THE PROPHECY OF NAHUM
INTRODUCTION
Nahum, whose name signifies a comforter, was a native of Elcese, or Elcesai, supposed to be a little town in Galilee. He prophesied after the ten tribes were carried into captivity, and foretold the utter destruction of Ninive by the Babylonians and Medes; which happened in the reign of Josias, (Challoner) in the sixteenth year, when the father of Nabuchodonosor and the grandfather of Cyrus entirely ruined Ninive, and divided the empire between them, (Calmet) in the year of the world 3378. (Usher) Tobias xiv. 16. — Nahum was probably on the spot when he proclaimed this beautiful prediction, which yields not to any work of profane authors. He might have been carried captive by Salmanasar, as he alludes to the captivity of Israel and to the blasphemies of Sennacherib. We cannot, therefore, place his prophecy before the fifteenth year of Ezechias. (Calmet) — He appeared about fifty years after Jonas, when the Ninivites had relapsed, and were destroyed in the space of one hundred and thirty-five years, as a figure of the subversion of idolatry by Christ’s preaching the gospel of peace. (Worthington)
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Commentary of St Jerome
In Nahum
Prologus
iuxta septuaginta interpretes, in ordine duodecim prophetarum, post ionam naum ponitur, quia uidentur de urbe eadem prophetare. scriptum siquidem est in iona: factus est sermo domini ad ionam, filium amathi, dicens: surge et uade in niniuen, ciuitatem magnam, et praedica in ea. in naum uero istud exordium est: assumptio niniue. liber uisionis naum elcesaei. igitur uterque de niniue assyriorum metropoli, quae nunc uocatur ninus, texunt uaticinium. porro in hebraico, post ionam, michaeas ponitur, et michaeam sequitur naum, qui interpretatur consolator. iam enim decem tribus ab assyriis deductae fuerant in captiuitatem sub ezechia, rege iuda, sub quo etiam nunc in consolationem populi transmigrati, aduersum niniuen uisio cernitur. nec erat parua consolatio, tam his, qui iam assyriis seruiebant, quam reliquis, qui sub ezechia de tribu iuda et beniamin ab iisdem hostibus obsidebantur, ut audirent, assyrios quoque a chaldaeis esse capiendos, sicut in consequentibus libri huius demonstrabitur. sciendum autem est – quoniam niniue in nostra lingua de hebraeo speciosam sonat; speciosus autem mundus hic dicitur, unde et apud graecos kosmos~g ab ornatu nomen accepit -, quicquid nunc aduersum niniuen dicitur, de mundo figuraliter praedicari. quam ob causam assumptio, quam septuaginta interpretantur lêmma~g et aquila arma~g interpretatus est, apud hebraeos massa ponitur id est graue onus, eo quod eam aduersus quam uidetur, premat, nec sinat eleuare ceruicem. porro quod additur, naum elcesaei, quidam putant elcesaeum patrem esse naum, et secundum hebraeam traditionem etiam ipsum prophetam fuisse, cum elcesi, usque hodie in galilaea uiculus sit, paruus quidem et uix ruinis ueterum aedificiorum indicans uestigia, sed tamen notus iudaeis, et mihi quoque a circumducente monstratus. simul et hoc attendendum quod haec ipsa uel assumptio, uel onus, uel pondus, prophetae uisio sit. non enim loquitur in ekstasei~g, ut montanus et prisca maximilla que delirant, sed quod prophetat, liber est uisionis intellegentis uniuersa quae loquitur, et pondus hostium facientis in suo populo uisionem. de consummatione itaque mundi secundum anagôgên~g, o paula et eustochium, in consolationem sanctorum prophetia texitur, ut quaecumque in mundo uident, quasi praetereuntia et caduca contemnant, et praeparent se ad iudicii diem, ubi ultor aduersus ueros assyrios futurus dominus est.