Grace Theological
Journal 9.1 (1988) 45-58.
[Copyright © 1988
Grace Theological Seminary; cited with permission;
digitally prepared for use at
Gordon and
LITERARY ANALYSIS AND THE
UNITY OF NAHUM
RICHARD D. PATTERSON and
MICHAEL E. TRAVERS
Exegesis
that includes careful attention to internal matters--
theme and development, structure, and features of literary style--can
help resolve perennial problems of interpretation. One such
difficulty
involves the unity and authorship of the book of Nahum. Conclu-
sions reached from the shared contributions of biblical and
literary
data argue strongly for the unity of the whole prophecy that
bears
Nahum's name. The literary devices are so demonstrably a necessary
and integral part of the theme and structure of the work that
this
book is best viewed as the production of a single author whose
literary skill and artistry rival those of any of the OT prophets.
* * *
INTRODUCTION
Most
modern higher critical interpreters conclude that of
Nahum's
forty-seven verses, at least one-third are spurious.
Critics
are generally agreed in denying Nahum's authorship of parts
of the title, the "acrostic poem" at
1:2-10,1 the "hopeful sayings" of
1:12-13;
2:1, 3, and the closing dirge at
analysis of Nahum has often been attended by the
uniform denial of
the unity of the book.3
Although conservative scholars have
defended the disputed por-
tions of the book,4
little has been done to demonstrate its essential
1 All textual references
follow the standard English format rather than MT
which
renders
rather than the thirteen of the English editions.
2 For details,
see J. A. Bewer, The
Literature of the Old Testament, 3rd ed. (New
Exegetical Commentary on
Micah, Zephaniah and Nahum (ICC, Edinburgh: T. & T.
3 See, for example, R. H.
Pfeiffer, Introduction to the Old
Testament (
Harper,
1941) 594-95; and G. A. Smith, The Book of the Twelve
Prophets, Rev. Ed.
(New York: Doubleday, 1929), 2:81-88.
4 In addition to the
various conservative commentaries, note the discussion in
R.
K. Harrison, Introduction to the Old
Testament (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1969)
46
GRACE THEOLOGICAL
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unity on purely internal grounds.5 By
focusing primarily on the
literary aspects of Nahum's prophecy--its theme
and development, its
basic structure, and its stylistic features--it will
be shown that Nahum
is the work of a single author. The
appropriateness of such a point of
inquiry, besides being a natural part of the
investigative process, is
underscored by Nahum's generally recognized high
literary artistry.
Thus
Bewer remarks: "Nahum was a great poet. His
word-pictures
are superb, his rhetorical skill is beyond praise.
. ."6, and J.. M. P.
Smith
points out,
Though the rhythm and metre
of Nahum are not so smooth and
regular as is the case with
some Heb. prophets, yet in some respects the
poetry of Nahum is unsurpassed
in the OT. His excellence is not in
sublimity of thought, depth of
feeling, purity of motive, or insight into
truth and life. It is rather
in his descriptive powers. He has an unex-
celled capacity to bring a
situation vividly before the mind's eye. . . .
Accurate and detailed observation assists in
giving his pictures veri-
similitude. Lowth
rightly said, "Ex omnibus minoribus prophetis nemo
videtur aequare
sublimitatem, ardorem et audaces spiritus Nahumi . . . “7
Although
these remarks refer to the portions of Nahum considered to
be authentic, this same high literary quality
characterizes the entire
book.
THEME AND DEVELOPMENT
A casual reading of the prophecy reveals that
Nahum deals with
the destruction of
and subsequent shifting scenes of
double truth: God is the sovereign judge (ch. 1) and controller (chs.
928-30;
P. A. Verhoef, "Nahum, Book of," ZPEB, 4:356; and C. H. Bullock, An
Introduction to the Old
Testament Prophetic Books (Chicago: Moody, 1986) 218-21.
5 Note, however, the helpful observations
of H. D. Hummel, The Word Becoming
Flesh (St. Louis: Concordia,
1979) 339-42; C. E. Armerding, Nahum (EBC, Grand
Rapids:
Zondervan, 1985), 7:453; and R. J. Coggins,
Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1985) 6-8.
