by
Damien F. Mackey
A further possible extension of holy Job, now as the
prophet Nahum.
This article pre-supposes my:
in which I had identified the
prophet Job with Tobias, the son of Tobit.
The possibility of a connection
between the prophet Job and the obscure prophet Nahum occurred to me only as
late as 8th May, 2014.
Nahum is similarly, like Job (qua Job), quite lacking in genealogical
details – though I believe that we learn a lot more about Job from the
biographical information supplied in Tobit 1.
For Nahum, as for Job (qua Job), we do not have even the usual
patronymic; and nor is any tribe ascribed to Nahum (to Job).
So, with all of these
negatives, what might be the points for comparison?
The Prophet’s Name
The Book of Nahum contains the “vision
of Nahum” (1:1), “whose name”, we find (http://www.biblestudytools.com/nahum/) “means “comfort” … Nineveh’s fall, which is Nahum’s
theme, would bring comfort to Judah.)”. So far so good, but then this same
article goes on to deliver the bad news that: “Nothing is known about [Nahum] except
his hometown (Elkosh), and even its general location is uncertain”.
It is highly conceivable that
Tobit’s son, Tobias, whose name I think pertains to ‘Abdias, Hebrew ‘Obadiah,
“Servant of Yahweh”, a common name for an official, might have been re-named
Nahum/Nehemiah, “The Lord comforts”, at the end of his trials, as Job, when he
was, as we read, “comforted and consoled” (42:10-11):
After Job had prayed for his friends, the Lord restored
his fortunes and gave him twice as much as he had before. All his brothers and
sisters and everyone who had known him before came and ate with him in his
house. They comforted and consoled
him over all the trouble the Lord had brought on him, and each one gave him a
piece of silver and a gold ring.
The Prophet’s
Location
According to a tradition,
Elkosh was in Simeonite territory and so Nahum would have belonged to this
tribe; a view that I had pursued, but to no great ultimate effect in hindsight,
in my thesis:
A Revised History of the Era of King Hezekiah of Judah
and its Background
even to the extent of my having
painstakingly compared, in Hebrew,
the entire Book of Nahum to what I considered to be like passages in the Book
of Isaiah (Isaiah himself I do believe to have been a Simeonite).
Far more promising, I now
believe, is the opinion that Nahum’s “Elkosh” stands for Al Qosh (Qush), a town
situated in northern Iraq, about 25 miles north of modern day Mosul, a city
that is across the Tigris River from Nineveh. Thus, suiting my new theory, the
prophet Nahum would have been a descendant of the northern exiles taken to
Assyria in 722 B.C. (conventional dating). His tomb has in fact long been
honoured at that very site of Al Qosh (http://www.myjewishlearning.com/holidays/Jewish_Holidays/Shavuot). {I shall say more on the tomb later}. A location for
Nahum in Assyrian Mesopotamia would give added emphasis, too, to the prophet’s
preoccupation with Assyria and Nineveh.
The Prophet’s Era
Whilst commentators are
generally unable to locate the proper era for Job, there is far greater
certainty attached to that of Nahum, who recorded the destruction of Thebes, or
“No-Amon”, known to have occurred at the hands of king Ashurbanipal of Assyria,
in c. 663 BC (conventional dating). Nahum 3:8: “Are you [Nineveh] better than
No-Amon, which was situated by the waters of the Nile, with water surrounding
her, whose rampart was the sea, whose wall consisted of the sea?” Despite the
fact that Thebes was not actually by the Sea, Nahum’s description can be
properly understood with reference to the Book of Job, for (http://biblehub.com/topical/n/no-amon.htm): “The description of No-amon in Nahum 3:8 seems to be that of a delta
city, but yam, "sea" in that passage is used poetically for the Nile,
as in Job 41:31 …”.
Nahum,
Nineveh and Those Nasty Assyrians
….
The Date of the Book of Nahum
Scholars have long debated the date of the book of Nahum.
A wide range of dates has been suggested, from the eighth century BC (Feinberg
1951:126, 148) to the Maccabean period, early second century BC (Haupt 1907).
