Nahum 3:16

Nah 3:16 Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away.

Ver. 16. Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven] And so thinkest to have a stake in store howsoever the dice chance to turn. For these merchants were very rich, and could furnish her with money, which is the sinews of war. Besides, they traded far and near; and so could give intelligence, and if need were, waylay and intercept the enemies’ contributions, that it came not to them. But would you know, saith the prophet, how these merchants will serve you at your greatest need?

The cankerworm spoileth and fleeth away] q.d. They will serve themselves upon you and then leave you in the lurch, to make as good shift as you can. They are mere cankerworms, which first eat up all, and then haste away. These false friends, well, they may be the causes, but companions they will not be, of your calamity; like crows that flock to a dead carcass, not to defend it, but to devour it; and no sooner have they bared the bones but they are gone. Such false merchants as these hath this land been much pestered with from Rome in former ages. Matthew Paris telleth us of one Florentinus, the Pope’s delegate here, in King John’s reign, Ferentinus the wiser sort called him, for bearing away so much money; and of another named Otto, one of the Pope’s merchants, or rather mice catchers ( Muscipulatores), as he calleth them, who after three years’ raking together of money, by most detestable arts, at last departing hence, to avoid a storm, he left not so much money in the whole kingdom as he either carried with him or sent to Rome before him. In the year 1235 there were spread through England certain Roman cankerworms, called Caursim (quasi capientes ursi, devouring bears, quoth Paris), who had entangled the king, nobles, and all others that had to deal with the court of Rome, in their cunning snares and usurious practices, under colour of supplying with money such as wanted present pay to the Pope. These were called the Pope’s merchants, saith Speed.

John Trapp, A Commentary or Exposition upon All the Books of the Old and New Testament (1647–1656) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Nah 3:16-17. Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars —

Thou hast drawn more merchants to thee than there are stars in the heavens. This is a hyperbolical expression, to signify the great number of them. The canker-worm spoileth, and fleeth away — As the locusts destroy the fruits of the earth, and then fly away to another place; so shall thy soldiers pillage all the wealth thou hast gained by traffic, and then leave thee. Thy crowded (or, thy princes) are as the locusts, &c. — For as they fly away when the heat comes on, so thy princes and captains will fly away from the heat of battle, or danger.

Joseph Benson's Commentary on the Old and New Testaments (1811–1818) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

3:16 Assyrian merchants had spread throughout the Near East like locusts, filling Nineveh with untold wealth. But just as locusts desire only to satisfy their insatiable appetites and then fly off, the merchants would take their goods and go in the time of Nineveh’s distress, leaving a needy populace behind.

Tyndale Open Study Notes — © Tyndale Open Resources, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

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 Phœnicians 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" (Nah 2:9; compare Joe 1:4). The Hebrew has ten different names for the locust, so destructive was it.

Jamieson, Fausset & Brown — Commentary Critical and Explanatory on the Whole Bible (1871) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Verse 16. Thou 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.

Adam Clarke's Commentary on the Bible (1810–1826) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

From these words we may learn what the Prophet before meant, when he said that the Assyrians were like locusts or chafers; as though he said, — “I know that you trust in your great number; for ye are like a swarm of chafers or locusts; ye excel greatly in number; inasmuch as you have assembled your merchants and traders as the stars of heaven.” Here he shows how numerous they were. But when he says, The chafer has spoiled, and flies away, he points out another reason for the comparison; for it is not enough to lay hold on one clause of the verse, but the two clauses must be connected; and they mean this, — that the Assyrians, while they were almost innumerable, gloried in their great number, — and also, that this vast multitude would vanish away. He then makes an admission here and says, by multiplying thy merchants, thou hast multiplied them; but when he says, as chafers and as locusts, he shows that this multitude would not continue, for the Lord would scatter them here and there. As then the scattering was nigh, the Prophet says that they were chafers and locusts.

