Again, Assyria had established these techniques as their standard, so YHWH had no qualms about using them against her. What we deal out is what will be dealt to us. (Prov. 22:8; Hos. 8:7; Luke 6:31, 38; Gal. 6:7) They had turned Israel into a non-people, so they would come to no longer be known as a people.
CHAPTER 3
1. Woe [to the] city of bloods! All of it is deception; tearing apart fills her. What is torn will not be removed--
City of bloods: Aramaic, the city that sheds innocent blood. What is torn…: or, the prey will not depart. Aramaic, killing does not cease.
2. the noise of a whip and the noise of the rattling of wheel and galloping horse and bounding chariot;
Rattling: Aramaic, jolting.
3. the horseman is lifting up both the flaming of sword and flashing of spear, and many are mortally wounded with a massive [number] of dead bodies; there is no end to the corpses! They have stumbled over their carcasses!
[Which will bring the desolation of the Gentiles closer, captive and despise provocation between them and exile fear of enemy and majority. Carcasses will fall in their days, and there is no end to their profane rule, and even the Gentile in their flesh will stumble upon their guilt.]
This portion, as well as that after verse 4, is found in the Dead Sea Scrolls (4Q169) but not in the Masoretic text, possibly because it exposes the P’rushim/Rabbinic additions of Oral Law which will so vex Efrayim, per Yeshayahu 11:13? (Steven Ben Nun) The Dead Sea Scrolls describe the leader of the P’rushim (who only numbered 60,000 in second Temple times) as “the preacher of deception” and “man of mockery” who even despises written Torah (in favor of oral teaching). (Eitan Bar and Golan Brosh) Josephus says the P’rushim “commanded Israel with traditional laws which were never a part of the written Torah and were therefore rejected by the Tzadduqim, who fiercely argued with them in favor of sticking to the text alone.
4. “Because of the many harlotries of the well-favored prostitute, the mistress of sorceries, who sells nations by her whoredoms and families by her sorceries,
Notice the similarities to the description of Babylon in Rev. 17-18. This is because Babylon took Ashur’s crown when she conquered her. It was passed on via Persia and Greece to Rome. The whoredom of Yehudah as well as the northern Kingdom of Israel is also brought out in Yirmeyahu/Jeremiah 3:7-10, and this may well play into the prophecies of Rev. 17 as well.
[O deceivers of Efrayim, who by their lies of teaching, tongue of falsehood, and language of fraud will mislead many. Their kings are priests, and a people and families living in cities; they will be decimated with their advice.]
Deceivers: who make returnees to Torah think they must convert to Judaism to be true Israelites?
5. “here I come toward you,” declares YHWH [the Master of] Armies, “and I have lifted your skirts up over your face, and I will cause the nations to see your private parts, and the kingdoms your disgrace.
Disgrace: or dishonor; that which is lightly-esteemed about you. He will reveal her true motives, which will make her odious to those who were friendly with her before. And it will be revealed that what she is relying on is not trustworthy. Her men are also revealed to be women at heart, when the truth is told. (v. 13)
6. “I will also hurl disgusting things onto you and make you a disgrace, and make you like a spectacle.
A spectacle: Aramaic, repugnant in the eyes of all who see you.
7. “And it will end up that whoever sees you will run away from you, and say, ‘Nin’weh is devastated!’ Who will show [any] grief for her? Where will I look from which to find those who could console you?
Run away: Aramaic, withdraw. Babylon, on the other hand, will be mourned. (Rev. 18:11) She would not directly conquer and displace peoples like Ashur did; she would allow other nations to surrender, then make up with those they had conquered by respecting their finest men and giving them high positions in Babylonian government, treating them very well and making them wealthy, which is one reason most Jews did not return from there when they were permitted. Babylon would wound then heal, like a counterfeit shepherd, making itself indispensable to everyone. The Assyrians, on the other hand, made enemies of all that they conquered, so no one is disappointed when she falls. Even if the mourners were offered payment, they would not show up.
8. Are you better-made than masterfully-designed No, sitting among the river-branches, waters all around her, whose bulwark [was] the sea, her wall [made] from the sea?
Masterfully-designed: or populous; Heb., Amon, also the name of the local deity of No, or Thebes, the capital of Upper Egypt (not on the sea, but on the water—the Nile), which fell to the Assyrians themselves in 663 B.C.E. So they would be well-acquainted with what went on there, and how their own city was not as defensible.
