Nahum 3:17
New International Version
Your guards are like locusts, your officials like swarms of locusts that settle in the walls on a cold day— but when the sun appears they fly away, and no one knows where.

New Living Translation
Your guards and officials are also like swarming locusts that crowd together in the hedges on a cold day. But like locusts that fly away when the sun comes up, all of them will fly away and disappear.

English Standard Version
Your princes are like grasshoppers, your scribes like clouds of locusts settling on the fences in a day of cold— when the sun rises, they fly away; no one knows where they are.

Berean Standard Bible
Your guards are like the swarming locust, and your scribes like clouds of locusts that settle on the walls on a cold day. When the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where.

King James Bible
Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

New King James Version
Your commanders are like swarming locusts, And your generals like great grasshoppers, Which camp in the hedges on a cold day; When the sun rises they flee away, And the place where they are is not known.

New American Standard Bible
Your courtiers are like the migratory locust. Your officials are like a swarm of locusts Settling in the stone shelters on a cold day. The sun rises and they flee, And the place where they are is not known.

NASB 1995
Your guardsmen are like the swarming locust. Your marshals are like hordes of grasshoppers Settling in the stone walls on a cold day. The sun rises and they flee, And the place where they are is not known.

NASB 1977
Your guardsmen are like the swarming locust. Your marshals are like hordes of grasshoppers Settling in the stone walls on a cold day. The sun rises and they flee, And the place where they are is not known.

Legacy Standard Bible
Your guardsmen are like the swarming locust. Your marshals are like a locust-swarm Encamping in the stone walls on a cold day. The sun rises, and they flee, And the place where they are is not known.

Amplified Bible
Your guardsmen are like the swarming locusts. Your marshals are like the hordes of grasshoppers Settling in the stone walls on a cold day. When the sun rises, they fly away, And no one knows the place where they are.

Christian Standard Bible
Your court officials are like the swarming locust, and your scribes like clouds of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day; when the sun rises, they take off, and no one knows where they are.

Holman Christian Standard Bible
Your court officials are like the swarming locust, and your scribes like clouds of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day; when the sun rises, they take off, and no one knows where they are.

American Standard Version
Thy princes are as the locusts, and thy marshals as the swarms of grasshoppers, which encamp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

Aramaic Bible in Plain English
Your Nazarites are like the locust and your fighters like the locust that settles in hedges in the cold day that whenever the sun has set, it rises, and his place is not known

Brenton Septuagint Translation
Thy mixed multitude has suddenly departed as the grasshopper, as the locust perched on a hedge in a frosty day; the sun arises, and it flies off, and knows not its place: woe to them!

Contemporary English Version
Your guards and your officials are swarms of locusts. On a chilly day they settle on a fence, but when the sun comes out, they take off to who-knows-where.

Douay-Rheims Bible
Thy guards are like the locusts: and thy little ones like the locusts of locusts which swarm on the hedges in the day of cold: the sun arose, and they flew away, and their place was not known where they were.

English Revised Version
Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy marshals as the swarms of grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

GOD'S WORD® Translation
Your officers are like locusts, and your scribes are like swarms of locusts that settle on the fences when it is cold. The sun rises, and they scatter in every direction. No one knows where they've gone.

Good News Translation
Your officials are like a swarm of locusts that stay in the walls on a cold day. But when the sun comes out, they fly away, and no one knows where they have gone!

International Standard Version
Your imperial guards are like the swarming grasshopper; your marshals are like hordes of grasshoppers, settling in the stone walls on a chilly day. The sun rises, and they flee away; no one knows where they went.

JPS Tanakh 1917
Thy crowned are as the locusts, And thy marshals as the swarms of grasshoppers, Which camp in the walls in the cold day, But when the sun ariseth they flee away, And their place is not known where they are.

Literal Standard Version
Your crowned ones [are] as a locust, | And your princes as great grasshoppers, | That encamp in hedges in a day of cold, | The sun has risen, and it flees away, | And its place where they are is not known.

Majority Standard Bible
Your guards are like the swarming locust, and your scribes like clouds of locusts that settle on the walls on a cold day. When the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where.