Yet, the book gives us internal chronological parameters to date the book.
Nahum describes the conquest of Thebes (No-Amon) by Ashurbanipal II in 663 BC
as a past event, thus the book could not have been written before that date.
The entire book is a prediction of the fall of the city of Nineveh in 612 BC. Thus,
the book was written somewhere between 663 and 612 BC.
A case can be made for the proclamation of the message,
and writing of the book, about 650 BC. If this is the correct date, the Spirit
of God used this book to put King Manasseh into a position where he could come
to faith and bring Judah back to the LORD. Up until this point in the reign of
King Manasseh, the kingdom, led by the king, was “more evil than the nations
whom the LORD had destroyed before the children of Israel” (2 Chr 33:9). The
LORD sent seers (prophets) to speak to the nation, but the nation would not
listen to the Word of God (33:10, 18). While not named, one of the seers was
probably Nahum.
The aged Tobit had also talked of “prophets” having been
sent, but in this case regarding “Nineveh and Assyria”. And Tobit, too,
supposedly mentions “Nahum”, though I myself would favour here the version of
the Book of Tobit that gives, instead of Nahum, “Jonah” (Tobit 14:3-4):
But just before Tobit died, he sent for his son Tobias
and told him, ‘My son, take your children and go at once to Media. I believe
that God's judgment which his prophet Nahum [read Jonah] announced against
Nineveh is about to take place. Everything that God's prophets told Israel
about Nineveh and Assyria will happen. It will all come true, every word of it,
when the right time comes. I am absolutely convinced that everything God has
said is sure to come true. God does not break his promises. It will be safer
for you in Media than in Assyria or Babylon’.
…. The world of Tobit is, first of all, the world of
biblical literature and history. Not only does the book provide an elaborate
description of the religious deterioration of the Northern Kingdom in the
eighth century, and then the deportation and consequent social conditions of
those tribes after 722, but it explicitly … makes reference (14:4) to the
preaching of Jonah at Nineveh…. Tobit thus presupposes the history narrated in
Kings, Chronicles, and the eighth-century prophets.
Tobit’s explicit reference to Jonah is of considerable
interest in the light of certain affinities between the two books. First and
second, both stories take place about the same time … and both in Mesopotamia.
Third, both accounts involve a journey. Fourth, the distressed Tobit, like
Jonah, prays to die. Fifth and most strikingly, his son Tobias encounters a
fish that attempts—with less success than Jonah’s fish—to swallow him! Finally,
in each book the fish serves as a special instrument of Divine Providence.
Besides Jonah, Tobit shows several remarkable affinities
to the Book of Job, some of which were noted rather early in Christian
exegesis. For example, the title characters of both works shared a zeal for
purity of life, almsgiving, and other deeds of charity (Job 1 and 31; Tobit
1–2), patient endurance of trials sent by God … a deep weariness of life itself
(Job 7:15; Tobit 3:6), a final vindication by the Lord at the end of each book,
and perhaps even a common hope of the resurrection…. As early as Cyprian in the
third century, it was also noted that both men were similarly mocked by wives
unable to appreciate their virtue and faith in God. ….
Now, returning to the article, “Nahum, Nineveh and Those Nasty Assyrians”:
[Nahum’s] vision concerning the total destruction of
Nineveh would be seen by the Assyrian overlords as fomenting rebellion and
insurrection, and possibly seen as support for Shamash-shum-ukin, the king of
Babylon, in his current civil war with his brother Ashurbanipal II. If a copy
of the book of Nahum fell into the hands of the Assyrian intelligence community
stationed at the Assyrian administrative centers of Samaria, Dor, Megiddo or
Hazor, King Manasseh would have had to give account for this book. The Biblical
record states, the LORD brought upon them [Judah] the captains of the army of
the king of Assyria, who took Manasseh with hooks, bound him with bronze
fetters, and carried him off to Babylon (2 Chr 33:11).