9. Kush [was] her strength, along with Egypt, and there [was] no boundary; Put and Luvim were among those who assisted you.
Strength: Aramaic, ally. Kush: here, Ethiopia. Put: either Punt (now Somalia or across the strait in Yemen; it may have encompassed both at one time). Luvim: Aramaic, Libyans.
10. Even she was carried off; she went into captivity. Her nursing children were being dashed to pieces at the head of every street, and they cast lots over her honored ones, and all her great [men] were bound in fetters.
11. You, too, will be stupefied; you will be concealed. You, too, will be seeking refuge from an enemy.
Concealed: cut off from contact with or unnoticed by anyone who might be able to come to their aid.
12. All your fortifications [are like] fig trees with firstfruits; if they are shaken, then they will fall into the mouth of the one who eats.
13. Look! Your people are women in your innermost part! The gates of your land will be opened wide to your enemies; fire will devour your bars [that pass through them].
Women: Aramaic, as feeble as women. This is a deep insult to warriors. Like women, who are designed to run and hide to protect the seed, the men, who are supposed to fight, are instead fearful. In their innermost hearts, they have let themselves become sensitive, when they should be steeling themselves for battle. After all, they had conquered all the nations around them; they thought they could afford to rest on their laurels, for who was left to bother them? They had let the balance be tipped toward women’s attitudes prevailing. Israel usually did not have a professional army, so all men between 20 and 50 could be called up at any time, so they always had to be prepared.
14. Draw for yourself water [for the] siege; make your fortifications firm! Go into sticky clay and trample out the mortar; shore up the brick-kiln!
His sarcasm tells them to go ahead and make all the preparations, though it would all be in vain:
15. [Even] there, fire will devour you. The sword will cut you off; it will eat you up like the locust-larva. Make yourselves as dense as the locust-larva; I will have you make yourselves as thick as locusts.
16. You have made your traffickers more numerous than the stars of the skies; [still] the locust-larva have stripped off and will fly away.
Merchants usually traded ideas and philosophies, too; when making business treaties, the parties also gave each other copies of their idols and said their elohim would now be ours, and vice versa. A certain amount of compromise was expected. YHWH says Israel will be for the most part self-sufficient when we obey Him, so that we will not be dependent on others’ tolerance, which may end the moment we prove that we cannot tolerate their ways in return. Weaning ourselves away from dependence on outside sources can free us from the captivity to Babylon that we still experience because of a fondness for its comfortable lifestyle that takes our mind off YHWH in so many ways. This way they maintain control of Yerushalayim, and that keeps us from our inheritance.
17. Your consecrated ones are like the locusts, and your officials are like a swarm of grasshoppers that camp in the hedges on a cold day, but when the sun breaks forth, they retreat, and the place where they are is not known.
Your consecrated ones: Aramaic, your plates gleam.
18. Your shepherds have fallen asleep, O King of Ashur! Your majestic ones will settle down. Your people are scattered on the mountains, and there is no one gathering them up.
Settle down: in the dust, that is, the grave. They were not vigilant, but no one else cares:
19. There is no alleviating your fracture; your wound is severe. All who hear the report of you will strike [their] palm in regard to you, because over whom has your wickedness not constantly passed?
No alleviating your fracture: Aramaic, There is no one who is grieved over your hurt. Strike their palm: possibly like a “high five”, expressing camaraderie in triumph, or, clap their hands; the Aramaic adds, they rejoiced. The Assyrians did wrong to everyone, so they have no friends left. They cheated their way out of allies, thinking they would never need them.
WRITINGS OF THE PROPHET
Nahhum
INTRODUCTION: Nahhum’s name means “comfort”. According to the Aramaic targum, Nahhum succeeded Yonah as the prophet to Nin’weh, being sent back after the initial repentance wore off. The city in present-day northern Iraq (rediscovered in 1850) was destroyed by Babylon in 612 B.C.E., so this prophecy would have come some time prior to that. It seems to have also come prior to the destruction of the Assyrian army that besieged Yerushalayim in 701 B.C.E. (Yeshayahu 37)
The ruins of Nin'weh
Karmel
Lebanon>>
Bashan
Rampart at Jerusalem
