Nahum 1:1

1. The title. The first part names the subject of the prophecy.

Burden of Nineveh Better, with R.V. margin, “oracle concerning Nineveh” (compare Isaiah 13:1; Zechariah 9:1). The noun is derived from a verb “to lift up,” that is, the voice, or “to take up,” that is, a parable or speech (Numbers 24:3; Jeremiah 7:16), hence “utterance” or “oracle.” The second part names the author and his home.

Nahum the Elkoshite See Introduction, pp. 426ff.

Vision Primarily this noun denoted only those revelations which were received in visions or trances (Genesis 15:1; Ezekiel 11:24), but it underwent a process of generalization, so that it came to denote revelations of every kind, whatever the method by which they were received. Finally it came to be used so here in the headings of the prophetic books (compare Isaiah 1:1; Isaiah 2:1; Obadiah 1:1) as a collective noun in the sense of “ prophetic utterances.” Concerning the origin of this twofold title A.B. Davidson says that the first part “is probably due to the editor of the book, as the phrase is common in introducing prophecies.… The other part… may very well have come from the prophet himself.”