(Naʹhum) [Comforter [that is, an encourager]].

1. An Israelite prophet of the seventh century B.C.E. and the writer of the book bearing his name. Nahum may have been in Judah at the time he recorded his prophecy. (Na 1:15) His being an Elkoshite evidently means that he was a resident of Elkosh, possibly a city or village of Judah.​—Na 1:1; see ELKOSHITE.

2. A postexilic ancestor of Jesus Christ in the line of his earthly mother Mary.​—Lu 3:25.