New American Bible
Your sentries are like locusts, and your scribes like locust swarms Gathered on the rubble fences on a cold day! Yet when the sun rises, they vanish, and no one knows where they have gone.

NET Bible
Your courtiers are like locusts, your officials are like a swarm of locusts! They encamp in the walls on a cold day, yet when the sun rises, they fly away; and no one knows where they are.

New Revised Standard Version
Your guards are like grasshoppers, your scribes like swarms of locusts settling on the fences on a cold day— when the sun rises, they fly away; no one knows where they have gone.

New Heart English Bible
Your guards are like the locusts, and your officials like the swarms of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day, but when the sun appears, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

Webster's Bible Translation
Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which settle in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

World English Bible
Your guards are like the locusts, and your officials like the swarms of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day, but when the sun appears, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

Young's Literal Translation
Thy crowned ones are as a locust, And thy princes as great grasshoppers, That encamp in hedges in a day of cold, The sun hath risen, and it doth flee away, And not known is its place where they are.

Additional Translations ...
Audio Bible



Context
Judgment Against Nineveh
16You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars of the sky. The young locust strips the land and flies away. 17Your guards are like the swarming locust, and your scribes like clouds of locusts that settle on the walls on a cold day. When the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where. 18O king of Assyria, your shepherds slumber; your officers sleep. Your people are scattered on the mountains with no one to gather them.…

Cross References
Revelation 9:7
And the locusts looked like horses prepared for battle, with something like crowns of gold on their heads, and faces like the faces of men.

Jeremiah 51:27
"Raise a banner in the land! Blow the ram's horn among the nations! Prepare the nations against her. Summon the kingdoms against her--Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a captain against her; bring up horses like swarming locusts.

Ezekiel 31:12
Foreigners, the most ruthless of the nations, cut it down and left it. Its branches have fallen on the mountains and in every valley; its boughs lay broken in all the earth's ravines. And all the peoples of the earth left its shade and abandoned it.


Treasury of Scripture

Your crowned are as the locusts, and your captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun rises they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

Revelation 9:7
And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men.

Jump to Previous
Appears Ariseth Camp Captains Chosen Cold Cover Crowned Fences Flee Flight Grasshoppers Great Guards Hedges Hordes Insects Locusts Longer Officials Ones Rises Settle Settling Stone Sun Swarming Swarms Walls
Jump to Next
Appears Ariseth Camp Captains Chosen Cold Cover Crowned Fences Flee Flight Grasshoppers Great Guards Hedges Hordes Insects Locusts Longer Officials Ones Rises Settle Settling Stone Sun Swarming Swarms Walls
Nahum 3
1. The destruction of Nineveh.














(17) Thy crowned.--The subordinate kings who represent the Assyrian empire in her tributary provinces.

Captains.--Taphs'rim, an Assyrian term denoting some high military office. The sudden disappearance of the Assyrian locust-pest is here enlarged upon. A sudden outburst of sunshine will sometimes induce a swarm of locusts to take flight; cold, on the other hand, makes these insects settle, and soon deprives them of the power of flying. Dr. Pusey well observes, "The heathen conqueror rehearsed his victory, 'I came, I saw, conquered.' The prophet goes further, as the issue of all human conquest, 'I disappeared.'" The insect designations, rendered in Authorised Version, "cankerworm," "locust," "great grasshopper," all represent varieties of the locust species.