6 Bewer, Literature, 148.
7 J. M. P. Smith, Nahum, 273-74. See also P. C. Craigie, Twelve
Prophets
(Philadelphia:
Westminster, 1985),
"poet of considerable ability and originality"; and
Hummel, Word, 339, who observes,
"It
is everywhere agreed that stylistically Nahum easily heads the list of the
minor
prophets, excelling even Amos, and himself
excelled in all Biblical literature only by
Isaiah. Many of his deft, vivid, word-pictures
are fully worthy of Isaiah himself. Some
of their forcefulness is evident, even in
translation, but much is inevitably also lost.
Pfeiffer
calls Nahum, 'the last of the great classical Hebrew poets,' and G. A. Smith
observes that his rhythm 'rumbles and rolls,
leaps and flashes, like the horsemen and
chariots that he describes.' Similar encomiums
could easily be multiplied."
PATTERSON and TRAVERS: THE UNITY OF NAHUM 47
2-3) of the destiny of earth's peoples. The book of Nahum deals
with
not only the doom of
with a prophetic description of that city's
destruction resulting from
the operation of the divine government presided
over by a wise
controller of the affairs of mankind (chs. 2-3). Several subthemes also
reinforce the purpose of the main theme, such as
the revelation of the
many facets of God's character, and the salvation
and restoration of
God's people
Chapter One centers on the declaration of
calling attention to God himself as a sovereign
and just judge. The
theme of the chapter is stated in the threefold
repetition of the name
Yahweh
in the four lines of affirmation concerning God's avenging
wrath. The reader's attention is thus drawn to a
sovereign and just
God who deals in judgment with the ungodly
(1:2).
This clear delinea-
tion of the theme of the
first section of the book (ch. 1) is sub-
sequently qualified in a twofold
hymn to Yahweh (see Literary
Features
below) concerning the character and work of God: (1)
although the Lord is long suffering he will
assuredly judge the guilty
with all the force that a sovereign God can muster
(1:3-6); and (2)
although the Lord is good and he tenderly cares
for the righteous
(particularly in times of affliction), he will destroy those
who plot
against him (1:7-10). These general remarks
concerning the character
and work of God are then applied directly to the
current situation;
just judgment of God, while a previously punished
relief from affliction and be restored to peace and
joy (
The second section immediately repeats the theme
of the judg-
ment of
doing so, it is clear that the primary focus will be on
a description
the actual siege and destruction of the doomed city.
That theme is
immediately carried forward in a visionary rehearsal
of the actua1
attack against
13).
The theme is developed further in a second description
of the fall
of
distinctive emphasis upon the reasons for
its rapacity (3:1-7). This section, too, is closed
by a taunt song in
which
had counted on the same basic defensive features
that
yet her recent fall is known to all. Nineveh's fate
is certain: a sovereign
God
is about to judge the Assyrians and
cruelty (3:8-19).
A proper reading of Nahum, then, shows that
there is an
tial unity to the entire
book. Indeed, as C. Hassell Bullock affirms,
48
GRACE THEOLOGICAL
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even the highly disputed "acrostic
portion" of the first chapter "cer-
tainly is in harmony with the
tenor of the book, and it beautifully
prepares the stage for the major theme of the
book.”8 Our discussion
of the theme and development of the two major
sections of Nahum
has also shown that the author displays
considerable art in the
arrangement of his prophecies, a literary skill that
makes the underly-
ing structure readily
discernible.
BASIC STRUCTURE
The analysis of the theme and development of
Nahum makes
certain that the chapters fall into two distinct
sections (1 and 2-3) in
which the theme is first stated in each portion (1:2;
2:1-2), and then
developed in distinct major units (1:3-10, 11-15;
2:3-10, 11-13; 3:1-
7,
8-19). Both sections end with a report going forth. In
word about
news; in
development, and reaction marks each major section.
