15 There will the fire devour you;
    the sword will cut you off.
    It will (A)devour you (B)like the locust.
Multiply yourselves (C)like the locust;
    multiply (D)like the grasshopper!
16 You increased (E)your merchants
    more than the stars of the heavens.
    (F)The locust spreads its wings and flies away.

17 Your (G)princes are (H)like grasshoppers,
    (I)your scribes[a] like clouds of locusts
settling on the fences
    in a day of cold—
when the sun rises, they fly away;
    no one knows where they are.

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Footnotes

  1. Nahum 3:17 Or marshals

15 Fire will consume you there;
        the sword will cut you down;
            like the locust it will consume you.
Multiply like the locust; multiply like the grasshopper!
16     You boasted more traders than the heavens have stars.
        The locust sheds its skin and flies away.
17 Your guards are like grasshoppers,
            your marshals like swarms of cicadas
            that encamp on stone fences on a chilly day;
        when the sun rises, they take flight;
            no one knows where they have gone.

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