Nahum (consolation), the seventh of the Minor Prophets, according to the arrangement of both the Greek and Hebrew, but the sixth in point of date, was a native of Elkosh, a village of Galilee. He prophesied in Judah after the deportation of the ten tribes, and soon after the unsuccessful eruption of Sennacherib (;; ), consequently towards the close of the reign of Hezekiah. Attempts have been made to fix the date with precision, from the allusion to the destruction of No-Ammon or Thebes in Egypt (); but as it is uncertain when this event took place, Eichhorn and others have conjectured that it was near the beginning of the reign of Hezekiah, or about B.C. 720, as about this time Sargon, king of Assyria, waged an unsuccessful war for three years against Egypt (Isaiah 20).
The contents of the prophecy of Nahum are as follows:—. The destruction of Nineveh and of the Assyrian monarchy is depicted in the liveliest colors, together with the relief of Judah from oppression. The destruction of Nineveh is detailed with still greater particularity in Nahum 3; which has induced some to suppose that the prophet refers to two different events—the sack of Nineveh by the Medes, B.C. 867, in the reign of Sardanapalus, and its second and final destruction, under Chyniladan, by Cyaxares the First and Nabopolassar, B.C. 625. But this opinion has been satisfactorily refuted by Jahn and De Wette.
The beauty of the style of Nahum has been universally felt. It is classic, observes De Wette, in all respects. It is marked by clearness, by its finished elegance, as well as by fire, richness, and originality. The rhythm is regular and lively. The whole book remarkably coherent, and the author only holds his breath, as it were, in Nahum 3. Jahn observes that the language is pure, with a single exception; that the style is ornate, and the tropes bold and elegant (rendering it, however, necessary for the reader to supply some omissions; see;; ); and that the descriptions of the divine omnipotence, and of the destruction of Nineveh, are resplendent with all the perfection of oratory.
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John Kitto was an English biblical scholar of Cornish descent.Born in Plymouth, John Kitto was a sickly child, son of a Cornish stonemason. The drunkenness of his father and the poverty of his family meant that much of his childhood was spent in the workhouse. He had no more than three years of erratic and interrupted education. At the age of twelve John Kitto fell on his head from a rooftop, and became totally and permanently deaf. As a young man he suffered further tragedies, disappointments and much loneliness. His height was 4 ft 8 in, and his accident left him with an impaired sense of balance. He found consolation in browsing at bookstalls and reading any books that came his way.
From these hardships he was rescued by friends who became aware of his mental abilities and encouraged him to write topical articles for local newspapers, arranging eventually for him to work as an assistant in a local library. Here he continued to educate himself.
One of his benefactors was the Exeter dentist Anthony Norris Groves, who in 1824 offered him employment as a dental assistant. Living with the Groves family, Kitto was profoundly influenced by the practical Christian faith of his employer. In 1829 he accompanied Groves on his pioneering mission to Baghdad and served as tutor to Groves's two sons. In 1833 Kitto returned to England via Constantinople, accompanied by another member of the Groves mission, Francis William Newman. Shortly afterwards he married, and in due course had several children.
A London publisher asked Kitto to write up his travel journals for a series of articles in the Penny Magazine, a publication read at that time by a million people in Britain, reprinted in America and translated into French, German and Dutch. Other writing projects followed as readers enquired about his experiences in the East amidst people living in circumstances closely resembling those of Bible times.
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