Chapter 1

1:2 - God is jealous, gets furious (contrary to Is.27:4 in which God says, "Fury is not in me"), and takes "vengeance on his adversaries.

* God can exercise His wrath and judgment.  God can also exercise His mercy and grace.  In Isaiah 27:4, God is mentioning His mercy and grace.  In Nahum 1:2, He is mentioning His wrath and vengeance.  God has a multi-faceted character.  He is not one-dimensional.

1:5 - The mountains quake, the hills melt, and the earth burns -- all because of God.

* This passage is describing how the Earth submits itself to God.  It trembles at the presence of God because God is the all-powerful Creator.  The things mentioned here are metaphors for earthquakes and volcanic activity.  Incidentally, this passage also foreshadows the final judgment of the Earth.

1:7 - This says God is good to those in need, but elsewhere, the Bible says otherwise.

* This passage is describing how God is a refuge for those who love Him.  See "Special Questions" for more on this.

1:12, 15 - Despite what God says, Judah does indeed fall prey to the armies of the "wicked" again: Babylonians invade in a few decades.

* Verse 12 is referring to one thing and verse 15 is referring to another.  Verse 12 is referring to the angel of the Lord that would cut down God's enemies.  See 2 Kings 19:35.

* Verse 15 is referring to Ninevah and the Assyrians.  They would be utterly destroyed.  This prophecy came to pass.

Chapter 2

2:7 - Huzzab was an Assyrian fertility god. Yet another example of the Bible's religious intolerance.

* The true, Creator God does not respect other gods that drive His people away from Him.  These other gods, like Huzzab, simply hurt and divide His people.

2:10 - There is "much pain in all loins."

* This Hebrew word translated "loins" is better translated "every side."

2:13 - God will burn chariots, devour the young lions with a sword, cut off the prey, and kill the messengers.

* God is announcing His wrath on Assyria. The Assyrians had sinned greatly and they did not repent. Therefore, they were going to be judged severely by God.

Chapter 3

3:3 - "There is a multitude of slain, and a great number of carcases; and there is none end of their corpses; they stumble upon their corpses." Now that's a lot of dead people.

* This is correct.  Verses 1 and 2 describe why.  The first two chapters also describe why.

3:4-6 - God will "discover thy skirts upon thy face, ... show the nations thy nakedness" and "will cast abominable filth upon thee."

* This is a metaphor for saying God sees their sins and they will be revealed and judged.

3:10 - No's, or Thebes', children "were dashed into pieces."

* This is a historical account of what happened to these people.

3:13 - In the middle of his threats and insults God says, "Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women." I guess this ("You're all just a bunch of women.") was the biggest insult God could think of at the moment.

* This verse is better understood with verse 12, too.  God is telling them that their strongholds are shaken and weak.  All of the people, even the men, are like women.  Whether we like it or not, there are many differences between men and women.  God is clearly stating that the men had become physically weak; like women are physically weaker than men.

3:15 - God says that "the fire shall devour thee, the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm."

* This is correct.  This was part of God's righteous judgment and it was fulfilled.

3:19 - Applause at the defeat of your enemy? It may seem justified here, but what of "Love your enemies?" This verse seems to conflict with Luke 6:35.

* This passage is simply stating that because of Ninevah's "continual wickedness," which encompassed them and was imposed on others, God's people will celebrate when they are gone (after God judges them for their sin).  God never told His people to rejoice about Ninevah's destruction.  He simply said they would rejoice.  Incidentally, when oppressed people rejoice that wicked, pagan, oppressors are gone, it isn't necessarily hating their enemies.  It is a display of relief.

* Luke 6:35 isn't referring to the wicked people of Ninevah.  Therefore, these aren't conflicting passages.  In Luke 6:35, Jesus is telling His audience that they should love their enemies and do good to them.  This doesn't mention anything about God's judgment.