WE believe that a careful consideration of Nahum's prophecy will tend to show that he was an ethical prophet; that he was a prophet of Jehovah in the sense that Amos, Isaiah, and Jeremiah were; that there is no indication that he did not share their religious aspirations and beliefs; and that any attempt to bring him into essential opposition to Jeremiah cannot be successfully maintained. . . . His vivid imagination and his power to express what passes rapidly before his mental eye in vigorous, well-compacted, realistic language are unsurpassed by any of the Old Testament prophets. Expressing himself in as few words as possible, he sets before his readers the entire scene which he describes in such a way that they are made to feel that it is actually being transacted before their eyes. It is like a picture which an artist sketches, while others look on, with a few bold strokes, never adding more than are absolutely necessary, never omitting any that should be there, and always drawing them in such a way that each succeeds the other in natural order. His constructions are classical and idiomatic, and his language forcible and pure; they reveal the intensity of his feelings and create the impression that he is convinced of the certainty of his prediction, the truth of his charge, and the necessity of his denunciation.
—From "The Books of the Prophets,"
