Nachum HaNavi
680 BCE–610 BCE · Biblical · Jerusalem
Nachum of Elkosh (Nahum) devoted his whole book to a single subject: the coming fall of Nineveh, capital of the Assyrian empire that had destroyed the Northern Kingdom and dominated Judah for a century. Its title reads 'A pronouncement on Nineveh: the book of the prophecy of Nahum the Elkoshite' (Nahum 1:1). He pictures the city's ruin with vivid force and asks who will mourn it (Nahum 3:7), recalling that Egyptian Thebes, 'No-amon', had fallen too despite its water defences (Nahum 3:8). For Judah the message is relief: a herald on the hills calls, 'Celebrate your festivals, O Judah' (Nahum 2:1). Scholars date the book between Thebes' fall in 663 BCE and Nineveh's fall in 612 BCE; Seder Olam places him in the reign of King Menashe. Where Elkosh was is unknown. Proposals range from Galilee to the town of Alqosh in northern Iraq, where a tomb of Nahum is venerated.
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JerusalemירושליםJudea
What they did here
The book never names where Nachum lived; it addresses Judah directly ('Celebrate your festivals, O Judah', Nahum 2:1). This pin to Judah's capital is a scholarly inference, not a stated fact. His hometown Elkosh (Nahum 1:1) cannot be located.
Jerusalem in this era
In the Hebrew Bible, David takes Jerusalem from the Jebusites and makes it his capital, Solomon builds the First Temple there, and Nehemiah rebuilds its walls after the return from Babylon; in 164 BCE Judah Maccabee rededicated the Temple, the origin of Hanukkah. Archaeologists debate how large the city was in the 10th century BCE; it is well attested as the capital of Judah by the 8th century BCE, and Babylon destroyed it in 586 BCE.
About Jerusalem
Jerusalem, in the Judean hills, is a sacred city for Jews, Christians and Muslims. In the Hebrew Bible it is King David's capital and the site of Solomon's Temple; the First Temple was destroyed by Babylon in 586 BCE and the Second Temple, rebuilt from about 516 BCE, by Rome in 70 CE. Christians revere it as the place of Jesus's crucifixion and, in their faith, his resurrection; in Islamic tradition it is the destination of the Prophet Muhammad's Night Journey and the first direction of prayer, marked by the Dome of the Rock (691-92) and al-Aqsa Mosque. It was ruled in turn by Rome and Byzantium, by Muslim dynasties from 638, by Crusaders (1099-1187), Ayyubids, Mamluks and Ottomans (1517-1917), and by Britain. Divided between Israel and Jordan from 1948 to 1967, it has since been under Israeli control. Israel regards the city as its capital; Palestinians claim East Jerusalem as the capital of a future state; most countries do not recognize sovereignty over the whole city.
In Jerusalem at the same time
King of Judah, Chuldah HaNeviah, Tzefaniah HaNavi, King of Judah, Gedaliah ben Achikam
In the same place & time
Sages whose lives overlapped with Nachum HaNavi’s in the same cities, drawn from their recorded journeys.
In the same tradition
King of Judah, Chuldah HaNeviah, Tzefaniah HaNavi, King of Judah, Gedaliah ben Achikam
The world in their lifetime
Thinkers and teachers of other traditions whose lives overlapped with Nachum HaNavi’s — a glimpse of the wider world they lived in. Drawn purely from recorded birth and death years.
Graeco-Roman world
Works
No works attributed in the corpus yet.