Nahum (Nâ'hum), consolation. One of the twelve minor prophets. In Nahum 1:1 he is called an Elkoshite. Some refer this name to a place in Galilee, others to a village on the Tigris. The intimate acquaintance the book shows with Syrian affairs makes it probable that Nahum lived an exile in Assyria, and perhaps at the village on the Tigris. Nahum prophesied before the destruction of Nineveh, which he predicts, and probably in the reign of Hezekiah.
Book of. It is a poem of great sublimity, and admirable for the elegance of its imagery. It describes with much beauty and poetic force the siege and destruction of Nineveh as a punishment for her wickedness. Nah. chaps. 2 and 3.