The town from which the future ruler of Israel was to come is definitely indicated: it is not the proud metropolis, but the humble village of Bethlehem. As we have already seen, this statement of the prophet was understood by the Jews, at the beginning of our era, to refer to the Messiah or King of Israel:

"But thou, Beth-lehem Ephratah,

Though thou be little among the thousands of Judah,

Yet out of thee shall he come forth unto Me that is to be ruler in Israel; Whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."1

Dramatic Prophecy. The last two chapters of Micah, which form the third division of the book, have a distinctive character. They are in the form of a dramatic dialogue, in which the speakers are Jehovah and Israel. The setting of the drama is magnificent, for the controversy takes place in the presence of the mountains. Jehovah speaks first, and recounts the mercies of the past :—

"O My people, what have I done unto thee?

And wherein have I wearied thee? testify against Me.
For I brought thee up out of the land of Egypt,
And redeemed thee out of the house of servants;
And I sent before thee Moses, Aaron, and Miriam.

O My people, remember now what Balak, King of Moab, consulted,
And what Balaam the son of Beor answered him."

In reply to this appeal of Jehovah, the people virtually admit their ingratitude and sin, and ask what they shall do to make atonement :

"Wherewith shall I come before the Lord,

And bow myself before the high God?

Shall I come before Him with burnt offerings, with calves of a year old? Will the Lord be pleased with thousands of rams,

Or with ten thousands of rivers of oil?

Shall I give my first-born for my transgression,
The fruit of my body for the sin of my soul?"

1 Mic. 5:2. See Matt. 2: 3-6,

At this point the mountains, who are imagined to be sitting in judgment, make known their decision, which is the message of the prophet:

"He hath showed thee, O man, what is good;

And what doth the Lord require of thee,

But to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with God?"

Beginning with the ninth verse of the sixth chapter, and extending to the sixth verse of the seventh chapter, we have another dramatic prophecy, in which Jehovah and the prophet are the speakers. The picture of the social condition of the Hebrews presented in this dialogue could not well be in darker colors. At the close of the book we have one of the noblest portrayals of the divine character to be found in the Old Testament:

"Who is a God like unto Thee, that pardoneth iniquity,

And passeth by the transgression of the remnant of His heritage? He retaineth not His anger forever, because He delighteth in mercy. He will turn again, He will have compassion upon us;

He will subdue our iniquities;

And Thou wilt cast all their sins into the depths of the sea.
Thou wilt perform the truth to Jacob, and the mercy to Abraham,
Which Thou hast sworn unto our fathers from the days of old."

Nahum. The book of Nahum is a doom prophecy directed against the city of Nineveh. Nothing further is known of the author than his title, "the Elkoshite." This designation is derived from the village of Elkosh in Galilee, which was probably the prophet's native place. If this supposition is correct, Nahum is the last prophet of northern Israel.

There is no direct statement of the time when the prophecy was written; but the date may be approximately determined by two events to which the prophecy refers.

In the third chapter there is a description of the destruction of No, or Thebes, in Egypt. Addressing the confident city of Nineveh, whose destruction he has threatened, the poet asks:

"Art thou better than populous No,
That was situate among the rivers,
That had waters round about it,

Whose rampart was the sea, and her wall was from the sea?

Ethiopia and Egypt were her strength, and it was infinite;

Put and Lubim were thy helpers.

Yet was she carried away, she went into captivity;

Her young children also were dashed in pieces

At the top of all the streets;

And they cast lots for her honorable men,

And all her great men were bound in chains."

The capture of Thebes, as thus described, took place during the invasion of Egypt by Asshurbanipal about 660 B.C. The destruction of Nineveh, which is the subject of Nahum's prophecy, took place in 606 B.C. Hence it is evident that the prophet wrote between these two dates.

Purpose. The prophet probably had a twofold purpose in declaring the approaching doom of Nineveh. In the first place, he meant to comfort his people by the assurance that the destroyer of Israel was himself to be destroyed. In the second place, he wished to declare the great truth that iniquity, even in the mightiest nation, inevitably leads to divine judgment. He denounces Nineveh as a "bloody city, full of lies and robbery." 1 For this reason, speaking in the name of Jehovah, the prophet declares:

“Behold I am against thee, saith the Lord of hosts;

And I will discover thy skirts upon thy face,

And I will show the nations thy nakedness,

And the kingdoms thy shame." 2

1 Nahum 3: 1.

2 Nahum 3:5.