This event would have transpired in 648 BC, the year that
Ashurbanipal II temporarily ruled Babylon after he eliminated his brother as a
result of the four-year civil war (Rainey 1993:160).
Dragging someone off with hooks in their nose would be in
keeping with Ashurbanipal’s character. In the excavations of Sam’al (Zincirli,
in southern Turkey) a stela was found depicting Esarhaddon holding two leashes
attached to the nose-rings of Baal of Tyre and Usanahuru, a crown prince of
Egypt (see front cover). Flanking the stela, watching intently, is Esarhaddon’s
son Ashurbanipal on the left and his brother Samas-sumu-ukin on the right.
Ashurbanipal observed his father’s brutality and followed his example (Parpola
and Watanabe 1988:20, 21).
During Manasseh’s interrogation by Ashurbanipal II (and
it must have been a brutal one—the text used the word “afflicted”).
He implored the LORD his God, and humbled himself greatly
before the God of his fathers, and prayed to Him; and He received his entreaty,
heard his supplication, and brought him back to Jerusalem into his kingdom.
Then Manasseh knew that the LORD was God (2 Chr 33:12–13).
What we find is that this King Manasseh of Judah, upon
his return from Babylon, embarked upon restorative building works, including an
“outer wall of the City of David, west of the Gihon spring in the valley, as
far as the entrance of the Fish Gate and encircling the hill of Ophel; he also
made it much higher” (2 Chronicles 33:14). And, according to the Nahum article:
“This activity was in accord with what Nahum had challenged the people to do”:
Upon his return to Jerusalem, Manasseh began building
projects in the city as well as elsewhere in Judah and removed the idols and
altars he had placed in the Temple (2 Chr 33:14–15).
He also repaired the altar of the LORD, sacrificed peace
offerings and thanks offerings on it, and commanded Judah to serve the LORD God
of Israel (33:16).
This activity was in accord with what Nahum had
challenged the people to do.
Behold, on the mountains, the feet of him who brings good
tidings, who proclaims peace! O Judah, keep your appointed feast, perform your
vows. For the wicked one shall no more pass through; he is utterly cut off
(1:15).
The challenge was for Judeans to renew their pilgrimages
to Jerusalem for the thrice-yearly feasts of Pesach (Passover), Shav’uot
(Pentecost) and Succoth (Tabernacles) (Ex 23:14–17; 34:22–24; Dt 16:16, 17).
There was also a command for the remnant that faithfully prayed to the LORD
desiring to bring the nation back to Biblical worship and to bring the king to
the LORD. They were to perform the vow they had made to the LORD. The Bible
records a half-hearted attempt to return to Biblical worship, “Nevertheless,
the people still sacrificed on the high places, but only to the LORD their God”
(2 Chr 33:17). The only true place of worship was the Temple in Jerusalem, not
the high places.
But is not this belief in Jerusalem’s Temple as “only
true place of worship” pure Tobit,
who recalls (1:4-9; cf. ch. 13)?:
In my young days, when I was still at home in the land of
Israel, the whole tribe of Naphtali my ancestor broke away from the House of
David and from Jerusalem, though this was the city chosen out of all the tribes
of Israel for their sacrifices; here, the Temple -- God's dwelling-place -- had
been built and hollowed for all generations to come.
All my brothers and the House of Naphtali sacrificed on
every hill-top in Galilee to the calf that Jeroboam king of Israel had made at
Dan.
Often I was quite alone in making the pilgrimage to
Jerusalem, fulfilling the Law that binds all Israel perpetually. I would hurry
to Jerusalem with the first yield of fruits and beasts, the tithe of cattle and
the sheep's first shearings.
I would give these to the priests, the sons of Aaron, for
the altar. To the Levites ministering at Jerusalem I would give my tithe of wine
and corn, olives, pomegranates and other fruits. Six years in succession I took
the second tithe in money and went and paid it annually at Jerusalem.
