Nahum 2:3-3:19

What’s Happening?

The last two chapters of Nahum contain a vision of Nineveh's fall by Babylon’s hands, a series of six insults mocking Nineveh, and then a sarcastic dirge celebrating the great city’s demise. 

An army, dressed in blood-red, will overthrow Nineveh (Nahum 2:3). This is the Babylonian army, and the prophet Ezekiel confirms their uniforms are red (Ezekiel 23:14). Nahum also accurately prophesies that Nineveh will be overwhelmed when flooded by the nearby river (Nahum 2:6, 8). Nineveh's patron god will be carted off, leaving its priests wailing and the treasure of the city laid bare for all to take advantage (Nahum 2:7, 9).

Nahum’s six insults are simple. Assyria used to be the hunter, but they will become the hunted (Nahum 2:13). Nineveh was built with blood, and so to blood it will return (Nahum 3:1, 3). Nineveh has acted like a whore, so soon her charms will be exposed (Nahum 3:4, 5b). Assyria once brutally overthrew the Egyptian city of Thebes (Nahum 3:8), but soon the same violence they inflicted will come back to haunt them (Nahum 3:10). And finally, just as they once conquered and consumed like locusts (Nahum 3:16), they will soon disappear like locusts (Nahum 3:17). There is no good news for Nineveh. Their destruction is inevitable. So Nahum sings a dirge describing Nineveh's soldiers on the run and gasping for breath (Nahum 3:18). The whole earth then applauds Nineveh's downfall because, as Nahum asks, “Who on earth has not experienced Nineveh’s evil” (Nahum 3:19)?

Nahum is only one of two books in the Bible to end with a rhetorical question. The other is Jonah (Jonah 4:11). Jonah’s rhetorical question is also about Nineveh and how God is entitled to show mercy to whomever he desires—even Ninevites. But Nahum’s question reveals that Nineveh leveraged God’s mercy to commit additional cruelty. Nineveh is evil beyond salvation, and no one on earth questions God’s justice in wiping them off the map. 

Where is the Gospel?

There is no good news for Nineveh. Nahum offers no gospel to atone for Nineveh's atrocities. It’s a sobering reminder that eventually the wicked will have no further chances to repent. Assyria was destroyed by Babylon, never to rise again. So the good news at the end of Nahum isn’t for the wicked, the oppressor, or the violent—but for everyone else. 

Nineveh's oppression spanned the globe and so the globe rejoiced when the enemy of God’s people finally got what they deserved. In the book of Revelation, we see a similar picture. God gathers the rulers of all evil empires—all those guilty of atrocities, every abuser—and avenges the innocent blood they’ve spilled and the people they’ve harmed (Revelation 19:2). And then the people of God rejoice that evil is forever judged (Revelation 19:3). 

There is a day coming soon when Jesus will do to all evil what Babylon did to Nineveh. Jesus will wage war (Revelation 19:11). And he will come to conquer, wearing a blood-red robe (Revelation 19:13). He will ride out against every nation that has dared attack God’s own (Revelation 19:15a). He will rout the world of its evil and establish himself forever as King of Kings. He will rule forever as Prince of Peace in a world where there are no more enemies. 

See for Yourself

I pray that the Holy Spirit will open your eyes to see the God who will come to end oppression. And may you see Jesus as the one who is coming to bring all evil to an end by establishing peace for all his people.