The image of
scattering marks the beginning and end of the
second section (Cypime/
'scatterer,' 2:1; and the scattered
refugees from
Other
organizational devices in chapters 2-3 include the aforemen-
tioned closing of each unit
(2, 3) with a taunt song (
and the inactivity/activity of messengers (2:13b;
The
book of Nahum, therefore, is arranged in a basic bifid
structure: 1:2-15; 2:1-3:19.10 The
resultant structural scheme may be
outlined as follows:
Superscription
1:1
The
Doom of
Declared
(1:2-15) Described
(2:1-3:19)
Theme:
Theme:
God
is a God of Justice who will God is a
Just Governor of the
8 Bullock, Prophetic Books, 220. C. F. Keil, Biblical Commentary
on the Minor
Prophets (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1955), 2:4 maintains that all three chapters are
genuine and contain "one extended prophecy
concerning
with pictorial liveliness and perspicuity."
9 The principle of literary bookending as a compilational
technique is well attested
in the Scriptures. One may note, for example,
Ezekiel's dumbness that encloses Ezekiel
3-24,
the heading and colophon that encase Genesis 10, and the inclusion formed by
the references to Jeremiah's birth (Jer 1:5;
forms an integral part of the formal literary
architecture of the book of Jeremiah, a
subject that will be addressed by R. D.
Patterson in a forthcoming article in WTJ.
10 The concept of bifid structure as a
compositional technique has been ably
defended by W. H. Brownlee, The Meaning of the Qumran Scrolls for the Bible
(Oxford: University Press, 1964) 236-59.
PATTERSON and TRAVERS: THE UNITY OF NAHUM 49
punish the wicked and avenge his nations who will punish wicked
own (1:2).
(2.1-2).
1.
A Hymn to the Sovereign 1.
First description of
and Just God
(1:2-10) demise (2:3-13)
a. who defeats his foes a. Rehearsal of
the attack vs.
(1:2-6)
b. who destroys the
plotters b. Taunt
song: the
(1:7-10)
discredited city (
2.
Application of the Hymn to 2.
Second description of
a. Reasons for the
attack vs.
b. Taunt Song: the
defenseless citadel
(3:8-19)
N.B. The messenger of Good N.B. The message of
Good
News
for
D.
W. Gooding affirms that such types of clear organizational struc-
ture argue for an original
authorial intention, rather than for being
the work of a later editorial redactor.11
Additional confirmation of original authorial intent
may be seen
in the demonstrable thematic and verbal hooks that
link the various
smaller units.12 Thus, the opening
statement of theme (1:2) is hooked
to the following thematic development via the
catchword "Lord" and
the theme of divine wrath (1:3-10); the idea of
plotting links 1:3-10
with
link the following units: attacking (2:1-2; 2:3-10),
plundering (2:3-10;
11
D. W. Gooding, "The Literary Structure of Daniel and Its
Implications," TB
32
(1982) 43-79.
12 For the principle of literary hooks, see
H. Van Dyke Parunak, "Transitional
Techniques
in the Bible," JBL 102 (1983)
530-32; John Bright, Jeremiah (AB;
Garden
City;
Doubleday, 1956) lxxiv; and W. McKane,
A Critical and Exegetical Commentary
on Jeremiah (ICC; Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1986) 1: lxxxiv. Called also a link
(Parunak), catchword (Bright), or stitchword
(McKane), the point is, as U. Cassuto,
Biblical and Oriental
Studies
(Jerusalem: Magnes Press, 1973) 1:228, points out,
that
hooking was a common compilational
principle by which sections were arranged "on
the basis of the association of ideas or
words." Cassuto himself has demonstrated the
widespread use of this technique by illustrating
its employment in Leviticus, Numbers,
Canticles, Isaiah, Ezekiel, and the Minor
Prophets.
50
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7),
and death and destruction (3:1-7; 3:8-19). Still further, the impor-
tant word hn.ehi / 'behold' punctuates
the book at crucial points in the
individual units (
unity for the whole book of Nahum.
LITERARY FEATURES
Further evidence for authorial intention and the
essential unity
of the book of Nahum is the careful use of
literary devices.13 Not only
is there a thematic and topical structure to the
book, as the pre-
ceding data suggest, but there is also a literary
richness to this short
prophecy.
In Nahum, there are two literary genres, in
addition to the
oracular nature of the piece as a whole, that
affect the presentation of
the material of the book: the narrative and the
poetic. Each genre has
its own particular conventions which both writer
and reader accept.
