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==Language==
==Language==
The book was written entirely in [[Hebrew]]. Due to its lyrical construction, many commentators have described it as a [[psalm]]. The first section is an "acrostic", or alphabetical, poem, each line beginning with successive letters of the [[Hebrew alphabet]].
The book was written entirely in [[Hebrew]]. Due to its lyrical construction, many commentators have described it as a [[psalm]]. The first section is an "acrostic", or alphabetical, poem, each line beginning with successive letters of the [[Hebrew alphabet]]. Although this does not continue throughout the whole of the book, scholars have concluded that this was due one of three factors, or a combination thereof:
*the writer abandoned halfway his undertaking to write acrostically
*the parts were worked out separately from an unacrostic original
*the upper margin was first used, and then the side margin, causing the text to become "overcrowded and blurred, this later on causing in the second part of the psalm an inextricable confusion from which the first was preserved"<ref>Souvay, Charles. [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10670a.htm "Nahum"] The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 10. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1911. Retrieved 28 July 2008.</ref>
The book's composition is unusual in that while it contains "fierce denunciations of Judah's enemy" it lacks "many elements commonly ascribed to the Hebrew prophets, most particularly in any declaration of Judah's sin as seen in the light of covenant obligations."<ref>de Vries, S. J. ''The Acrostic of Nahum in the Jerusalem Liturgy'' Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 16, Fasc. 4 (October 1966), pp. 476-481.</ref>
==Author==
==Author==