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 There (A)fire will consume you,
The sword will cut you down;
It will (B)consume you as the creeping locust consumes a crop.
Multiply yourself like the creeping locust,
Multiply yourself like the migratory locust.
16 You have made your (C)traders more numerous than the stars of heaven—
The creeping locust sheds its skin and flies away.
17 Your (D)courtiers are like the migratory locust.
Your (E)officials are like a swarm of locusts
Settling in the stone shelters on a cold day.
The sun rises and they flee,
And the place where they are is not known.

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