We now understand the design of the Prophet: He first ridicules the foolish confidence with which the Assyrians were inflated. They thought, that as they ruled over many nations, they could raise great armies, and set them in any quarter to oppose any one who might attack them: the Prophet concedes this to them, that is, that they were very numerous, by multiplying thou hast multiplied; but what will this avail them? They shall be locusts, they shall be chafers. — How so? A fuller explanation follows, Thou hast multiplied thy merchants as the stars of heaven: but this shall be temporary; for thou shalt see them vanishing away very soon; they shall be like the chafers, who, being in a moment scattered here and there, quit the naked field or the meadow. But by merchants or traders some understand confederates; and this comparison also, as we have before seen, frequently occurs in the Prophets: and princes at this day differ nothing from traders, for they outbid one another, and excel in similar artifices, as we have elsewhere seen, by which they carry on a system of mutual deception. This comparison then may be suitable, Thou hast multiplied thy traders, — tes practiciens. But the meaning of the Prophet may be viewed as still wider; we may apply this to the citizens of Nineveh; for the principal men no doubt were merchants: as the Venetian of the present day are all merchants, so were the Syrians, and the Ninevites, and also the Babylonians. It is then nothing strange, that the Prophet, by taking a part for the whole should include under this term all the rich, Thou hast then multiplied thy merchants

He has hitherto allowed them to be very numerous; but he now adds, The chafer has spoiled, and flies away The verb means sometimes to spoil, and it means also to devour: The chafer then has devoured, and flies away; that is, “Thy princes, (as he afterwards calls them,) or thy principal men, have indeed devoured; they have wasted many regions by their plunders, and consumed all things on every side, like the chafers, who destroy the standing corn and all fruits: thou hast then been as a swarm of chafers.” For as chafers in great numbers attack a field, so Nineveh was wont to send everywhere her merchants to spoil and to denude the whole land. “Well,” he says “the chafer has devoured, but he flies away, he is scattered; so it shall happen,” says the Prophet, “to the citizens of Nineveh.” And hence he afterwards adds,

John Calvin's Commentaries (1540-1563) — public domain. Text from the Calvin Translation Society English edition (1840s-50s) via the Christian Classics Ethereal Library (ccel.org). Calvin's coverage is partial (roughly two-thirds of the Bible); uncommented books and verses are honest gaps, never fabricated. The 19th-century editor's footnotes and remarks are omitted so the notes are faithfully Calvin's own voice.

(16) Spoileth.—Better, spreads itself out: swarms out to spoil.

A Bible Commentary for English Readers, edited by Charles John Ellicott (1878–1897) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

16. spoileth] lit. strips off, i.e. probably its skin or shard, which confines its wings. If this be the sense Tennyson’s lines finely express it—

To-day I saw the dragon-fly

Come from the wells where he did lie.

An inner impulse rent the vail

Of his old husk; from head to tail

Came out clear plates of sapphire mail.

He dried his wings: like gauze they grew;

Through crofts and pastures wet with dew,

A living flash of light he flew.

The Cambridge Bible for Schools and Colleges (gen. ed. J. J. S. Perowne; Cambridge University Press, 1878–1918) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven,.... A hyperbolical expression, setting forth the great number of merchants that were in Nineveh, and in the land of Assyria; who either were the natives of the place, or came thither for the sake of merchandise, which serve to enrich a nation, and therefore are encouraged to settle; and from whom, in a time of war, much benefit might be expected; being able to furnish with money, which is the sinews of war, as well as to give intelligence of the designs of foreign princes, they trading abroad:

the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away; or "puts off" (c) its clothes, disrobes and changes its form; or breaks out with force, as the Septuagint, out of its former worm state, and appears a beautiful butterfly, and then flies away. The word is rendered a caterpillar, Psa 105:34 and what we translate "spoileth" is used of stripping, or putting off of clothes, Sa1 19:24 and the sense may be, that though their merchants were multiplied above the stars of heaven, in which there may be an allusion to the increase of caterpillars, Nah 3:15 yet, as the caterpillar drops its clothes, and flies away, so their merchants, through fear of the enemy, would depart in haste, or be suddenly stripped of their riches, which make themselves wings, and fly away, Pro 23:5. These merchants, at their beginning, might be low and mean, but, increasing, adorning, and enriching themselves in a time of peace, fled away in a time of war: or, "spreads itself" (d), and "flies away"; so these creatures spread themselves on the earth, and devour all they can, and then spread their wings, and are gone; suggesting that in like manner the merchants of Nineveh would serve them; get all they could by merchandise among them, and then betake themselves elsewhere and especially in a time of war, which is prejudicial to merchandise; and hence nothing was to be expected from them, or any dependence had upon them.

(c) "exspoliavit", De Dieu; "proprie est, exuere, vestem detrahere et exspoliare", De Dieu. (d) "Diffundit se", Munster, so the Targum; "effunditur", Cocceius.

