New English Translation
Nahum 3:15
15There the fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down; it will devour you like the young locust would. Multiply yourself like the young locust; multiply yourself like the flying locust!
Nahum 3:15 in other versions
- King James Version (KJV)There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off, it shall eat thee up like the cankerworm: make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts.
- New International Version (NIV)There the fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down— they will devour you like a swarm of locusts. Multiply like grasshoppers, multiply like locusts!
- English Standard Version (ESV)There 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!
- New King James Version (NKJV)There the fire will devour you, The sword will cut you off; It will eat you up like a locust. Make yourself many—like the locust! Make yourself many— like the swarming locusts!
Context of Nahum 3:15
13Your warriors will be like women in your midst; the gates of your land will be wide open to your enemies; fire will consume the bars of your gates. 14Draw yourselves water for a siege! Strengthen your fortifications! Trample the mud and tread the clay! Make mud bricks to strengthen your walls! There the fire will consume you; the sword will cut you down; it will devour you like the young locust would. Multiply yourself like the young locust; multiply yourself like the flying locust! 16Increase your merchants more than the stars of heaven! They are like the young locust which sheds its skin and flies away. 17Your 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.
Read all of Nahum 3Nahum 3:15 word by word
שָׁ֚ם תֹּאכְלֵ֣ךְ אֵ֔שׁ תַּכְרִיתֵ֣ךְ חֶ֔רֶב תֹּאכְלֵ֖ךְ כַּיָּ֑לֶק הִתְכַּבֵּ֣ד כַּיֶּ֔לֶק הִֽתְכַּבְּדִ֖י כָּאַרְבֶּֽה׃Read the interlinear
Words taken from the KJV.
Cross-references for Nahum 3:15
- Nahum 3:13Your warriors will be like women in your midst; the gates of your land will be wide open to your enemies; fire will consume the bars of your gates.
- Nahum 2:13“I am against you!” declares the Lord who commands armies: “I will burn your chariots with fire; the sword will devour your young lions; you will no longer prey upon the land; the voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.”
- Zephaniah 2:13The Lord will attack the north and destroy Assyria. He will make Nineveh a heap of ruins; it will be as barren as the desert.
- Joel 1:4What the gazam-locust left the ‘arbeh-locust consumed, what the ‘arbeh-locust left the yeleq-locust consumed, and what the yeleq-locust left the hasil-locust consumed!
- Joel 2:25I will make up for the years that the ‘arbeh-locust consumed your crops – the yeleq-locust, the hasil-locust, and the gazam-locust – my great army that I sent against you.
- Exodus 10:13So Moses extended his staff over the land of Egypt, and then the Lord brought an east wind on the land all that day and all night. The morning came, and the east wind had brought up the locusts!
Commentaries on Nahum 3:15
- Adam Clarke Bible Commentary · v. 15Make thyself many as the cankerworm - On the locusts, and their operations in their various states, see the notes on Joel 2 (note). The multitudes, successive swarms, and devastation occasioned by locusts, is one of the most expressive similes that could be used to point out the successive armies and all-destroying influences of the enemies of Nineveh. The account of these destroyers from Dr. Shaw, inserted Joel 2, will fully illustrate the verses where…Read the comment
- Barnes’ Notes on the Bible · v. 15There - where thou didst fence thyself, and madest such manifold and toilsome preparation, Shall the fire devour thee. - All is toil within. The fire of God‘s wrath falls and consumes at once. Mankind still, with mire and clay, build themselves Babels. “They go into clay,” and become themselves earthly like the mire they steep themselves in. They make themselves strong, as though they thought “that their houses shall continue forever” Psalm 49:11, and…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. 15The Old Testament often uses locusts as a metaphor for armies (see Joel 2:1–11).Read the comment
- Jamieson–Fausset–Brown Commentary · v. 1515. There--in the very scene of thy great preparations for defense; and where thou now art so secure. fire--even as at the former destruction; Sardanapalus (Pul?) perished with all his household in the conflagration of his palace, having in despair set it on fire, the traces of which are still remaining. cankerworm--"the licking locust" [Henderson]. make thyself many as the locusts--"the swarming locusts" [Henderson]; that is, however "many" be thy…Read the comment
Topics related to Nahum 3:15
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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