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The article investigates the possible what socio-historical circumstances that generated Nah 1:9. It concludes that the possibility that Nah 1:9 was generated from the prophet’s bid to persuade a group of Judean skeptics who were reluctant to support Josiah’s revolt against the Neo-Assyrian empire in its time of weakness for fear that the empire could return to the political scene and deal harshly with rebels. If we consider the possibilities surrounding Judah around this period from our vantage point in history, we might see that these Judeans were just being cautious. Their fears had rational bases: they were temporally too close to the collapse of the empire to make a good judgment about its chances of revival; the Neo-Assyrian empire had survived major crises in the past; rebels (including Judah) against the empire in the past suffered disastrous consequences and those who stayed loyal got rewarded when the empire recovered; previous prophecies about the liberation of Judah failed to yield meaningful results; in the eyes of some skeptics, YHWH’s character was too unpredictable for his words to be taken seriously even from reliable prophets; alternative cults gave reliable oracles even from other deities; and Yahwistic prophets contradicted one another.
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This page is a summary of: The Judean Problem in Nahum 1:9, Vetus Testamentum, August 2024, Brill,
DOI: 10.1163/15685330-bja10180.
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