The fall of Nineveh, which occurred in 632 B.C.E., was still future when Nahum recorded his prophecy, and he compares this event to the fall of No-amon (Thebes, in Egypt) that took place shortly before this. (3:8) Hence, Nahum must have written his prophecy sometime during this period.

5. What proves the authenticity of Nahum’s prophecy?

⁵ The authenticity of Nahum’s prophecy is proved by the accuracy of its fulfillment. In Nahum’s day, who else but a prophet of Jehovah would have dared to forecast that the proud capital of the Assyrian world power could be breached at the “gates of the rivers,” her palace be dissolved, and she herself become “emptiness and voidness, and a city laid waste”? (2:6-10) The events that followed showed that the prophecy was indeed inspired of God. The annals of the Babylonian king Nabopolassar describe the capture of Nineveh by the Medes and the Babylonians: “The city [they turned] into ruin-hills and hea[ps (of debris) . . . ].”b So complete was the ruin of Nineveh that even its site was forgotten for many centuries. Some critics came to ridicule the Bible on this point, saying that Nineveh could never have existed.