I gave the third to orphans and widows and to the
strangers who live among the Israelites; I brought it them as a gift every
three years. When we ate, we obeyed both the ordinances of the law of Moses and
the exhortations of Deborah the mother of our ancestor Ananiel; for my father
had died and left me an orphan. ….
Getting back again to the Nahum article, reasons are now
given as to why some scholars would locate the prophet to Al Qosh (Qush) near
Nineveh:
Nahum prophesied the destruction of Nineveh, the capital
of the sole superpower, at the zenith of Assyria’s power and glory. He boldly
proclaimed a message that was not popular, nor “politically correct.” In fact,
most Judeans would think his prediction of the downfall of Nineveh impossible.
….
Nahum was from Elkosh (Na 1:1). Some scholars have
suggested [Elkosh] was located at the village of Al-Qush … across the Tigris
River from Nineveh. These scholars take this position because: (1) the names
are similar, (2) the local Christian tradition holds that Nahum was from there
and his tomb was there, and (3) Nahum’s writings show his familiarity with the city
of Nineveh. Some speculate that Nahum was an Israelite captive who lived in the
area and was an eyewitness to the city.
There is, however, the possibility that Elkosh was in
southern Judah and Nahum was part of the Judean emissary that brought the yearly
tribute from King Manasseh to Nineveh.
[End of quote]
Whilst I would entirely accept for Nahum’s home the Al
Qush in Iraq, rather than some vague Judaean location, I should not, however,
rule out the possibility also that the prophet Nahum (as Tobias/Job) may have
had something of a roving commission on behalf of the king of Assyria, in the
same way that his father Tobit apparently had once had, when serving the
earlier Assyrian king, “Shalmaneser” (Tobit 1:12-14):
And because I had kept faith with my God with my whole
heart, the Most High granted me the favour of Shalmaneser, and I became the
king's purveyor. Until his death I used to travel to Media, where I transacted
business on his behalf, and I deposited sacks of silver worth ten talents with
Gabael the brother of Gabrias at Rhages in Media.
{Tobit’s “Media” was, according to my Job article,
“Midian”, or the Bashan area}.
The Douay version of Tobit 1:14 seems to represent King
Shalmaneser (“Salmanasar”) as having allowed Tobit virtually total discretionary freedom:
“And
[Shalmaneser] gave [Tobit] leave to go whithersoever he would, with liberty to
do whatever he had a mind”.
That Tobias had himself been highly respected in Nineveh
even in his youth, at least among the captives, may perhaps be gauged from the
account of his and Sarah’s wedding there (11:17-18): “On this day joy came to
all the Jews who were in Nineveh. Ahikar and Nadab, Tobit's nephews, were also
there, rejoicing with Tobit. And Tobias' wedding feast was celebrated joyfully
for seven days”.
The Nahum article continues:
While in Nineveh, [Nahum] would have observed the broad
roads (Na 2:4), walls (2:5), gates (2:6), temples and idols (1:14), and its
vast wealth (2:9). I’m sure the minister of propaganda would have shown him the
wall reliefs in Ashurbanipal’s residence! These reliefs were intended “as
propaganda to impress, intimidate and instigate by representing the might of
Assyrian power and the harsh punishment of rebels” (Comelius 1989:56). Or, as
Esarhaddon would say, “For the gaze of all my foes, to the end of days, I set
it [stela] up” (Luckenbill 1989:2:227).
Let us examine the
reliefs from the British Museum that were found on the walls of Ashurbanipal’s
palace and see how they illustrate the word-pictures used by Nahum in his book.
Blasphemy against Assur (Na 1:14)
In 650 BC, Nahum would have seen the newly opened Room 33
in the Southwest Palace of Nineveh (Sennacherib’s “palace without rival”) with
the reliefs depicting the campaign against Teumman of Elam and Dunanu of
Gambula in 633 BC. One Particular relief would have caught his attention. On
it, Elamite captives are shown being tortured. The caption above stated, “Mr.
(blank) and Mr. (blank) spoke great insults against Assur, the god, my creator.
