Nahum

Nahum is a poem of judgement on Nineveh, the Assyrian capital whose earlier repentance under Jonah had long given way to renewed cruelty. Where Jonah showed God's mercy, Nahum shows his justice: the terror of the ancient world will itself be brought down.

Written not long before Nineveh's fall in 612 BC, the book vividly pictures the doomed city while affirming that 'the Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble' (1:7). It is a reminder that God holds even the mightiest empires to account.