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Back to article: NAHUM (Hebrew for " rich in comfort [is God] ")

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NAHUM (Hebrew for " rich in comfort [is God] "), an Old Testament prophet. The name occurs only in the book of Nahum; in Nehemiah vii. 7 it is a scribal error for " Rehum." Of the prophet himself all that is known is the statement of the title that he was an Elkoshite. But the locality denoted by the designation is quite uncertain. Later tradition associated Nahum with the region of Nineveh, against which he prophesied, and hence his tomb has been located at a place bearing the name of Alkush near Mosul (anc. Nineveh) and is still shown.' According to Jerome, the prophet was a native of a village in Galilee, which bore the name of Elkesi in the 4th century A.D. (the Galilean town of Capernaum, which probably means " village of Nahum," may also point in the same direction; but cf. John vii. 29, which seems to imply that in the time of Christ no prophet was supposed to have come out of Galilee). E. Nestle has proposed to locate Elkesi " beyond Betogabra " (i.e. Eleutheropolis, mod. Beit Jibrin) in the tribe of Simeon (cf. Pal. Expl. Fund Quart. Statement, 1879, pp. 136-138).