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Haydock's Catholic Bible Commentary, 1859 edition. |
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NAHUM - Introduction
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THE PROPHECY OF NAHUM. INTRODUCTION.
Nahum, whose name signifies a comforter, was a native of Elcese, or Elcesai, supposed to be a little
town in Galilee. He prophesied after the ten tribes were carried into captivity, and foretold the utter destruction of Ninive
by the Babylonians and Medes; which happened in the reign of Josias, (Challoner) in the sixteenth year, when the father of
Nabuchodonosor and the grandfather of Cyrus entirely ruined Ninive, and divided the empire between them, (Calmet) in the year
of the world 3378. (Usher) Tobias xiv. 16. --- Nahum was probably on the spot when he proclaimed this beautiful prediction,
which yields not to any work of profane authors. He might have been carried captive by Salmanasar, as he alludes to the captivity
of Israel and to the blasphemies of Sennacherib. We cannot, therefore, place his prophecy before the fifteenth year of Ezechias.
(Calmet) --- He appeared about fifty years after Jonas, when the Ninivites had relapsed, and were destroyed in the space of
one hundred and thirty-five years, as a figure of the subversion of idolatry by Christ's preaching the gospel of peace. (Worthington) |