Their tongues I tore out, their skins I flayed” (Russell 1999:180; Gerardi
1988:31). These two individuals are identified in Ashurbanipal’s annals as
Mannu-ki-ahhe and Nabuusalli (Russell 1999:163).
The prophet Job too, man of vast experience as he was,
had witnessed such things (Job 13:1): “My eyes have seen all this …”. All what
things? “All this” (Job 12:17-25):
[God] leads rulers away stripped and makes fools of
judges. He takes off the shackles put on by kings and ties a loincloth around
their waist. He leads priests away stripped and overthrows officials long
established. He silences the lips of trusted advisers and takes away the
discernment of elders. He pours contempt on nobles and disarms the mighty. He
reveals the deep things of darkness and brings utter darkness into the light. He
makes nations great, and destroys them; he enlarges nations, and disperses
them. He deprives the leaders of the earth of their reason; he makes them
wander in a trackless waste. They grope in darkness with no light; he makes
them stagger like drunkards.
Whilst the Nahum article would have the prophet, in his
first chapter, boldly proclaiming destruction to Assyria around c. 650 BC, at
the time of king Ashurbanipal, some of Nahum’s invective may well have been
directed towards an earlier period, when the blasphemous king of Assyria,
Sennacherib, sent his Commander-in-Chief against the west (including Israel).
Nahum 1:15: “Belial shall no longer pass through thee; he is utterly cut off”.
For a reconstruction of this campaign, see my Achior
articles:
Ahikar Part One: As a Young
Officer for Assyria.
and
Ahikar Part Two: As a Convert to Yahwism.
and
“Nadin went into
everlasting darkness”.
Tobias/Job (= Nahum), as a cousin of the Ahikar (Achior of the Book of Judith) who had
played such an important part in the whole episode, would thus himself have
been fully aware of the famous historical incident that had culminated in
Judith’s victory.
The Nahum article continues:
It was with great boldness that Nahum proclaimed,
The LORD has given a command concerning you [the king of
Assyria]: “Your name shall be perpetuated no longer. Out of the house of your
gods I will cut off the carved image and molded image. I will dig your grave,
for you are vile” (1:14).
These words were a direct attack on Assur and the rest of
the Assyrian deities, as well as the king. Yet Nahum boldly proclaimed the
message God gave him, in spite of the potential threat to his life!
Similarly, Tobit’s charitable zeal had led to his having
had to flee for his very life from the wrath of Sennacherib (Tobit 1:18-20).
The Fall of Nineveh
What would incline me to prefer my combined Nahum as
Tobias/Job, rather than Nahum as Job’s cousin, Ahikar/Achior, is the fact that
Nahum had apparently lived to witness the Fall of Nineveh (conventionally dated
to 612 BC), an event that had occurred late during the reign of King Josiah of
Judah (c. 641-609 BC).
Why?
Because we learn from the Book of Tobit that Tobias (my
Nahum) himself had lived long enough to have witnessed it. This fact is
narrated in the last chapter of the book, just after we learn about Tobit’s own
death and burial. Note here, firstly, how old Tobit berates wicked Nineveh in
terms that would be right at home in the Book of Nahum (Tobit 14:9-10,
11-15):
'So then, my son, leave Nineveh, do not stay here. As
soon as you have buried your mother next to me, go the same day, whenever it
may be, and do not linger in this country where I see wickedness and perfidy
unashamedly triumphant. …’.
They laid him back on his bed; he died and was buried
with honour. When his mother died, Tobias buried her beside his father.
Then he left for Media with his wife and children. He
lived in Ecbatana with Raguel, his father-in-law. He treated the ageing parents
of his wife with every care and respect, and later buried them in Ecbatana in
Media. Tobias inherited the patrimony of Raguel besides that of his father
Tobit.
Much honoured, he lived to the age of a hundred and
seventeen years.
Before he died he witnessed the ruin of Nineveh. He saw
the Ninevites taken prisoner and deported to Media by Cyaxares king of Media.
He blessed God for everything he inflicted on the Ninevites and Assyrians.
