Welcome to Bible Fiber where we are encountering the textures and shades of the prophetic tapestry in a year-long study of the twelve minor prophets, one prophet each month. I am Shelley Neese, president of The Jerusalem Connection, a Christian organization devoted to sharing the story of the people of Israel, both ancient and modern.

This week we are finishing the first chapter of Nahum and reading the second chapter. Normally, I try and keep our weekly readings nice and clean, assigning whole chapters, but I thought Nahum’s Divine Warrior Hymn had to be separated from the rest of the book’s pronouncements of judgement against Assyria and oracles of hope for Judah. Nahum 1:9 marks that transition point from hymn to prophecy.
Jonah

In most of the Bible canons, Nahum is placed before Habakkuk and after Micah. This placing makes thematic and chronological sense. Nahum, Habakkuk, and Zephaniah emphasize God’s punishment while the first six prophets focus on Israel and Judah’s rebellion. But in the Septuagint, Nahum follows Jonah as a continuous discourse on God’s relationship with the Ninevites who at one time evoke his compassion and at another time provoke his wrath. In Jonah, Nineveh’s sparing displayed God’s power. In Nahum, His power is displayed in Nineveh’s destruction.

Around 150 years separate the life of Jonah from the life of Nahum with Jonah being the earlier of the two. If you read the prophets with no awareness of their relative chronology, it would be easy to assume that Nahum preceded Jonah and that his prediction of Nineveh’s fall was the oracle eventually delivered by Jonah. Or worse yet, reading Jonah and Nahum in tandem makes it appear that their messages contradict each other. Are the people of Nineveh recognized for their repentance and forgiven for their wickedness or not? Did God forgive the Ninevites and then change His mind?