John Gill's Exposition of the Whole Bible (1746–1763) — public domain (CC PDM 1.0). Text via the HelloAO Bible API.

Thou 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” they say , “built other cities on the Euphrates and the Tigris, where she placed emporia for those who convey their goods from Media and Paraetacene. Being mighty rivers and passing through a populous country, they yield many advantages to those employed in commerce; so that the places by the river are full of wealthy emporia.” The Phoenicians traced back their Assyrian commerce (and as it seems, truly) to those same prehistoric times, in which they alleged, that they themselves migrated from the Persian gulf. They commenced at once, they said , the long voyages, in which they transported the wares of Egypt and Assyria. The building of “Tadmor in the wilderness” 1Ki 9:18 on the way to Tiphsach (Thapsacus) the utmost bound of Solomon’s dominions (1Ki 5:4 1Ki 4:24), connected Palestine with that commerce.

The great route for couriers and for traffic, extending for 1,500 or 1,600 miles in later times, must have lain through Nineveh, since, although no mention is made of the city which had perished, the route lay across the two rivers , the greater and lesser Zab, of which the greater formed the Southern limit of Nineveh. Those two rivers led up to two mountain-passes which opened a way to Media and Agbatana; and pillars at the summit of the N. pass attest the use of this route over the Zagros chain about 700 b.c. . Yet a third and easier pass was used by Nineveh, as is evidenced by another monument, of a date as yet undetermined . Two other lines connected Nineveh with Syria and the West. Northern lines led doubtless to Lake Wan and the Black Sea . The lists of plunder or of tribute, carried off during the world-empire of Egypt, before it was displaced by Assyria, attest the extensive imports or manufactures of Nineveh ; the titles of “Assyrian nard, Assyrian amomum, Assyrian odors, myrrh, frankincense , involve its trade with the spice countries: domestic manufactures of hers apparently were purple or dark-blue cloaks, embroidery, brocades, and these conveyed in chests of cedar; her metallurgy was on principles recognized now; in one practical point of combining beauty with strength, she has even been copied .

A line of commerce, so marked out by nature in the history of nations, is not changed, unless some preferable line be discovered. Empires passed away, but, at the end of the 13th century a.d., trade and manufacture continued their accustomed course and habitation. The faith in Jesus had converted the ancient paganism; the heresy of Mohammedanism disputed with the faith for the souls of men; but the old material prosperity of the world held its way. Mankind still wanted the productions of each others’ lands. The merchants of Nineveh were to be dispersed and were gone: itself and its remembrance were to be effaced from the earth, and it was so; in vain was a new Nineveh built by the Romans; that also disappeared; but so essential was its possession for the necessities of commerce, that Mosul, a large and populous town, arose over against its mounds, a city of the living over-against its buried glories; and, as our goods are known in China by the name of our great manufacturing capital, so a delicate manufacture imposed on the languages of Europe (Italian, Spanish, French, English, German) the name of Mosul .

Even early in this century, under a mild governor, an important commerce passed through Mosul, from India, Persia, Kurdistan, Syria, Natolia, Europe . And when European traffic took the line of the Isthmus ef Suez, the communication with Kurdistan still secured to it an important and exclusive commerce. The merchants of Nineveh were dispersed and gone. The commerce continued over-against its grave.

The cankerworm spoileth and fleeth away - Better, “the locust hath spread itself abroad (marauded) and is flown.” The prophet gives, in three words, the whole history of Nineveh, its beginning and its end. He had before foretold its destruction, though it should be oppressive as the locust; he had spoken of its commercial wealth; he adds to this, that other source of its wealth, its despoiling warfares and their issue. The pagan conqueror rehearsed his victory, “I came, saw, conquered.” The prophet goes further, as the issue of all human conquest, “I disappeared.” The locust (Nineveh) spread itself abroad (the word is always used of an inroad for plunder , destroying and wasting, everywhere: it left the world a desert, and was gone. Ill-gotten wealth makes one poor, not rich. Truly they who traffic in this world, are more in number than they who, seeking treasure in heaven, shall shine as the stars forever and ever. “For many are called, but few, are chosen.” And when all the stars of light “shall abide and praise God Psa 148:3, these men, though multiplied like the locust, shall, like the locust, pass away, destroying and destroyed. They abide for a while in the chillness of this world; when the Sun of righteousness ariseth, they vanish. This is the very order of God’s Providence. As truly as locusts, which in the cold and dew are chilled and stiffened, and cannot spread their wings, fly away when the sun is hot and are found no longer, so shalt thou be dispersed and thy place not anymore be known . It was an earnest of this, when the Assyrians, like locusts, had spread themselves around Jerusalem in a dark day of trouble and of rebuke and of blasphemy Isa 37:3, God was entreated and they were not. Midian came up like the grasshopper for multitude Jdg 6:4-5; Jdg 7:12. In the morning they had fled Jdg 7:21. What is the height of the sons of hen? or how do they spread themselves abroad?” At the longest, after a few years it is but as the locust spreads himself and flees away, no more to return.

