I exiles, and so named by them in memory of Elkosh in their own country. Tradition, as usual, has usurped
I the province of historj-. According to pseudo-Epipha- nius {De Vitis Proph. in Opp. ii, 247), Nahum was of the tribe of Simeon, " from Elcesei, beyond the Jordan, at Begabar (li/;yn/3<:ip; C'ftroji. Pasch. 150 B. liijraiiu- p))),'' or Bethabara, where he died in peace and was buried. In the Roman Martyrology the 1st of Decem- ber is consecrated to his memory. For the period in which he lived, see the discussion below as to the date of his writing.
NAHUM, BOOK OF. The same uncertainty and dispute have prevailed on many points affecting the prophecy as have been detailed above respecting the prophet.
1. Place of Writinff.— This largely depends upon the location of his birthplace. Dr. Davidson, in his Jfttro- duction to the Old Testament, confesses that the testi- monies in favor of the Galikean authorship are older and better; but still prefers to think that Nahum was an Assyrian by residence, "because the analogy of prophecy and internal phenomena favor this opinion." But Prof. Stiihelin justly remarks that the absence of all reference in the prophecy to the Hebrew exiles in Assyria, among whom the prophet is supjiosed, on this hj'pothesis, to have been born and brought up, is an " internal phenomenon" which is quite decisive against the supposition ; and with regard to the alleged " anal- ogy of prophecy" being opposed to the idea that a prophet living so far from Nineveh as (ialilee could utter predictions of so much circumstantiality against it, it is hard to see how such a statement can be recon- ciled with such circumstantial prophecies as those di- rected against Babylon by Isaiah and other certainly Palestinian prophets.
2. Date of the Prophea/.— This is even more uncer- tain than its place of writing. In the Seder Olain liahha (p. 55, ed. Meyer) Nahum is made contemporary with Joel and Habakkuk in the reign of JIanasseh. Syn- cellus {Chron.\t.20\. d) places him with Ilosea, Amos, and Jonah in the reign of Joash king of Israel, more than a century earlier; while according to Eutychius {Ann. p. 252) he was contemporary with Haggai, Zech- ariah, and Malachi, and prophesied in the fifth year after the destruction of Jerusalem. Josephus {Aiit.'w, 11,3) mentions him as living in the latter part of the reign of Jotham. "About this time was a certain prophet, Nahum by name ; who, prophesying concern- ing the downfall of Assyrians and of Nineveh, said thus," etc. ; to which he adds, " and all that was fore- told concerning Nineveh came to pass after one hundred and fifteen j'ears." From this Carpzov concluded that Nahum prophesied in the beginning of the reign of Ahaz, about B.C. 742. Modern writers are divided in their suffrages. Bertholdt thinks it jtrobable that the prophet escaped into Judah when the ten tribes were carried captive, and wrote in the reign of Hezckiah. Keil {Lehrb.d.F.inl.in d.A. T.) places him in the latter half of Ilezekiah's reign, after the invasion of Sennach- erib. Yitringa {Ti/p. Doctr. proph. p. 37) was of the like opinion, and the same view is taken by De Wette (/w«/. p. 328\ who suggests that the rebellion of the Medes against the Assyrians (B.C. 710\ and the elec- tion of their own king in the person of Deioccs, may have been present to the projihet's mind. But the his- tory of Deioces and his verj' existence are now general- ly believed to be mythical. Tiiis period also is adopted by Knobel {Prophet, ii. 207, etc.) as the date of the prophecy. He was guided to his conclusion by the same supposed facts, and the destruction of No Ammon, or Thebes, of Upper Egypt, which he believed was ef- fected b\' the A.ssyrian monarch Sargon (B.C. 717-715), and is referred to by Nahum (iii, H) as a recent event. In this case the prophet would be a younger contem- porarj' of Isaiah (comji. Isa. xx, 1). Ewald, again, con- ceives that the siege of Nineveh by the ]\ledian king Phraortes (B.C. G30-G25) may have suggested Nalium'a
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