Alkush, an Assyrian village on the east side of
the Tigris, a few miles above the site of the ancient Nineveh, rests on
no good foundation. The prophecy of Nahum is directed against Nineveh,
the capital of the Assyrian empire. When the prophet wrote, this city
was still in the height of its power (chap. 1:12; 2:8); oppressing the
nations and purposing the conquest of Judah (chap. 1:9, 11; 3:1, 4).
From chap. 1:12, 13 it appears that the Assyrians had already afflicted
Judah, and laid their yoke upon her. All these particulars point to the
reign of Hezekiah as the probable date of the book.

15. The first chapter opens with a description of God's awful majesty
and power, which nothing created can withstand. These attributes shall
be directed to the utter and perpetual overthrow of Nineveh and the
salvation of God's afflicted people. The second chapter begins a sublime
description of the process of this destruction by the invasion of
foreign armies. The third continues the account of the desolation of
Nineveh by her foes. For her innumerable sins she shall be brought to
shame before the nations of the earth, and made like populous No, that
is, No-amon, the celebrated metropolis of upper Egypt, also called
Thebes, whose children were dashed in pieces and her great men laid in
chains. The present condition of Nineveh, a mass of uninhabitable ruins,
is a solemn comment upon the closing words of the prophecy; "There is no
healing of thy bruise; thy wound is grievous: all that hear the report
of thee shall clap their hands over thee: for upon whom hath not thy
wickedness passed continually?"

VIII. HABAKKUK.

16. Respecting Habakkuk's personal history we have no information. The
apocryphal notices of him are unworthy of credence. From the fifth and
sixth verses of the first chapter it is evident that he prophesied not
long before that series of invasions by the Chaldeans which ended in the
destruction of Jerusalem and the captivity of the people; that is,
somewhere between 640 and 610 years before Christ, so that he was
contemporary with Jeremiah and Zephaniah. The theme of his prophecy is,
first, the overthrow of Judea by the Chaldeans, and then the overthrow
in turn of the Chaldean monarchy, each power in turn for its sins. In
the first chapter he predicts in a dramatic form--that of expostulation
with God on the part of the prophet, and God's answer--the approaching
desolation of the land by the Chaldean armies, whose