Nahum 3:16 You have increased the number of your merchants till they are more numerous than the stars in the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away.

◄ Nahum 3:16 ►

Parallel Verses

New International Version
You have increased the number of your merchants till they are more numerous than the stars in the sky, but like locusts they strip the land and then fly away.

English Standard Version
You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust spreads its wings and flies away.

New American Standard Bible
You have increased your traders more than the stars of heaven-- The creeping locust strips and flies away.

King James Bible
Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
You have made your merchants more numerous than the stars of the sky. The young locust strips the land and flies away.

International Standard Version
You added to your inventory of businessmen— they number more than the stars of heaven. The creeping locust sheds its skin and flies away.

American Standard Version
Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the canker-worm ravageth, and fleeth away.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Thou hast multiplied thy merchandises above the stars of heaven: the bruchus hath spread himself and flown away.

Darby Bible Translation
Thou hast multiplied thy merchants more than the stars of the heavens; the cankerworm spreadeth himself out and flieth away.

Young's Literal Translation
Multiply thy merchants above the stars of the heavens, The cankerworm hath stripped off, and doth flee away.

Cross References

Psalm 105:34
He spoke, and the locusts came, and caterpillars, and that without number,

Isaiah 23:8
Who has taken this counsel against Tyre, the crowning city, whose merchants are princes, whose traffickers are the honorable of the earth?

Joel 1:4
That which the palmerworm has left has the locust eaten; and that which the locust has left has the cankerworm eaten; and that which the cankerworm has left has the caterpillar eaten.

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Cankerworm Canker-Worm Creeping Flee Flees Fleeth Flies Flieth Grasshopper Heaven Heavens Increased Itself Locust Merchants Multiplied Multiply Skies Sky Spoileth Spreadeth Spreads Stars Strip Stripped Strips Traders Wings

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Commentaries

Matthew Henry's Commentary

3:8-19 Strong-holds, even the strongest, are no defence against the judgments of God. They shall be unable to do any thing for themselves. The Chaldeans and Medes would devour the land like canker-worms. The Assyrians also would be eaten up by their own numerous hired troops, which seem to be meant by the word rendered merchants. Those that have done evil to their neighbours, will find it come home to them. Nineveh, and many other cities, states, and empires, have been ruined, and should be a warning to us. Are we better, except as there are some true Christians amongst us, who are a greater security, and a stronger defence, than all the advantages of situation or strength? When the Lord shows himself against a people, every thing they trust in must fail, or prove a disadvantage; but he continues good to Israel. He is a strong-hold for every believer in time of trouble, that cannot be stormed or taken; and he knoweth those that trust in Him.

Jamieson-Fausset-Brown

16. multiplied thy merchants—(Eze 27:23, 24). Nineveh, by large canals, had easy access to Babylon; and it was one of the great routes for the people of the west and northwest to that city; lying on the Tigris it had access to the sea. The Ph�nicians carried its wares everywhere. Hence its merchandise is so much spoken of.

the cankerworm spoileth, and fleeth away—that is, spoiled thy merchants. The "cankerworm," or licking locust, answers to the Medo-Babylonian invaders of Nineveh [G. V. Smith]. Calvin explains less probably, "Thy merchants spoiled many regions; but the same shall befall them as befalls locusts, they in a moment shall be scattered and flee away." Maurer, somewhat similarly, "The licking locust puts off (the envelope in which his wings had been folded), and teeth away" (Na 2:9; compare Joe 1:4). The Hebrew has ten different names for the locust, so destructive was it.