Before his death he had the opportunity of rejoicing over the fate of Nineveh,
and he blessed the Lord God for ever and ever. Amen.
This is where Tobias, having fled Nineveh with his family
for “Media”, that is (Midian) Bashan (“land of Uz”), morphs into the Job who
will there be so sorely tried. And from where he will, as an aged man,
reminisce upon his glorious former career perhaps as a high official for
Assyria. Not that every one of Job’s trials must needs have occurred in that
same Palestinian location, however. For, though the text of Job as it is
typically translated thrice reads, in the space of three verses (1:16, 17 and
18): “While he was still speaking, yet another messenger came and said …”, as
if Job’s calamities had befallen the poor man all at once, that does not happen
in real life (though people can admittedly experience a sudden run of
misfortune). As I have noted in previous articles, the Hebrew here can be
rendered along the lines of, “while this was still fresh in human memory”.
Actual years may have elapsed between at least some of
these calamities.
Another point that needs comment is the discrepancy
between the figure of 117 for the age of Tobias at death, as given in the quote
above, and the age given for him as the prophet Job (42:16): “After this, Job
lived a hundred and forty years; he saw his children and their children to the
fourth generation”. But that the figures are uncertain in both cases is
apparent from the fact that, for Tobias, it varies from this 117 (Good News), to
127 (King James), whilst Job’s 140 years is rendered in the LXX as Job living
170 years after his misfortune, for a total life span of 240 years.
What appears certain is that our composite prophet had
lived for well over 100 years.
The Nahum article proceeds to describe the Fall of
Nineveh:
Chariots, Not Volkswagens! (Na 2:3, 4)
The second chapter of Nahum describes the fall of the
city of Nineveh to the Babylonians and Medes in 612 BC. He describes in detail
the shields, chariots and spears of the Assyrian foes. While we do not have any
contemporary Babylonian reliefs of their chariots, there are Assyrian reliefs
of Assyrian chariots riding furiously. These chariots are depicted on the
reliefs of the Assyrians attacking the Arabs.
Nahum mentions the broad roads of Nineveh. Ashurbanipal’s
grandfather, Sennacherib, was the one who improved the streets of Nineveh. In
the “Bellino cylinder” he boasts,
I [Sennacherib] widened its [Nineveh’s] squares, made
bright the avenues and streets and caused them to shine like the day (1:61).
In the context of the book, Nahum sees a vision of
chariots in the streets of Nineveh, not Volkswagens, as some prophecy teachers
have speculated!
Take the Booty and Run! (Na 2:9, 10)
Nineveh was the Fort Knox of mid-seventh century BC
Mesopotamia. On every Assyrian campaign they removed the silver, gold and
precious stones and other items from the cities they sacked. When they bragged
about the booty that was taken, silver and gold always topped the list. As an
example, after the fall of No-Amon (Thebes), Ashurbanipal bragged that he took:
Silver, gold, precious stones, the goods of his palace,
all there was, brightly colored and linen garments, great horses, the people,
male and female, two tall obelisks...I removed from their positions and carried
them off to Assyria. Heavy plunder, and countless, I carried away from Ni’
[Thebes] (Luckenbill 1989, 2:296, ¶778).
There are also reliefs of Assyrian scribes writing down
the booty that was taken from other cities.
In Nahum’s vision he heard someone say,
Take spoil of silver! Take spoil of gold! These is no end
of treasure, or wealth of every desirable prize. She is empty, desolate and
waste! (2:9, 10a).
….
The Lion Hunt (Na 2:11–13)
David Dorsey, in his outstanding book, The Literary
Structure of the Old Testament (1999:301–305), places the lion’s den verses
(2:11–13) at the center of the book’s chiastic structure. In commenting on the
pattern of the structure he says,
This progression underscores the certainty of Nineveh’s
fall: Yahweh’s prophet not only believes that it will happen; he composes
dirges as though it has already happened. The placement of the eulogy over the
“lion’s den” in the book’s highlighted central position reinforces this sense
of certainty (1999:304, italics added).