Accordingly,
each genre establishes certain expectations in the reader
as to how the material within that genre is
developed.14 Narrative, for
instance, turns on the cause/effect relationships
between events in
time, thereby establishing the later event as the
result of the earlier
event. The most directly narrative portion of the
book of Nahum is
the author's narrative of the destruction of
10.
In this section, the reader anticipates a series of events, each of
which adds to the cumulative effect (in this case) of
the utter desola-
tion of
often elliptical relationships of words, images,
tropes and rhythms.
Poetry
intensifies emotion and underscores the totality of our human-
ness in response to a given word picture. The most
obviously poetical
sections of Nahum are the opening hymn depicting
God as an avenger
(1:1-10)
and the final section of the piece, Nahum's "taunt song" of
3:8-19.
In these sections, the writer affects his reader's
emotions most
directly, thereby involving the whole humanness
of the reader in a
response to the oracle against
In the first major unit of the book, the
introductory Hymn of
Praise
to God (1:1-10), Nahum employs a wide variety of tropes to
13 The issue of authorial intention and the
possibility of a reader obtaining an
objective interpretation of a text is a vexed one
today both in biblical hermeneutics and
in literary criticism. For the classic defense of
meaning as authorial intention, see E. D.
Hirsch,
Validity in Interpretation (New Haven:
Yale University Press, 1979) 27, 32,
44-46,
127ff., 164ff., 209-12, 217, 224ff. For an important
further consideration of the
issue as it relates to biblical hermeneutics, see
Anthony C. Thiselton, The Two Hori-
zons: New Testament Hermeneutics and Philosophical Description (
Eerdmans,
1984) 10-17, 145, 303, 315.
14 For a full defense of the influence of
genre in literature, see Northrop Frye,
Anatomy of Criticism (New York: Atheneum, 1968) 13, 95-99, 111, 246-326.
PATTERSON and TRAVERS: THE UNITY OF NAHUM 51
develop two specific pictures of God, one vis a vis
for
language is expected. Nahum's first trope is a
metaphor: "His (God's)
way is in the whirlwind and the storm, and clouds
are the dust of his
feet" (1:3b). This is a graphic picture of
God's invincible power, his
omnipotence; who can withstand a whirlwind, i.e., a
tornado? God's
power is further suggested by the comparison of
clouds to the mere
dust of his feet; he is indeed strong beyond
imagination. The refer-
ence to storms is
appropriate in two ways. First, Yahweh is the God
of the storm; second, the association of Yahweh
with the storm may
also be an attack on Baal, the Canaanite god of the
storm, and on
Hadad, the
Assyrian god of the storm.
the One who controls nature is a source of terror
to
god Hadad is shown
thereby to be impotent.
The terror of God's angry approach is
underscored by the image
of 1:5:
The mountains quake
before him
and the hills melt away.
The earth trembles at
his presence,
the world and all who live
in it.
Here
is a vivid picture of the only possible response to God's anger.
The
earth--even the mountains, a symbol of great strength--shakes
before the mere presence of God's anger, much less the
execution of
his indignation. What can a mere city, in this case
withstand such a force?
To complete this first picture of God's anger,
Nahum compares
God's
wrath to a fire in a simile: "His wrath is poured out like fire;15
the rocks are shattered before him" (1:6b). As
with a whirlwind, who
can withstand a fire so hot that it bursts rocks
apart? God's anger is
"poured out," like a liquid fire, like molten lava that
consumes
everything in its path. The whole city, not just
its inhabitants, appears
to be in danger of complete annihilation. It is
through such tropes as
the metaphor, image and simile that Nahum
establishes the thorough
destructiveness, the utter terror of
God's wrath: who can withstand
him?
In a dramatic shift, Nahum the poet moves from
God's wrath
against
trasting portrait, Nahum uses a
metaphor to compare the God of
15 The importance of "fire" as a key
word (cf. 1:6; 2:4;
Armerding, EBC 7:451-52. Armerding
suggests that "fire" and key words such as
"consume" / "devour" (
the book, argue strongly for the thematic unity of
the book.