Verse 17. - Thy crowned. The word minnezar is found only here, and, as its derivation is uncertain, it has received various interpretations. The Anglican Version derives the word from nezer, "a diadem," and "the crowned" are the officials of upper rank. "High officers of state in Assyria were adorned with diadems, closely resembling the lower baud of the royal mitre, separated from the cap itself. Very commonly the head was encircled with a simple fillet or hoop, probably of gold, without any adornment" (Gosse, 'Assyria,' p. 463, quoted by Strauss; see the figures in Bonomi, p. 319). Others derive it from nazar. "to separate," in the signification of "those separated or selected for war." Septuagint, ὁ συμμικτός: i.e. the band of mixed mercenary troops - a rendering in which Wordsworth acquiesces. Knabenbauer (referring to Strassmaier's Assyrian vocabulary) considers the word to be a transliteration (ss being resolved into ne) of the Assyrian ma-as-sa-ru, which means "guardian," or some inferior officer. With this agrees the Vulgate custodes. As the locusts; i.e. in multitude. That the number of captains and superior officers would be very great may be conjectured from the inscriptions which sometimes enumerate the captives carried off from conquered countries. Thus in the account of the capture of some insignificant nation, the then king boasts that he took away 13,000 fighting men, 1121 captains, and 460 superior officers (Strauss, in loc.). The prophet's meaning is that if the officers, etc., are so numerous, the multitude of soldiers and civilians must be truly immense. Thy captains. Taphsar is an Assyrian word, occurring only in Jeremiah 51:27. It is probably the same as dupsarru or dipsarru of the inscriptions, and is taken to signify "a scribe" (see Sehrader, p. 424) Such officials are often represented on the monuments (see Layard, 2:184), and seem sometimes to have been of high or priestly rank. Jerome translates, parvuli tui, though in Jeremiah, loc. cit., he retains the Assyrian word. The Septuagint omits it. Great grasshoppers; swarms of locusts (Amos 7:1). Which camp in the hedges in the cold day. Locusts become torpid in cold weather; so the captains and princes of Nineveh are paralyzed and useless in the day of calamity. They flee away. Thus the Assyrian army perishes and leaves no trace behind. The LXX. adds, "Woe unto them!"

Parallel Commentaries ...


Hebrew
Your guardsmen
מִנְּזָרַ֙יִךְ֙ (min·nə·zā·ra·yiḵ)
Noun - masculine plural construct | second person feminine singular
Strong's 4502: Perhaps consecrated ones, princes

are like the swarming locust,
כָּֽאַרְבֶּ֔ה (kā·’ar·beh)
Preposition-k, Article | Noun - masculine singular
Strong's 697: (a kind of) locust

and your scribes
וְטַפְסְרַ֖יִךְ (wə·ṭap̄·sə·ra·yiḵ)
Conjunctive waw | Noun - masculine plural construct | second person feminine singular
Strong's 2951: A military governor

like clouds of locusts,
כְּג֣וֹב (kə·ḡō·wḇ)
Preposition-k | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 1462: The locust

that settle
הַֽחוֹנִ֤ים (ha·ḥō·w·nîm)
Article | Verb - Qal - Participle - masculine plural
Strong's 2583: To incline, to decline, to pitch a, tent, gen, to encamp

on the walls
בַּגְּדֵרוֹת֙ (bag·gə·ḏê·rō·wṯ)
Preposition-b, Article | Noun - feminine plural
Strong's 1448: Enclosure

on a cold
קָרָ֔ה (qā·rāh)
Noun - feminine singular
Strong's 7135: Coolness

day.
בְּי֣וֹם (bə·yō·wm)
Preposition-b | Noun - masculine singular construct
Strong's 3117: A day

When the sun
שֶׁ֤מֶשׁ (še·meš)
Noun - common singular
Strong's 8121: The sun, the east, a ray, a notched battlement

rises,
זָֽרְחָה֙ (zā·rə·ḥāh)
Verb - Qal - Perfect - third person feminine singular
Strong's 2224: To irradiate, to rise, to appear

they fly away,
וְנוֹדַ֔ד (wə·nō·w·ḏaḏ)
Conjunctive waw | Verb - Pual - Conjunctive perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 5074: To wave to and fro, to rove, flee, to drive away

and no
וְלֹֽא־ (wə·lō-)
Conjunctive waw | Adverb - Negative particle
Strong's 3808: Not, no

one knows
נוֹדַ֥ע (nō·w·ḏa‘)
Verb - Nifal - Perfect - third person masculine singular
Strong's 3045: To know

where.
אַיָּֽם׃ (’ay·yām)
Interrogative | third person masculine plural
Strong's 335: Where?, how?


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OT Prophets: Nahum 3:17 Your guards are like the locusts (Nah. Na)
Nahum 3:16
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