Naum 1

ARC · Chapter 1/3

¹Carga de Ninive. Livro da visão de Nahum, o elcoshita.

²O Senhor é Deus zeloso e que toma vingança, o Senhor toma vingança e tem furor: o Senhor toma vingança contra os seus adversarios, e guarda a ira contra os seus inimigos.

³O Senhor é tardio em irar-se, porém grande em força, e ao culpado não tem por innocente: o Senhor, cujo caminho é na tormenta, e na tempestade, e as nuvens são o pó dos seus pés.

⁴Elle reprehende ao mar, e o faz seccar, e esgota todos os rios: desfallecem Basan e Carmelo, e a flor do Libano se murchou.

⁵Os montes tremem perante elle, e os outeiros se derretem; e a terra se levanta na sua presença; e o mundo, e todos os que n'elle habitam.

⁶Quem parará diante do seu furor? e quem persistirá diante do ardor da sua ira? a sua colera se derramou como um fogo, e as rochas foram por elle derribadas.

⁷O Senhor é bom, elle serve de fortaleza no dia da angustia, e conhece aos que confiam n'elle.

⁸E com uma inundação trasbordante acabará d'uma vez com o seu logar; e as trevas perseguirão os seus inimigos.

⁹Que pensaes vós contra o Senhor? elle mesmo vos consumirá de todo: não se levantará por duas vezes a angustia.

¹⁰Porque elles se entrelaçam como os espinhos, e se embebedam como bebados; serão inteiramente consumidos como palha secca.

¹¹De ti saiu um que pensou mal contra o Senhor, um conselheiro de Belial.

¹²Assim diz o Senhor: Por mais seguros que estejam, e por mais numerosos que sejam, ainda assim serão tosquiados, e elle passará: eu te affligi, porém não te affligirei mais.

¹³Mas agora quebrarei o seu jugo de sobre ti, e romperei os teus laços.

¹⁴Porém contra ti o Senhor deu ordem, que mais ninguem do teu nome seja semeado: da casa do teu deus exterminarei as imagens de esculptura e de fundição: ali te farei o teu sepulchro, porque és vil

¹⁵Eis que sobre os montes os pés do que traz as boas novas, do que annuncia a paz! celebra as tuas festas, ó Judah, cumpre os teus votos, porque o impio não tornará mais a passar por ti: elle é inteiramente exterminado.

📖 Chapter study

Summary

Nahum describes the character of God as jealous, powerful, and patient, yet certain to punish the guilty; he announces that the destruction of Nineveh is near, while for Judah good news of peace is coming.

Explanation

Written about a century after Nineveh's repentance recorded in the book of Jonah, Nahum announces that the city has returned to its old patterns of cruelty and violence, and this time there will be no second chance. The chapter opens with a striking description of God's power over nature (drying up seas, shaking mountains), establishing His absolute authority before announcing specific judgment against Assyria. The phrase 'the Lord is slow to anger, and great in power' balances patience with inevitable justice. For Judah, oppressed for decades under Assyrian rule, this prophecy brought genuine relief: 'the feet of him that bringeth good tidings... of peace' are upon the mountains. The application for today: God's patience should never be mistaken for permanent tolerance of persistent violence.

Fun facts

Between Nineveh's repentance in the time of Jonah (around 760 BC) and Nahum's prophecy (around 660 BC), roughly a century passed, during which Assyria once again became known for extreme brutality in warfare, including methods of torture documented in its own historical records.
The phrase 'the feet of him that bringeth good tidings' upon the mountains (v.15) is almost identical to Isaiah 52:7, an example of how different prophets used similar expressions and imagery to announce deliverance and hope.

Verse-by-verse explanation

Naum 1:1Nahum prophesies against the same Nineveh as Jonah, but more than a hundred years later: in Jonah, the city had repented and been spared; here, in the second half of the 7th century BC, Assyrian cruelty had returned, and this time judgment comes for real, shortly before the city's actual fall in 612 BC.
Naum 1:2"Jealous and avenging" here is not petty envy: it is the reaction of a God committed to what is right, who does not stay indifferent when His enemies oppress the weak.
Naum 1:3"Slow to anger, and great in power" and "will not at all acquit the wicked" reproduces almost the same formula used in Exodus 34 to describe God's character — patient, yet not indifferent to evil.
Naum 1:4God dries up the sea and the rivers, and withers even the most fertile places (Bashan, Carmel, Lebanon) — the strength that sustains all of nature is in His hands, not Nineveh's.
Naum 1:5Mountains quaking and the earth rising up describe the tremor that God's very presence causes — all creation reacts when He moves in judgment.
Naum 1:6No one can stand before God's wrath when it comes: not armies, not walls, not rocks withstand this kind of judgment.
Naum 1:7In the middle of so much threat against Nineveh, the prophet pauses to remind: for those who trust in Him, God is good and serves as a refuge in the day of trouble.
Naum 1:8"An overrunning flood" describes how God will sweep Nineveh away for good — the image of a flood that leaves not one stone upon another.
Naum 1:9Thinking of resisting the Lord is useless: the judgment announced here will be final, with no need for a second round of anguish.
Naum 1:10Comparing the Assyrians to tangled thorns and drunkards shows the hidden fragility behind the empire's appearance of strength — they will be consumed quickly, like dry stubble catching fire.
Naum 1:11The "wicked counsellor" who came out of Nineveh refers to an Assyrian king who plotted evil against the Lord — remembered for his arrogance against Jerusalem.
Naum 1:12God speaks directly to Judah: however numerous and secure the Assyrians may seem, they will be cut down like sheared wool — and the affliction Judah suffered because of them will not happen again.
Naum 1:13"I will break his yoke" promises the end of Assyrian oppression over Judah — the people will no longer carry the weight of being Nineveh's vassal.
Naum 1:14Putting an end to Nineveh's "name" and to the idols of "the house of thy gods" announces the end of the Assyrian dynasty and the pagan temples of the city — a sentence of total erasure, not just a military defeat.
Naum 1:15"The feet of him that bringeth good tidings" upon the mountains is the image of a messenger running to announce that the enemy has fallen; the same expression appears in Isaiah 52 and is used much later in the letter to the Romans about preachers of the gospel.

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