52
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Davidic
metaphor for God's protection (cf. Ps 37:37-40), it takes on
particular poignancy in its context here. All
around this picture,
Nahum
portrays the complete impending destruction of
the most vivid manner. Yet here he speaks of a
refuge for
specifically for the "times of
trouble." What comfort to
amplified terror to
sought God, their destruction is specific and local--their
own judg-
ment!
underscore
Building on this contrast, Nahum returns to the
destruction of
foes) rather than on the might of God. In an image,
the author
depicts the Ninevites
as impotent and frustrated on every hand
They will be entangled
among thorns
and drunk from their wine;
they will be consumed like
dry stubble. (
Rendered
defenseless because of their inebriation, the Ninevites
are
compared to dry stubble, burned immediately upon
contact with any
fire and absolutely annihilated by the lava-like
fire of God's wrath.
The
metaphor within the image intensifies the pathos of the destruc-
tion of human beings:
city of people about to be killed (a motif to which
Nahum will return
later, the innocent and the guilty).
In the second unit of the chapter (
Lord
in address to
that he will not extend his wrath against
is but one trope in this short speech, a typical
metaphor comparing
the unjust oppression of
(
both agrarian (yoke) and urban (shackles, as in a
prison), but other-
wise it is quite conventional. Once again,
comforted in the face of their terror. Nahum
suggests in this con-
ventional trope that God is
self-consistent, a judge of the unrighteous-
ness of
In the third unit of the book, Nahum details the
destruction of
chronological in organization.
However, there are a number of similes
in this account, as well as various other tropes,
which underscore the
emotion and pathos of God's judgment and attack.
Nahum begins in
verses 3-6 with a most graphic image of the actual
attackers. The
shields are red; warriors are covered in scarlet
(both presumably with
PATTERSON and TRAVERS: THE UNITY OF NAHUM 53
blood); chariots "flash" and
"storm." It is a picture of the frenzy of
battle. Within the image of 2:3-6, Nahum incorporates
a simile
comparing the rapid motion of the chariots to
"flaming torches" and
"lightning" (2:4). Not only does the simile point out
the chariots'
speed and power for destruction, but it is also
consistent with the
earlier motif of God's wrath as fire. Here is
one of the agents of God's
fiery wrath, the attackers' chariots.
It is in this narrative unit that Nahum creates
one of his most
pathetic scenes, that of the terror of the
innocent people of
In
a simile, Nahum depicts the anguish of the innocent slave girls of
the city as the moan of doves (2:7). The slave girls
are helpless victims
of their masters demise. The simile evokes pathos,
compassion for
the slaves' imminent deaths. In a related device, a
synecdoche, Nahum
shows the people of
knees give way, bodies tremble, every face grows
pale" (2:10b). Again,
the attention here to the civilians, not the
soldiers, is particularly
pathetic, though God's judgment is complete.
Perhaps two effects
result from depicting civilians in terror: first,
terrorized; second,
The climax of the narrative of
phor of the lions' den in
2:11-13. Nineveh, whose insignia was a lion,
is compared ironically to a lions' den. This den,
however, is no longer
a refuge for its cubs, no longer the lair of the
powerful predator. God
will attack the very home of the Ninevite
plunderers, repaying in kind
their earlier cruelty to their victims. The irony
underlying this meta-
phor allows Nahum to use it
as a little "Taunt Song" to flaunt
Immediately following the narrative of
Nahum
pronounces a series of woes upon the doomed city (3:1-7).
This
unit eludes final generic classification, though it is closer to
poetry than to narrative. Because of the frequent ellipses
in the first
part of this section (vv 1-4), the pronounced woes
are particularly
intense while the emotion increases.
In the first three verses of chapter three, the
writer portrays a
number of graphic images of the impending military
destruction. In
the first image, whips crack, wheels clatter,
horses gallop, and char-
iots jolt (3:2). This
opening image draws the reader's attention to the
machines of war. The poet uses this picture to
heighten the terror
which he shows most graphically m the next image.
Nahum moves
from a scene depicting the charging chariots to a
second image, a
terrifying view of the people involved in the
conflict This image in 3:3
is itself bifid in structure, just as the book of
Nahum at large is. The
first scene is that of the attacking cavalry, swords
flashing and spears
glittering. The attention here is on the weapons,
surely a means of
54
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underscoring the imminent death to
the Ninevites. The second scene
in the verse is a picture of the genocide itself:
the dead are piled,
bodies are without number, so much so that the Ninevites cannot
escape without stumbling over their fallen friends.
