* The verb ‘ judge’ is in the original a plural (though this, in view of Heb. usage, does not absolutely settle the question); οἵ. also Jos 242end, The words ‘the God of their father’ (i.e. of Terah), which in the Heb. follow awkwardly after ‘judge,’ are not in LXX, and are very probably a gloss, designed to identify expressly the God of Abraham with the God of Nahor.
+ In the genealogicy scheme of P (Gn 11%), Aram (the Syrians) and ‘Uz are differently.
1 Observe the epithet, ‘the Aramman,’ applied to both Bethuel and Laban, Gn 252 285 3120. 24,
NAHUM 473
NAHSHON (Ὁ) oceans doubtful} LXX and NT Naao(c)év), brother-in-law of Aaron, Ex 6% P, descendant in the 5th generation from Judah, 1 Ch 2", and prince of the tribe of Judah, Nu 1? 2? 72-17 1015 P, is mentioned as one of the ancestors οἱ ve ae Ru 4”, 1 Ch 2+, and of Christ, Mt 1",
NAHUM.— i. Name and Place in the Canon. ii. The Prophet's birthplace. iii. Contents of the Book of Nahum. iv. Integrity and Authenticity of the Book. y. Occasion and date of chs. 2 and 3. vi. General characteristics of chs. 2 and 3. Literature.
i. NAME AND PLACE IN CANON.—The Book of Nahum occupies the seventh place in the list of the so-called ‘Minor Prophets’ in the second division of the OT Canon. Its twofold title (Nah 11) at once indicates the subject-matter of the book, ‘the oracle* of (concerning) Nineveh (RVm),’ and furnishes us with the sum of our knowledge regarding its author, ‘the book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.’ In our canonical Scriptures Nahum is not elsewhere mentioned ; in extra-canonical Jewish writings he is referred to in 2 Es 1” and by Josephus, who gives (Ant. Ix. xi. 3, Niese, § 239 ff.) a free rendering of Nah 25:5, and assigns to him an impossible date (see below).
Several persons bearing the name Nahum are known to later Jewish history —among them an ancestor of Joseph of Nazareth (Lk 3”), and a well-known teacher of the 2nd cent., ‘ Nahum the Mede’ (for whom see Bacher, Die Agada der Tannaiten, i. p. 359), more than once cited in the Mishna (Shabbd. ii. 1, ete.). Another Nahum is there described as a scribe or copyist (1}252=Jibel- larius, Peah, ii. 6). Traces of still another have been discovered by Clermont-Ganneau (‘ Epi- graphes heb. . . . sur des ossuaires juifs,’ in Rev. Archéol. Ser. U1. t. 1. No. 41). The name appears, also, to have been not uncommon among the Pheenicians (see Beeckh, C/G ii. 25, 26; CJS i. No. 1233. bs),
Nahum (on) nahhtim—in some codices and editions less correctly on} na@htim—LXX and NT Naovu, in Josephusand C/G (above) inflected Ναοῦμος, -μου, Vulg. Nahum) signifies primarily ‘full of consolation or comfort,’ + then, perhaps, ‘com- forter, consoler’ (Jerome, consolator), and is prob- ably contracted from the fuller form πο ΠΣ ‘J” is full of consolation’ (cf. 27; Nehemiah, and the later Jewish name ons, Clermont-Ganneau, Sceaux et cachets israélites, No. 42 [1883]).
ii. THE PROPHET’S BIRTHPLACE.—Of the per- sonality of the prophet, as has been said, nothin whatever is known} beyond the description ὁ him in the title of his book as the Elkoshite
(eAppxg, LXX ᾿Ἑλκεσαῖος, Vulg. Elceseus), that is,
in a Ero pahilitys as a native of Elkésh.g¢ The OT, unfortunately, gives no clue to the situation of Elkésh. Four sites have been proposed at various times and with varying degrees of proba- bility. (1) As a product of medieval fancy, we
* This rendering of XD ‘utterance, oracle’ (cf. the common expression δὴ NY} ‘to lift up the voice’) is certainly prefer- able to the AV and RV rendering ‘ burden.’
t The form nahhim is intensive (see Gesenius-Kautzsch, Heb. Gram, 1898, § 84), g), from the intensive stem of 0M) ‘to com- fort, console.’ The common adjectives [30 ‘full of pity,’ O17 ‘full of compassion,’ support by analogy the rendering given above, in preference to an original substantival signification, ‘consolation, comfort’ (so Orelli and others). From the same root are derived several other proper names, such as Nehemiah, Menahem, Nachman, etc.
Σ The numerous legends that gathered round his name have been collected by Carpzov in his /ntroductio, iii. 386 Δ,
§ The Targum renders ‘yp ΓΔ as if Nahum were ‘of the family of Koshi.’
NAHUM
may dismiss the identification of Elkésh with the Christian village of Alktsh, about 27 miles (ες. 43 kilometres)* due North of Mosul, where the tomb of the prophet is still shown (see Layard’s description in Nineveh and its Remains (1849), i. 233). This identification, according to Assemani, does not date beyond the 16th cent. of our era, and is, moreover, easily accounted for by the sub- ject-matter of the prophecy just as the tomb of
onah, whose book also deals with Nineveh, is shown at Nebi Yunus to the South of Mosul. (2) Equally inadmissible is the view of Hitzig and Knobel, that Elkésh was the original name of the town which in the Ist cent. bore the name of Καφαρναούμ (so the best authorities, see CAPER- NAUM), te. probably oinj > ‘the village of Nahum,’ since, apart from the somewhat pre- carious pe free there is nothing in the genuine portion of the Book of Nahum (see below) to suggest a Galilean origin for its author. The objection of the Sanhedrin, moreover, expressed in the words, ‘Search and see that out of Galilee ariseth no prophet’ (Jn 7 RV), could scarcely have taken so emphatic a form had Capernaum been associated in the popular mind with our Nahum. (3) A similar objection applies to the identification, dubious on other grounds, which we owe to Jerome. In the prologue to his com- mentary on Nahum, he writes: ‘ Helkesei + usque hodie in Galilea viculus [est], parvus quidem et vix ruinis veterum edificiorum indicans vestigia ; sed tamen notus Judzis, et mihi quoque a circum- ducente monstratus.’ The hamlet which was ieee out to Jerome by his guide as the ancient