Prophet Nahum

Nahum is one of the Twelve Minor Prophets of the Old Testament, the author of the short prophetic book that bears his name. By tradition he is called "the Elkoshite," after the village of Elkosh; Orthodox tradition places this in Galilee, while other traditions locate it in northern Mesopotamia. His name is understood to mean "God consoles" or "comfort," from the Hebrew verb meaning "to comfort." He is commemorated by the Orthodox Church on December 1.

Nahum is reckoned the seventh of the Twelve Minor Prophets, his book standing between those of Micah and Habakkuk. He is dated to the seventh century B.C., a period framed by the height and decline of the Assyrian Empire. His prophecy is directed almost entirely against Nineveh, the Assyrian capital, whose ruin he foretold on account of its iniquity, together with the destruction it had brought upon the kingdom of Israel and the blasphemy of King Sennacherib against God.

Nahum differs from most of the prophets in that his book issues no call to repentance and contains no denunciation of Israel for infidelity to God; it is concerned instead with the judgment coming upon Nineveh, expressed in vivid poetic imagery of the city's downfall. According to the tradition recorded in the synaxarion, he died at the age of forty-five and was buried in his native region.