The effect of this
image is poignant: the attackers are merciless, and
the victims are
utterly annihilated. Intensifying the emotional
impact of this com-
plete military rout is the
ellipsis maintained throughout the two
verses. The lack of connectives increases the tempo of
the scene,
thereby suggesting the irresistible force of the
attacker.
In the concluding verses of the unit of woes,
Nahum uses an
extended simile to portray the extreme shame that
experience as a result of God's judgment. He
compares Nineveh to a
harlot and a "mistress of sorceries. "
Guilty of spiritual prostitution
and witchcraft, she will be utterly exposed to the
contempt of the
nations. Stripped and pelted with filth, she,
not Israel, will be a
spectacle (cf. Deut 28:37). Everyone will desert
her. There is no need
of a homily here; the intense shame and final
degradation that is
presented in the picture of
Nahum
then carries over the emotions of shame and contempt, though
not the metaphor, into his final section, the
concluding Taunt Song.
In the final Taunt Song (3:8-19), Nahum flaunts
the utter help-
lessness of the Ninevites. In this unit, he employs a series of brief
tropes to finally impress
ment is irresistible and
irrevocable. Curiously, Nahum relies most on
the simile, the weakest of tropes, perhaps to
suggest that all he can do
is approximate the absolute terror and
helplessness that will affect
Nineveh.
Words fail him. In
fortress to a ripe fig tree, readily dropping its
fruit into the attackers'
mouths. Nahum has not emphasized the plunder of gold
and silver in
the book; rather, the plunder in Nahum's account is
people--innocent
and guilty Ninevites
alike. What horror this brief simile evokes!
Nahum underscores the futility of
themselves with a series of references to locusts.16
Locusts, able to
strip a field entirely of its grain, leaving the
people destitute of both
food and livelihood, are a conventional engine of
divine judgment.
Egypt
in Moses' time is perhaps the most obvious recipient of this
particular plague. Here Nahum doubles the plague of
locusts in that
he finds them inside
the attackers are compared to locusts (
plague of locusts coming upon the victims from the
outside. But
16 See Joel 2:4-9 and the remarks of R. D.
Patterson in EBC 7:248. For locusts
themselves, see the helpful excursus of S. R.
Driver, The Books of Joel and Amos
(Cambridge:
University Press, 1915) 84-92; and J. D. Whiting, "
Plague," National Geographic Magazine 28 (1915) 518-50.
PATTERSON
and TRAVERS: THE UNITY OF NAHUM 55
Nahum
compares some Ninevites themselves to locusts. In
3:16 the
merchants of the city are like locusts, having
robbed the city of its
money and then fleeing, treacherously deserting the
city in its final
hour. Likewise the guards--and even the civic
officials--flee like the
locusts in the
within and under siege from without,
Nahum
emphasizes the absolute vulnerability of Nineveh with these
few brief similes. It is too late for Jonah's
invitation to repentance.
Literary
features abound in this short prophecy. Two of the
more important include Nahum's use of chiasmus and
an acrostic
poem. The chiasmus opens his prophecy:
a A jealous God xOpqa lxe
b and an avenger is
Yahweh hvAhy; Mqenov;
b' Yahweh is an avenger hvAhy; Mqeno
a' and Lord of wrath. hmAHe
lfabaU
That
a chiasmus17 is intended is obvious from the familiar parallels in
the first and fourth lines: God (lxe)/Baal, jealous/wrath. The first
parallel pair is a common one throughout
northwest Semitic litera-
ture; the second is
particularly apropos of the relationship between
God and
Israel
knew God's love as his special people. That love of God is often
depicted as that of a husband jealously guarding
his wife (Isa 54:5).
Unfortunately,
in her continued idolatry, Israel had proven herself an
unfaithful and unrepentant wife (Jer 2:1-3; 5), who must accordingly
face the righteous wrath of Yahweh (cf. Ezek
because God is a merciful God, when the deserved
punishment has
run its course, God will restore his repentant wife
(cf. Hos 1-3) and
turn his righteous wrath to those unbelieving
nations whom he had
used to chastise Israel/Judah (Ezek 36:6-7;
38:18-19).