Nahum used the lion and lion hunt motifs that both the
Judeans and Assyrians would have been well familiar with. The Assyrians had a
long history of depicting their king and warriors as mighty lions or great lion
hunters (Johnston 2001:296–301). The Bible also depicts the Assyrian warriors
as roaring lions (Is 5:29) and Yahweh as a lion who will tear up His prey and
carry it off to His lair (Hos 5:14, 15; 13:7, 8; Johnston 2001:294, 295).
…. Ashurbanipal II, following in the footsteps of his
predecessors, took charge of the lion hunts in order to control the lion
population (Luckenbill 1989, 2:392, ¶ 1025).
Ashurbanipal also engaged in lion hunting as a sport.
Apparently lions were captured alive and put in cages in the king’s garden in
Nineveh and used for staged lion hunts (Weissert 1997:339–58). One relief that
was found in Ashurbanipal’s palace at Nineveh, apparently from a second floor,
had three panels depicting a lion hunt. On the top panel, a lion is released
from a cage and Ashurbanipal is shooting him with arrows. The central panel is
interesting because it shows the bravery of the king. On the right side of the
panel, soldiers are distracting a lion. On the left side, Ashurbanipal sneaks
up and grabs the lion by the tail as he rears to his hind legs. The inscription
above says,
I, Ashurbanipal, king of the universe, king of Assyria,
in my lordly sport, I seized a lion of the plain by his tail and at the command
of Urta, Nergal, the gods, my allies, I smashed his skull with the club of my
hand (Luckenbill 1989, 2:391, ¶ 1023).
The king attributes his bravery to the deities. Dr. J. E.
Reade, one of the keepers of the Western Asiatic Antiquities at the British
Museum, has observed,
It is notable that much of the lion’s tail has been
chipped away, so that the lion had been, as it were, set loose; this defacement
was probably the action, at once humorous and symbolic, of some enemy soldier
busy ransacking the palace in 612 B.C. (Curtis and Reade 1995:87).
On the lower panel, Ashurbanipal is pouring out a wine
libation over the carcasses of four lions. In the inscription above, the king
boasts of his power by saying,
I, Ashurbanipal, king of the universe, king of Assyria,
whom Assur and Ninlil have endowed with surpassing might. The lions which I
slew, the terrible bow of Ishtar, lady of battle, I aimed at them. I brought an
offering, I poured out wine over them (Luckenbill 1989, 2:392, ¶ 1021).
Once again the king attributes his mighty power to the
gods, in this case Assur and Ninlil.
In contrast, Ashurbanipal boasts that kings and lions are
powerless before him. At the beginning of one of his annals (Cylinder F) he
states,
Among men, kings, and among the beasts, lions (?) were
powerless before my bow, I know (the art) of waging battle and combat...A
valiant hero, beloved of Assur and Ishtar, of royal lineage, am I (Luckenbill
1989, 2:347, ¶ 896).
Ashurbanipal has tied his lion hunting and military
conquests together in one statement.
In the vision of Nahum concerning Nineveh, Nahum asks a
rhetorical question,
Where is the dwelling of the lions, and the feeding place
of the young lions, where the lion walked, the lioness and lion’s cub, and no
one made them afraid? (2:11).
He sees Nineveh as a lions’ den that has been destroyed and
the lions are gone. The “prey” in verse 12 is apparently the booty that the
Assyrians have taken from all the cities they conquered in recent memory.
In verse 13, the LORD states directly,
Behold, I am against you. I will burn your chariots in
smoke, and the sword shall devour your young lions; I will cut off your prey
from the earth, and the voice of your messenger shall be heard no more.
God also refers to “lions” in his challenge to Job
(38:39-40; cf. 28:8): “Do you hunt the prey for the lioness and satisfy the
hunger of the lions when they crouch in their dens or lie in wait in a thicket?”