Albert Barnes' Notes on the Bible (1834–1885) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Away. Thus did the merchants, at the approach of the enemy.

George Leo Haydock (1774–1849), Haydock's Catholic Family Bible and Commentary, 1859 edition — public domain. Excludes Psalms (Douay-Rheims chapter numbering differs from Protestant) and Deuterocanonical books (Catholic canon only).

Thou hast multiplied for number; and, as the word may import, thou hast greatened them, thou reliest on their purse and interest.

Thy merchants; either literally, or figuratively, thy great men, princes, and rulers, which sold and bought, Nah 3:4; or thy confederates, who by virtue of such leagues have free commerce with thee; and this is most likely to be the meaning.

Above the stars; proverbially taken for a very great number.

The canker-worm spoileth, and fleeth away: this seems an abrupt speech, and may be thus made up: Whatever thou thinkest of these, which thou both multipliedst and magnifiest, I tell thee, O Nineveh, they are like the canker-worm and locust, which spoil wherever they come, and do the greater mischief where they are greater in number, for they come for spoil; while they get by thee they continue with thee, and when no more is to be gotten, they take wing and fly away, leaving waste and stench behind them: so will these serve thee, O Nineveh.

Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible (1683–1685) — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword/MySword module.

Its extensive commercial relations shall not save it. Thou hast multiplied thy merchants. Nineveh was most favourably situated for carrying on commerce with other countries. The roads from Asia Minor, Syria, Egypt, and Phoenicia, that led into Media, Persia, and the interior of Asia, converged at Nineveh, and brought thither merchandise from all lands; and the Assyrians themselves exported their own produce and manufactures to the far West. Among these are enumerated textile fabrics, carpets, dyed attire, and embroidered work, carvings in ivory, gems, spices (see Rawlinson, "Anc. Mon.," 2:179, etc.; Layard, "Nineveh," 2:414, etc.). The cankerworm spoileth; or, spreadeth itself for plunder; Vulgate, expansus est; Septuagint, wrmhsen , "attacked." The cankerworm (see note on ver. 15) are the enemy,who spread themselves over the rich produce of Nineveh, and then flee away laden with spoil. Pusey makes the cankerworm represent Nineveh. She spread herself everywhere wasting and plundering, and now she is gone, has disappeared. But the former explanation better suits the comparison in ver. 15, where "the licker" is the enemy; and it is most natural that the prophet should allude to the fate of that commercial wealth which he has just mentioned, as in previous verses he contrasts the riches and power of Nineveh with the ruin that awaits them.

Vers. 16-18. The instability of material greatness.

We have vividly described here

I MATERIAL GREATNESS. This consisting in:

1. Extensive commercial relations. "Thou hast multiplied thy merchants" etc. (ver. 16). "The point at which Nineveh was situated was certainly the culminating point of the three quarters of the globe Europe, Asia, and Africa; and from the very earliest times it was just at the crossing of the Tigris by Nineveh that the great military and commercial roads met which led into the heart of all the leading known lands" (Strauss, quoted by Keil and Delitzsch, "Commentary on Minor Prophets," vol. 2. note p. 38). "The lists of plunder or of tribute carried off during the world empire of Egypt, before it was displaced by Assyria, attest the extensive imports or manufactures of Nineveh; the titles of "Assyrian nard, Assyrian amomum, Assyrian odours, myrrh, frankincense, involve its trade with the spice countries; domestic manufactures of hers apparently were purple and dark-blue cloaks, embroidery, brocades, and these conveyed in chests of cedar; her metallurgy was on principles recognized now; in one practical point of combining beauty with strength she has ever been copied" (Pusey on "Nahum," p. 394).