A further nuance in the chiastic structure may
lie in the use of
lfb, with hmH / 'wrath'. In addition to being the name of the Canaanite
storm god, the noun ba’al
may refer to an owner (Exod 22:7), master
(Isa 1:3), ruler (Isa 16:8), or
husband (Deut 24:4). All of these mean-
ings may be felt here.
Because Yahweh is Israel's owner, master, and
husband, his wrath can either be spent against
her or extended on her
behalf. By the word ba’al, Nahum could also perhaps
be reporting
that despite the rampant idolatry initiated by King
Manasseh, Yahweh
(not Ba’al) is the true Lord of the
universe (cf. vv. 3b-5) who will
deal in righteous wrath with sin and rebellion. It
may also be a veiled
attack on Hadad, the
Assyrian storm god.
17 For chiasmatic
structure, see R. L. Alden, "Chiastic Psalms: A Study in the
Mechanics
of Semitic Poetry in Psalms 1-50," JETS
17 (1974) 11-28.
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As a further expansion in 1:2b demonstrates, the
assertion that
God
is an avenger is the center of focus in Nahum's chiasmus. As a
God
of holiness and justice, God reserves the right of vengeance to
himself (Deut 32:35, 41; Rom
might seem to be unfolding, God will take proper
vengeance on all
nature of sin (Isa 63:1-4).
Not only will he punish his covenant
breaking people (Lev 26:24-25), but he will
punish all his foes,
particularly those who have dealt
harshly with his chastised and
repentant people (Isa
34:8; 61:2). Thus, the four lines are unmistak-
ably chiasmatic.
But this is no mere indication of Nahum's
artistry; the chiasmus
is meaningfully designed to arrest the reader's
attention at the outset.
The
three figures treated in this short chiasmus, jealousy, wrath, and
vengeance, set the theme of the book before its
readers: (1) As a
jealous God, Yahweh demands the absolute
devotion that only the
true and sovereign God deserves. (2) In his
righteous wrath Yahweh
alone can and will deal justly with all who sin as
his justice dictates.
(3)
As an avenging God, Yahweh will discipline, defend, or deliver as
his holiness demands. If indeed God's people Israel
experience God's
chastisement, how much more an
unbelieving, arrogant
Nineveh?
Not only is this chiasmus the key to the hymn that con-
tinues through verse 10, but
to the whole prophecy. All that follows
in both halves (1 and 2-3) of the book flows from
it, a fact that
argues further for the unity and single authorship of
the book.
Critical scholars generally have recognized in
the majestic hymn
to Yahweh (1:2-10) the skeleton of an acrostic
poem, which they
assume was added by a later editor, but in the course
of its trans-
mission, has suffered some corruption and
displacement. The varying
results arrived at by the individual scholars18
have caused most con-
servative commentators to reject
the theory altogether.19 However,
the hymnic nature of
verses 2-10 is undeniable and while it may be
impossible to recover the "lost acrostic"
with demonstrable certainty,
the task may not be totally without merit. Thus
Hummel remarks,
Efforts to recover the original form of the
acrostic poem have proved
entirely futile, and some deny
the existence of such an underlying
pattern altogether. However, it
does appear that the letters of the
Hebrew alphabet can be followed fairly
accurately down to lamedh.2O
18 See the discussion in J. M. P. Smith, Nahum, 295-97.
19 Note, for example, Gleason Archer, A Survey of Old Testament Introduction
(Chicago: Moody, 1974) 353. See also Walter A.
Maier, The Book of Nahum
(Grand
Rapids: Baker, 1980) 52-62.
20 H. D. Hummel, Word, 339.
PATTERSON and TRAVERS: THE UNITY OF NAHUM 57
TABLE I
Verses
Letter Lines Occurrences
1-3a
aleph 6 (+) 2 6 (+) 2
3b
beth
2 3
4a
gimel
2 1
4b
daleth
2 (1)*
5a
he 2 3
5b
waw
2 4
6a zayin
2 1
6b
heth
2 1
7a
teth
2 1
7b-8a
yodh
2 1
8b-10
kaph
8 7
*
Accomplished via text critical methods.
