John Gill Commentary Nahum 3:15

"There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off; it shall devour thee like the canker-worm: make thyself many as the canker-worm; make thyself many as the locust." — Nahum 3:15 (ASV)

There shall the fire devour thee: In the strong holds, made ever so firm and secure; either the fire of divine wrath; or the fire of the enemy they should put into them; or the enemy himself, as Kimchi; and so the Targum, ``thither shall come upon you people who are as strong as fire:''

the sword shall cut thee off; it shall eat thee up as the cankerworm: that is, the sword of the Medes and Chaldeans shall utterly destroy you, as the cankerworm is destroyed by rain or fire; or rather, as that creature destroys all herbs, plants, and trees it falls upon, and makes clear riddance of them, so should it be with Nineveh:

make yourself many as the cankerworm; make yourself many as the
locust; which go in swarms, innumerable, and make the air "heavy" in which they fly, and the earth on which they fall, as the word ^F25 signifies.

The locust has one of its names, "arbah", in Hebrew, from the large numbers of them; so a multitude of men, and large armies, are often signified in Scripture to be like grasshoppers or locusts, for their numbers; see (Judges 6:5) (7:12) (Jeremiah 46:23) .

So Sithalces king of Thrace is represented ^F26 as swearing, while he was sacrificing, that he would assist the Athenians, having an army that would come like locusts, that is, in such numbers; for so the Greek scholiast on the place says the word used signifies a sort of locusts:

the sense is, gather together as many soldiers, and as large an army, as can be obtained to meet the enemy, or cause him to break up the siege:

and so we find ^F1 the king of Assyria did; for, perceiving his kingdom in great danger, he sent into all his provinces to raise soldiers, and prepare everything for the siege; but all to no purpose, which is here ironically suggested.

The word in the Misnic language, as Kimchi observes, has the signification of sweeping; and some render it, "sweep as the locust" ^F2; which sweeps away and consumes the fruits of the earth; so sweep with the besom of destruction, as Jarchi, either their enemies, sarcastically spoken, or be you swept by them.

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FOOTNOTES:

• F25: (dbkth) "aggravate", Montanus; "onerate", Tigurine version; "gravem effice te", Burkius.
• F26: Aristophan. in Acharnens. Act. 1. Scen. 1.
• F1: Diodor. Sicul. l. 2. p. 113.
• F2: So R. Sol. Urbin. Ohel Moed, fol. 39. 1.