Bible Strands
Nahum 3:17
Your guards are like the swarming locust, and your scribes like clouds of locusts that settle on the walls on a cold day. When the sun rises, they fly away, and no one knows where.
Berean Standard Bible
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Study note
Setting — The prophet Nahum pronounces judgment against the Assyrian capital during the final stage of its military and administrative collapse.
The words — מִנְּזָרַ֙יִךְ (mi.ne.za.Ra.yi/kh) = your guards; כְּ/ג֣וֹב גֹּבָ֑י הַֽ/חוֹנִ֤ים בַּ/גְּדֵרוֹת֙ (ke./Gov goyAi ha./cho.Nim ba./ge.de.rOt) = like locusts encamping on walls.
The thread — The locust imagery recurs in Jeremiah 51:27 as a summons of nations against Babylon, and in Revelation 9:7 where apocalyptic locusts resemble battle-ready horses.
Why it lands — The text declares that Assyrian leadership and bureaucracy will vanish without trace when divine judgment arrives, demanding recognition that human administrative power cannot withstand sovereign decree.
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
King James Version
Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.
Cross-references
- Jeremiah 51:27 “Raise a banner in the land! Blow the ram’s horn among the nations! Prepare the nations against her. Summon the kingdoms against her—Ararat, Minni, and Ashkenaz. Appoint a captain against her; bring up horses like swarming locusts.
- Revelation 9:7 And the locusts looked like horses prepared for battle, with something like crowns of gold on their heads; and their faces were like the faces of men.