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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Nahum 3:16 - 3:16
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multiplied thy merchants - (Eze 27:23, Eze 27:24). Nineveh, by large canals, had easy access to Babylon; and it was one of the great routes for the people of the west and northwest to that city; lying on the Tigris it had access to the sea. The Phoenicians carried its wares everywhere. Hence its merchandise is so much spoken of.
the cankerworm spoileth, and fleeth away - that is, spoiled thy merchants. The “cankerworm,” or licking locust, answers to the Medo-Babylonian invaders of Nineveh [G. V. Smith]. Calvin explains less probably, “Thy merchants spoiled many regions; but the same shall befall them as befalls locusts, they in a moment shall be scattered and flee away.” Maurer, somewhat similarly, “The licking locust puts off (the envelope in which his wings had been folded), and teeth away” (Nah 2:9; compare Joe 1:4). The Hebrew has ten different names for the locust, so destructive was it.