John Calvin Commentary Nahum 3:16-17

"Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the canker-worm ravageth, and fleeth away. Thy princes are as the locusts, and thy marshals as the swarms of grasshoppers, which encamp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are." — Nahum 3:16-17 (ASV)

From these words we may learn what the Prophet previously meant when he said that the Assyrians were like locusts or chafers; as if he said, "I know that you trust in your great number, for you are like a swarm of chafers or locusts; you excel greatly in number, since you have assembled your merchants and traders like 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 grasp one clause of the verse; the two clauses must be connected. They mean this: that the Assyrians, while they were almost innumerable, gloried in their great number, and also that this vast multitude would vanish.

He then makes an admission here and says, by multiplying your merchants, you have multiplied them. But when he says they are like chafers and locusts, he shows that this multitude would not continue, for the Lord would scatter them here and there. Since the scattering was near, the Prophet says that they were chafers and locusts.

We now understand the Prophet's design: He first ridicules the foolish confidence with which the Assyrians were inflated. They thought that, since they ruled over many nations, they could raise great armies and position them in any quarter to oppose anyone who might attack them. The Prophet concedes this to them, that is, that they were very numerous, by multiplying you have multiplied; but what good will this do them?

They will be locusts; they will be chafers. How so? A fuller explanation follows: You have multiplied your merchants as the stars of heaven. But this will be temporary, for you will see them vanishing very soon. They will be like the chafers, who, being scattered in a moment here and there, leave the bare field or the meadow.

Some understand "merchants" or "traders" to mean confederates. This comparison, as we have previously seen, frequently occurs in the Prophets. Princes today are no different from traders, for they outbid one another and excel in similar artifices, as we have seen elsewhere, by which they carry on a system of mutual deception. This comparison then may be suitable: You have multiplied your traders—tes practiciens.

But the Prophet's meaning may be viewed as still wider; we may apply this to the citizens of Nineveh, for the principal men were undoubtedly merchants. Just as the Venetians of the present day are all merchants, so were the Syrians, the Ninevites, and also the Babylonians. It is then not strange that the Prophet, by taking a part for the whole, should include under this term all the rich, You have then multiplied your merchants.

He has until now allowed them to be very numerous; but he now adds, The chafer has spoiled, and flies away. The verb sometimes means to spoil, and it also means to devour. The chafer then has devoured and flies away; that is, "Your princes (as he later calls them), or your 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 grain and all fruits: you have then been like a swarm of chafers."

For as chafers in great numbers attack a field, so Nineveh was accustomed to send its merchants everywhere to spoil and to strip the whole land bare. "Well," he says, "the chafer has devoured, but he flies away, he is scattered; so it will happen," says the Prophet, "to the citizens of Nineveh." And therefore he later adds,

And your princes are as locusts: this refers to the wicked doings by which they laid waste almost the whole earth. Just as the locusts and chafers, wherever they come, consume every kind of food, devour all the fields, leave nothing, and the whole land becomes a waste, so also have been your princes; they have been as locusts and your leaders as the locusts of locusts, that is, as very great locusts.

For this form, we know, expresses the superlative degree in Hebrew. Their leaders were then like the most voracious locusts, for the whole land was made barren by them, as nothing was capable of satisfying their avarice and voracity.

The Prophet then adds, They are locusts, who dwell in the mounds during the time of cold; but when the sun rises, their place is no longer known.

He now shows that it would not be perpetual that the Ninevites would thus devour the whole earth, and that all countries would be exposed to their voracity. For as the locusts, he says, hide themselves in caverns and afterwards fly away, so it will happen to your princes.

But this passage may be taken to mean that the Ninevites concealed themselves in their hiding-places during the winter. When the suitable time for plundering came, they spread out in different directions, took possession of various regions, and brought home plunder from the remotest parts. This meaning may be elicited from the Prophet's words, and the different clauses would thus cohere well: that when the Ninevites left their nests, they dispersed and migrated in all directions.

At the same time, I do not disapprove of the former meaning. They are then like locusts, who lodge in mounds during the time of cold; but when the sun rises—that is, when the season invites them (for he is not speaking of the winter sun, but when the sun's heat prevails and the air is temperate)—then, he says, the locusts go forth and fly away, and their place is no longer known.

He means, in short, that the Ninevites plundered after the manner of locusts, and that a similar end was also near them. For the Lord would destroy them, indeed suddenly consume them, so that no trace of them could be found.