The Nahum article continues:
The phrase “the sword shall devour your young lions”
draws our attention to another relief showing Ashurbanipal thrusting a sword
through a lion. The inscription associated with this relief says,
I, Ashurbanipal, king of the universe, king of Assyria,
in my lordly sport, they let a fierce lion of the plain out of the cage and on
foot...I stabbed him later with my iron girdle dagger and he died (Luckenbill
1989, 2:392, ¶ 1024).
The book of Nahum sets forth an ironic reversal of the
Assyrian usage of the lion motif. Gordon Johnston has observed.
The extended lion metaphor in Nahum 2:11–13 includes the
two major varieties of the Neo-Assyrian lion motif: the depiction of the
Assyrian king and his warriors as mighty lions, and the royal lion hunt theme.
While the Assyrians kept these two motifs separate, Nahum dovetailed the two,
but in doing so he also reversed their original significance. While the
Assyrian warriors loved to depict themselves as mighty lions hunting their
prey, Nahum pictured them as lions that would be hunted down. The Assyrian
kings also boasted that they were mighty hunters in royal lion hunts; Nahum
pictured them as the lions being hunted in the lion hunt. By these reversals
Nahum created an unexpected twist on Assyrian usage. According to Nahum the
Assyrians were like lions, to be sure; however, not in the way that they
depicted themselves; rather than being like lions on the prowl for prey, the
hunters would become the hunted! (2001:304).
The Nahum article then proceeds to a consideration of
Nahum’s final chapter, on Nineveh:
Nineveh, a Bloody City (Na 3:1)
Nahum pronounces: “woe to the bloody city (of Nineveh)”
(3:1). The city and the Assyrian Empire had a well-earned reputation for being
bloody. Just a casual glance at the reliefs from the palaces of Sennacherib and
Ashurbanipal shows the “gory and bloodcurdling history as we know it”
(Bleibtreu. 1991:52). There are reliefs with people being impaled, decapitated,
flayed, and tongues pulled out. Other reliefs show the Assyrians making people
grind the bones of their dead ancestors, and even vultures plucking out the
eyes of the dead!
One panel graphically shows their disrespect for human
life. On it, a commander is presenting a bracelet to an Assyrian soldier who
had decapitated the five or six heads at his feet. There are two scribes behind
him recording the event. This bracelet, perhaps a medal of valor, is worth five
or six lives! In Assyrian thinking, life was cheap.
Countless Corpses (Na 3:3)
There is an old adage that says, “What goes around, comes
around.” The Bible would use an agricultural metaphor, “You reap what you sow”
(cf. Gal 6:7). This is true in the geo-political realm as well as the personal
realm. The Assyrians, over their long history, were brutal and barbaric people.
Yet there came a point in history where God said, “Enough is enough,” and He
removed the offending party (Na 2:13; 3:4).
Nineveh fell in 612 BC, yet it wasn’t until the 1989 and
1990 seasons of the University of California, Berkeley excavations in the Halzi
Gate that graphic evidence of the final battle of Nineveh was revealed. Upwards
of 16 bodies were excavated in the gate, all slain (Stronach and Lumsden
1992:227–33; Stronach 1997:315–19). Archaeological excavations have vividly
confirmed the words of the Biblical text.
Horsemen charge with bright sword and glittering spear.
There is a multitude of slain, a great number of bodies, countless corpses—they
stumble over the corpses (Na 3:3).
[End of quotes]
Conclusion
My reconstructed Job, as Tobias son of Tobit, whose life
began in the neo-Assyrian era approximately during the early reign of
Sennacherib, and who must have (given his long life) continued down to at least
the reign of King Josiah of Judah - when the sorely afflicted Job encountered
the young Jeremiah, as Elihu (I
believe):
Does the Prophet
Jeremiah Figure in the Book of Job?
and
A Case for
Multi-identifying the Prophet Jeremiah
- and downwards
even further, to very late in the reign of this same Josiah, when Nineveh fell
(c. 612 BC, conventional dating), was a contemporary of the prophet Nahum,
whose writings we have determined spanned the approximate period from
Ashurbanipal’s destruction of Thebes (c. 663 BC) to the Fall of Nineveh (c. 612
BC).
