English Standard Version
Nahum 3:16
16You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust spreads its wings and flies away.
Nahum 3:16 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away.
- New International Version (NIV)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.
- New King James Version (NKJV)You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars of heaven. The locust plunders and flies away.
- New Living Translation (NLT)Your merchants have multiplied until they outnumber the stars. But like a swarm of locusts, they strip the land and fly away.
Context of Nahum 3:16
14Draw water for the siege; strengthen your forts; go into the clay; tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold! 15There will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust. Multiply yourselves like the locust; multiply like the grasshopper! You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust spreads its wings and flies away. 17Your 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. 18Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them.
Read all of Nahum 3Nahum 3:16 word by word
הִרְבֵּית֙ רֹֽכְלַ֔יִךְ מִכּוֹכְבֵ֖י הַשָּׁמָ֑יִם יֶ֥לֶק פָּשַׁ֖ט וַיָּעֹֽף׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Nahum 3:16
- Genesis 15:5And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be."
- Genesis 22:17I will surely bless you, and I will surely multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore. And your offspring shall possess the gate of his enemies,
- Nehemiah 9:23You multiplied their children as the stars of heaven, and you brought them into the land that you had told their fathers to enter and possess.
- Jeremiah 33:22As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the offspring of David my servant, and the Levitical priests who minister to me."
Commentaries on Nahum 3:16
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 16Thou hast multiplied thy merchants - Like Tyre, this city was a famous resort for merchants; but the multitudes which were there previously to the siege, like the locusts, took the alarm, and fled away.Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 16Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven - Not numerous only but glorious in the eyes of the world, and, as thou deemest, safe and inaccessible; yet in an instant all is gone. The commerce of Nineveh was carried back to prehistoric times, since its rivers bound together the mountains of Armenia with the Persian gulf, and marked out the line, by which the distant members of the human family should supply each others‘ needs. “Semiramis”…Read the comment
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary · v. 8-19Verses 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…Read the comment
- Tyndale Open Study Notes · v. 16Assyrian merchants spread across the Near East like locusts, bringing great wealth to Nineveh. However, like locusts that eat and leave, the merchants took their goods and departed during Nineveh's difficult times, leaving the people in need.Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1616. 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 Phoenicians 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…Read the comment
Topics related to Nahum 3:16
In the dictionaries
Commentaries on Nahum 3
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible
- Matthew Henry Concise Commentary
- Tyndale Open Study Notes
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary
- Rashi on Tanakh
- Calvin’s Commentaries
- Keil & Delitzsch Commentary
- John Wesley’s Notes
- Darby Translation Notes
- Geneva Bible Translation Notes
- Kingcomments
- Matthew Henry’s Complete Commentary
- Matthew Henry’s Modern English Commentary
- Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary
- EGW Writings
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