lkésh is generally identified with the modern Elk6zeh in Northern Galilee, a short distance to the north-east of Ramieh. (4) Inasmuch as the date of Nahum’s prophecy—long after the fall of the Northern Kingdom (see below)—rather points in the direction of a Judean origin, the most probable location of Elkésh is that furnished by a collection of traditions known as the Lives of the Prophets, for- merly ascribed to Epiphanius, from A.D. 367 bishop of Constantia, the ancient Salamis, in Cyprus.
This curious work exists in a double form, Greek and Syriac. The former was first published as a genuine work of Epiphanius by Torinus in 1529, in more recent times by Migne (vol. xliii.), Tischendorf (Anecdota Sacra, ete., 11855, 21861), Hall (Journ. of Soc. of Bwl., Exegesis, June 1886, p. 29ff.), and, from two fresh MSS, Nestle (Die dem Epiphanius zugeschriebenen Vitw Prophetarum in doppelter ion,t pp. 16-35). As to the Syriac form of these traditions, we find them not only appended to the respective prophets in Paul of Tella’s Syriac translation 616-617 a.p.) of Origen’s Hexaplar text of the Greek OT (see Ceriani’s Codex Syro-hexaplaris Ambrosianus photolithographice editus in his Monumenta Sacra, etc., vol. vii. 1874), but in a more or less independent form in various quarters (see Budge, The Book of the Bee (1886), 74ff.; Nestle, Syriac Grammar [1889], Chrestomathy, 86ff. ; translated, Budge, ilid. 69 ff. ; Hall (from a Philadelphis MS) in Journ. of the Soc. of Bibl. Exeg. [1887],
The portions of the Vite Prophetarum relating to Nahum have been edited in Greek and Syriac with full critical apparatus by Nestle (op. cit. 43f.). The former, in the oldest MS from ‘the 6th or 7th century,’ begins thus: Naodp ἀπὸ Ἐλκεσὶ πέραν τοῦ ᾿Ισβηγαβαρὶν φυλῆς Συμεών, which corresponds to the Syriac: ‘Nahum was from Elkésh (in the country) beyond Béth Gabré (723 m2) of the tribe of Simeon.’|| Now Béth-Gabré, the Betogabra of
* So, according to the latest map of this district by Colonel Billerbeck, in the joint monograph by Billerbeck and Jeremias on ‘The Downfall of Nineveh and the Prophecy of Nahum of Elkosh’ (see the Literature at the end of article).
+ This form of the word is itself suspicious, since it pre- supposes the LXX form of the adjective ᾿Ελκχεσαῖος. ee separate off-print from his Marginalien und Materialien,
§ For further details as to the origin and relation of the recensions see the exhaustive investigation of Professor Nestle (cited above), which the author kindly put at the present writer's disposal for the purpose of this article.
1 Nestle was the first to call attention to the important bear-
NAHUM
Ptolemy, is beyond question the modern Beit- Jibrin, the ancient Eleutheropolis—about half- way, as the crow flies, between Jerusalem and Gaza—an identification confirmed by the variant ovnn n'a (= Home of the Free) found in some of the Syriac MSS (Nestle, op. cit. 44, and the Chresto- mathy, p. 89). Unfortunately, the uncertain authorship of the work in question prevents us from regarding the above statement as a genuine local tradition, as would have been the case had the Lives of the Prophets been a genuine work of Epiphanius, who was born near Eleutheropolis, and there ordained a presbyter, Still we do not hesitate to characterize this tradition as the most credible of the four here adduced. Nahum was thus, it is allowable to infer, a fellow-count an of Micah, whose native place, Moresheth (Mie 1), according to Eusebius and Jerome, lay a little to the east of Eleutheropolis.
iii. CONTENTS OF THE BooK oF NAHUM.—The genuine oracle of Nahum is preceded by a psalm (1%-2!-8) which still bears manifest traces of an original alphabetic or acrostic arrangement (see next section). It begins by asserting the qualities and attributes of J” as ‘a God jealous and aveng- ing’ (15; cf. RVm), passing into a fine description of the effect on the world of nature when J’ appears for judgment on His enemies (vv.* δ. 8)."
Ὁ those, however, who uty wait upon Him,t J” is true and faithful (v.7). In the second part of the psalm (v.®-), where the original alphabetic arrangement has largely disappeared, and where the present text is in some places extremely corrupt, the poet announces the destruction of the enemies of Judah; the yoke that has pressed so long and so heavily on the necks of God’s people shall be broken, the enemies’ gods cast down, and they themselves brought to an utter end. Already the bearer of the glad tidings is speeding over the hills of Judah (116 [Heb. 917}; the final restoration of J”’s land and people is at hand (2? Heb. 3})_+
In chs. 2!-*-3! we have the genuine ‘oracle con- cerning Nineveh.’§ It consists of two parts, cor- responiiing to the present division of the chapters. (a) The first part may be described as a triptych, in which, with a few bold and effective strokes, the prophet-artist has painted in succession the siege, the capture, and the final overthrow of Nineveh, with its resulting desolation. First of all he por- trays the approach of the besiegers in scarlet uniforms aa with steel-mounted || chariots (2! 3), then the stubborn fights in the outplaces and broadways without the walls (v.*). n this fol- lows I (v.5) the hurried muster of the troops within, the rush to the walls to place in position the engines of defence (?; see MANTELET).** But the imme- diate source of danger is elsewhere, for the pro- tecting dams and sluices are burst open (v.°); the result is panic in the palace, which is immediately