Nahum 3:16

You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars of the sky. The young locust strips the land and flies away.

Berean Standard Bible

Study note

Setting — The prophet Nahum pronounces judgment against Nineveh, addressing the city's leadership at the moment of divine reckoning. The oracle contrasts the empire's former commercial dominance with its impending collapse.

The words — הִרְבֵּיתָ (hirbeita) means "you have multiplied," applied to רֹכְלֶיךָ (rokhlekha), "your merchants." The phrase shifts to יֶלֶק (yelek), "a young locust," which פָּשַׁט (pashat), "strips," and יָעוֹף (ya'of), "flies away," describing sudden consumption and disappearance.

The thread — The text states that Nineveh's merchant class grew as numerous as the stars, then compares its fate to a locust that strips and vanishes. This star-multiplication motif appears in Genesis 15:5, Genesis 22:17, and Nehemiah 9:23 as a covenant blessing, while the locust imagery directly echoes Nahum 3:15 and 3:17 to depict overwhelming numbers that quickly evaporate.

Why it lands — The verse records that Nineveh's commercial expansion was vast but transient, leaving nothing behind when judgment arrives. The text demands recognition that human wealth and power built on exploitation cannot withstand divine removal.

Drafted by a language model from the text, its original words and its cross-references, then checked against them. It can still be wrong: open the verse in the app to report it.

The Hebrew words

הִרְבֵּית֙hir.Beityou have increased רֹֽכְלַ֔יִךְro.khe.La.yi/khtraders/ your מִכּוֹכְבֵ֖יmi./kokh.Veimore than/ [the] stars of הַשָּׁמָ֑יִםha./sha.Ma.yimthe/ heavens יֶ֥לֶקYe.leka locust פָּשַׁ֖טpa.Shatit strips off וַיָּעֹֽף׃va/i.ya.'Ofand/ it flew away

King James Version

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

Cross-references

Genesis 15:5 And the LORD took him outside and said, “Now look to the heavens and count the stars, if you are able.” Then He told him, “So shall your offspring be.”
Genesis 22:17 I will surely bless you, and I will multiply your descendants like the stars in the sky and the sand on the seashore. Your descendants will possess the gates of their enemies.
Nehemiah 9:23 You multiplied their descendants like the stars of heaven and brought them to the land You had told their fathers to enter and possess.
Jeremiah 33:22 As the hosts of heaven cannot be counted and as the sand on the seashore cannot be measured, so too will I multiply the descendants of My servant David and the Levites who minister before Me.”