Dr Paul Allen

But with an over-whelming flood He will make an end of Nineveh ; He will pursue His foes into darkness ( Nahum 1:8). The prophecy of Nahum needs to be taken with that of Jonah . After Jonah’s ministry in Nineveh, the city was covenanted to the Lord. After a couple of generations, however, the Assyrians reverted to their old ways. When people have a knowledge of God and then rebel against Him, they become worse than they were before. The Assyrians became known throughout the ancient world for great cruelty in warfare. The Assyrian empire dominated the ancient Near East for a while, and both Israel and Judah were forced to recognize its superpower status and pay tribute. When Hoshea , the last king of Israel , conspired with Egypt and withheld the annual tribute, the Assyrians conquered and destroyed the nation. The larger reason Israel was destroyed was that they had provoked the Lord beyond the limits of His forbearance. About a century later, God raised up Nahum to pr...

English: Head-piece to Nahum. Nahum 3:3. Vignette with a horseman raising his sword during combat with a fallen soldier in clouds; letterpress in two columns below and on verso. 1798. Inscriptions: Lettered below image with production detail: "P J de Loutherbourg invt.", "Js. Fittler sculpt" and publication line: "Publish'd Jany. 22 1798 by Thos Macklin Fleet Street". Print made by James Fittler. Dimensions: Height: 490 millimetres (sheet); width: 395 millimetres (sheet). (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) "The chariots shall rage in the streets, they shall justle one against another in the broad ways: they shall seem like torches, they shall run like the lightnings." ( Nahum 2:4 ) This strange prophecy, found in the midst of the small book of Nahum , could almost be seen as a description of twenty-first century freeway traffic! In context, however, the entire book of Nahum deals with the coming destruction of Assyria and, especially, its gre...