NAHUM, BOOK or (arde), has an undoubted place in the canon of Jewish scrip ture. The precise time at which it was written has not been determined, notwithstand ing the diligent investigation of the question that many writers have made. Resem blances are pointed out between it and other prophecies, the most striking being ii., 10, compared with ,Joel ii., 0; and i., 15, almost identical with Isaiah lii., 7. While these passages show quotation, they do not decide priority. Au indication of time is furnished by references which Nahum makes to the subjection of the Jews to the king of Nineveh. from whom the,Lord would soon deliver them. "Now will I break his yoke from oft thee, and will burst thy bonds in sunder." This prediction applies well to Sennaelterib':r signal destruction in the reign of Ilezekiab, and is thought to indicate that Nahum wad contemporary with Isaiah and Micah.
The prophecy is called the burden of Nineveh, the appointed destruction of which, with the resulting consolation to .Judah, is the one subject treated of. Chapter i. t acs a sublime description of the majesty, retributive justice, power and goodness of God in his government over men; denounces the violence of wicked men against his people as transgression against himself ; declares his purpose speedily to break the yoke of the oppressors, and exhibits the messenger of glad tidings going forth to summon the Jews back to the temple and their homes. Chapter ii. foretells with the pr.rtienlarity of history the of Ninevetidtompunciagrthe itvaders bold approach, calling upon the Assyrians to put forth their utnicgi'theiigth against deSeribing the bloody "hields of his warriors, their splendid attire, their chariots, flashing like lightning through me suet:Ls; their warmers creaking ranks in their haste to reach the 'a all, the opening bf the river gates, the undermining of the palaces, the flight of the inhabitants, and the reduction of the city to an empty desert. Chapter iii. arraigns Nineveh as a city of blood and abominable crime, because of which the Lord of hosts would heap ruin and desolation upon it; calling on it to read its Own doom in the fate of No-Amon, the Thebes of secular history; declaring that its drunkenn,:ss would be the occasion of its ruin, that its strongholds would yield as easily as ripe figs fall when the tree is shaken, that its warriors would be cowards, that its gates would be set open, and all obstructions to the advance of the invaders burned down; and that its multitude of rich merchants and crowned warriors would be like the locusts that darken the land one day, but flee away the next, so that the very place they had been is not known. The particu lars of the prophecy have been definitely fultilled 1. As to the lust specified, "Their
place is not known where they were." All books written more than 40 years ago, that refer to Nineveh, speak of its exact location as unknown. Murray's Encyclopedia of Geography, the American edition of which was published in 1840—the year in which Layard first saw the mounds that he afterwards what was then the gfm oral belief of the civilized world: "The village of Nunia on the Tigris appears to occupy a part of the vast circuit of ancient Nineveh. The only monuments are mounds of earth, similar to those of Robyn n, but not nearly so lofty or so perfect.' A rampart may still be traced some miles in circumference, surrounded with a fosse and covered whit grass." In the /310St ancient historians there is great confusion, and even contradiction. Iterodotus, "the father of history," in one place says it was on the Euphrates, and in another, on the Tigris. The Romans contended with the Persians on its site, from which even ruins bad in a great degree disappeared; in 330 n.c. Alexander fought his last decisive battle with Darius on the same plain, without knowing that it had been a renowned seat of grandeur and power; and more than a century earlier still Xenophon and the Greeks passed there the ruins of large deserted cities, which, he says, had in ancient times been inhabited by the Nedes. 2. Nahum prophesied that the city should be plundered of all its treasures.. When the Arab workmen were cutting open the mounds wider direction, they searched eagerly for the treasures which they believed had been hidden there, and which have been found in the ruins of other ancient cities. But they found only a few fragments of gilding, n hich had fallen from some of the inscriptions; the explorers uncovered it just as the conquerorhad left it. 3. Nahum predicted that easy access would be obtained by the invaders to some portions of the city, but that wherever the inhabitants should resort to their strongholds, these should be subjected to the flames. And from the monuments it plainly appears that while some portions of the city •er.! destroyed by fire, other portions escaped the flames. The n.w. palace at Nitn•oud had not been burned, but in the s.w, corner many of the alabaster slabs, haying been reduced to lime by subjection to intense heat, fell to pieces as soon as they were uncovered. In many parts great accumulations of charcoal were found. Some of the large sculptures were cracked into a thousand pieces. When the ruins of Sennaeherib's imposing palace were discovered, it was perceived that a great fire lied raged through it, turning the sculptured paneling into lime, and reducing the edifice to a heap of ashes and rubbish.