2. Vast military resources. (Ver. 17.) "Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers." By the term here rendered "crowned" some have understood subordinate princes (see Sennacherib"s Isa_10:8), and by "captains" military officers; but it has been urged with force that such interpretations hardly agree with the comparison to locusts, the number of vassal princes and military officers being comparatively small; and that probably the terms are technical for certain classes of the soldiery (Keil and Delitzsch, in loc. ). The comparison of these to the locusts and grasshoppers indicates the vast hosts of warriors Assyria could command in her expeditions.

3. Influential counsellors and commanders. (Ver. 18.) The "shepherds" and "nobles" were the king"s counsellors, and the commanders of his armies, the government of the kingdom devolving upon the former, and its defence upon the latter. In all that constitutes the material strength of a people Assyria was great. Notice

II THE INSTABILITY OF MATERIAL GREATNESS. The prophet, looking on to the future, declared that these material tokens of greatness would all fail in the day of trial which was inevitably before them. All these outward indications of prosperity and power would then fade away. The merchants: like the cankerworms in the fields, would remain whilst they could secure any gains, but would seek some safe retreat in the lime of national calamity (ver. 16). Their military forces should then perish and be no more, even as the locusts with the shining of the sun depart, leaving no trace behind (ver. 17). Their counsellors, too, should sleep the sleep of death (ver. 18), and their commanders lie beneath the dust of the earth (ver. 18). And even so everything that is connected with material glory is unenduring. Seneca related how that one known to him was raised above the inordinate love of the world by the sight of a Roman triumphal procession. When the scene ended he said, "I have seen all this pomp and magnificence put in such order and passing slowly along; yet it is all gone: why should I esteem that which is so momentary?" " For all that in this world is great and gay Doth as a vapour vanish and decay.

III THE HOPELESSNESS OF THOSE WHO HAVE THIS AS THEIR SOLE DEPENDENCE. "Thy people is scattered upon the mountains, and no man gathereth them." Nothing remains in such a case but irretrievable ruin. They only are safe whose repose m placed in the higher and heavenly Source of help. "Pat not your trust in princes, nor in the son of man," etc.. S.D.H. (Psa_146:3-6)

The Pulpit Commentary (1880–1919), ed. H.D.M. Spence-Jones & Joseph S. Exell — public domain. Text from a community e-Sword module.

The canker-worm spoileth - So these are like the canker- worms, which spoil wherever they come, and when no more is to be gotten, flee away.

John Wesley, Explanatory Notes Upon the Whole Bible (1754–1765) — public domain. Text via the GEBible commentary corpus.

General Information:

Nahum speaks to the people of Nineveh as though they were the city itself. (See: Metonymy)

You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars in the heavens

This exaggeration emphasizes the great number of merchants who lived and worked in Nineveh. AT: "It is as if you have more merchants than there are stars in the sky" or "You have more merchants than anyone could count" (See: Hyperbole and Generalization)

they are like young locusts: they plunder the land and then fly away

Nahum compares the way that these merchants, who have made their profit by selling their goods in Nineveh, will flee from the city when the battle begins with the way that locusts fly away after they have eaten all of the plants in their path. (See: Simile)

your generals are like swarms of them that camp in the walls on a cold day. But when the sun rises they fly away

Nahum compares the way that the officials in Nineveh will flee when the battle starts with the way that locusts will remain still while it is cold, but will fly away when the sun rises and the air becomes warm. (See: Simile)

to no one knows where

"and no one knows where they have gone"

translationWords

heaven

prince

unfoldingWord translationNotes — © Distant Shores Media and the Door43 World Missions Community, licensed CC BY-SA 4.0. Source: git.door43.org/Door43/en_tn.

the nibbling locust spreads out and flies away—They will swiftly go out for commerce like the locust that spreads out [its wings] and flies.

Rashi on the Tanakh — English translations: “The Judaica Press complete Tanach with Rashi, translated by A. J. Rosenberg” (CC BY 4.0); “Pentateuch with Rashi's commentary by M. Rosenbaum and A.M. Silbermann, 1929-1934” (public domain); “The Metsudah Tanach series, Lakewood, N.J” (CC BY 4.0); and “The Book of Joshua, Metsudah Publications, 1997” (CC BY 4.0). Text via Sefaria.