New International Version
Nahum 3:15
15There 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!
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.
- 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!
- New Living Translation (NLT)But the fire will devour you; the sword will cut you down. The enemy will consume you like locusts, devouring everything they see. There will be no escape, even if you multiply like swarming locusts.
Context of Nahum 3:15
13Look at your troops— they are all weaklings. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has consumed the bars of your gates. 14Draw water for the siege, strengthen your defenses! Work the clay, tread the mortar, repair the brickwork! 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! 16You 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. 17Your 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.
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 3:13Look at your troops— they are all weaklings. The gates of your land are wide open to your enemies; fire has consumed the bars of your gates.
- Nahum 2:13“I am against you,” declares the Lord Almighty. “I will burn up your chariots in smoke, and the sword will devour your young lions. I will leave you no prey on the earth. The voices of your messengers will no longer be heard.”
- Zephaniah 2:13He will stretch out his hand against the north and destroy Assyria, leaving Nineveh utterly desolate and dry as the desert.
- Joel 1:4What the locust swarm has left the great locusts have eaten; what the great locusts have left the young locusts have eaten; what the young locusts have left other locusts have eaten.
- Joel 2:25“I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten— the great locust and the young locust, the other locusts and the locust swarm— my great army that I sent among you.
- Exodus 10:13So Moses stretched out his staff over Egypt, and the Lord made an east wind blow across the land all that day and all that night. By morning the wind had brought 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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