If, then, rather than resorting to wild
emendations and wholesale
transpositions, one views the
beginning and ending of the canonical
poem to be deliberately weighted so as to form a distinct
frame for
the psalm, a fairly consistent picture emerges:
aleph, six lines (vv.
2-3a),
beth-yodh, two lines each, and eight lines of kaph (perhaps
to balance the six lines of aleph plus the two
lines of superscription).
The
point would be that in Nahum's acrostic arrangement, the pre-
scribed letter of the alphabet need only occur
within (not necessarily
only as the first letter of the first word; cf. zayin and yodh lines) the
line, although in several cases there is a
deliberate concatenation of
the letter in question in the line(s) devoted to
it.21 Table I illustrates
the data.
Applying these parameters to the acrostic poem,
the only sig-
nificant problems occur at
verses 4 and 7b-8a. The former is the
major crux because no daleth
occurs in MT. As the verse now reads,
it begins and ends with llam;xu "be
withered." That it originally was
written as some adequate parallel root such as llaDA or llam;Du rests upon
not only the needs of the acrostic pattern, but the
fact that the ancient
versions uniformly used two different words to
express the Hebrew
word(s) in question.22
As for verses 7b-8a, it seems clear that the two
lines are designed
to complement the length (3/2) and structure of
the teth lines:
Good
(better) is Yahweh as (than) a fortress zOfmAl; hvAhy; bOF
in the day of distress hrAcA MOyB;
21 Nahum's literary style displays a
tendency to heap up numbers within a short
space, for example: n/q (1:2-3a), g (1:5), s (
22 For details, see J. M. P. Smith, Nahum, 298. For the existence of Pu’lal forms in
Hebrew, see GKC ¶55d.
58
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And
he knows those who seek refuge in him
in the overwhelming flood. rbefo
JF,w,b;U
It is evident, then, that an acrostic poem may
be seen in these
verses.23 However, in the absence
of further evidence in the Hebrew
manuscript tradition, the case for an unbroken
acrostic must remain
unproven due to the absence of a daleth in verse four. Still, the
presence of some acrostic elements does further
illustrate Nahum's
literary abilities.24
CONCLUSION
Though a myriad of other devices can be found in
the book of
Nahum,
among them the use of picturesque brevity, rhetorical ques-
tions, irony, and synecdoche,
these examples support two theses:
there was a single author to the book, one who was
conscious of his
use of genre and literary devices; and Nahum used
literary devices to
accomplish certain effects, not just to decorate an
otherwise plain
statement of God's judgment. The tropes emphasize
the terror to
Nineveh
and accentuate the blessings upon Judah; they evoke an
emotional experience of the judgment of God to
supplement the
intellectual understanding that the
book contains. Not only do the
literary devices assist and enrich the
understanding of the meaning of
the text, they are the very form and context in
which the meaning is
apprehended.25 Finally, the literary
devices in the book are patterned
to reflect the bifid thematic structure suggested
earlier.
In short, the literary devices are a necessary
and integral part of
the theme and structure of the book of Nahum, not
merely a means
of enhancing an otherwise mundane propositional
statement. Because
they are basic to the expression of Nahum's message,
they demand
that the reader respond in his totality as a human
being, not just
intellectually.
23 That there are copyists' errors in MT is
certain, as recognized by biblical scholars
of all persuasions. See, for example, J. Barton
Payne, "The Validity of Numbers in
Chronicles,"
JNEAS 11 (1978) 5-58; and E. Wurthwein, The Text of the Old Testa-
ment, 4th ed. (Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 1979) 105-10. However, no essential
doctrine
is in any way impaired by these relatively few examples
of textual corruption, and the
essential trustworthiness of the Scriptures
remains unassailable!
24 One may hold that Nahum himself may have
composed the hymn of praise or
may have adapted it from earlier material.
25 For the statement that metaphor, as an
example of a trope, constitutes meaning,
see Paul Ricoeur,
"The Metaphorical Process as Cognition, Imagination, and Feeling,"
On Metaphor ,ed. Sheldon Sacks (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 1979) 141-57.
Ricoeur's thesis is that metaphor creates meaning,
rather than embellishing it.
This
material is cited with gracious permission from:
Grace
Theological Seminary
www.grace.edu
Please
report any errors to Ted Hildebrandt at:
thildebrandt@gordon.edu