Verses 15-19
III. NINEVEH’S DESTRUCTION DESCRIBED 1:15-3:19
This second major part of Nahum contains another introduction and four descriptions of Nineveh’s destruction. Having revealed general statements about Yahweh’s judgment, Nahum next communicated more specific descriptions of Nineveh’s demise. As in the previous section, he also gave promises of Israel’s restoration.
"Nahum portrays [the] siege, reproduces its horrors and its savagery, its cruelties and mercilessness, in language so realistic that one is able to see it and feel it. First comes the fighting in the suburbs. Then the assault upon the walls. Then the capture of the city and its destruction." [Note: Raymond Calkins, The Modern Message of the Minor Prophets, p. 82.]
The section begins, as the first major one did (cf. Nahum 1:2-8), with an emphasis on Yahweh who contrasts with the human destroyer of Nineveh. Humans can destroy, but it takes Yahweh to deliver. This section is also chiastic, as was Nahum 1:9-14.
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