Chapter 1. Declaration of Judgment on Assyria and Deliverance for God's People.
‘The burden of Nineveh. The book of the vision of Nahum the Elkoshite.'
‘The burden of Nineveh' - prophecy was not easy, it came as a burden on the prophets as they had to speak of dreadful events. They carried the weight of God's wrath and men's misdeeds on their shoulder. That is ever the lot of the true people of God. The burden came by way of vision. In this case it concerned the destruction of Nineveh, that great capital city of Assyria, which since the time of Sennacherib had ruled the world. It had been extended and beautified through the suffering and deaths of many thousands of slaves at work on its buildings. It was the consequence of the ruination and devastation of many countries. It was based on a policy of transferring of large numbers of peoples from their homelands to exist in foreign countries which were strange to them, so as to keep them pacified. And it was a result of draining the wealth of the nations.
The prophecy is said to have been specifically written in book form, and to consist of a vision given by God to Nahum the Elkoshite. The name Nahum was fairly common, and is born witness to extensively in North-Western Semitic languages and probably means ‘full of comfort'. The message he brought was one of comfort to the world in the light of what Assyria had been. We do not really know where Elkosh was, but it was probably in Judah.