You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust spreads its wings and flies away.
Nineveh's traders outnumbered the stars, and the prophet turns that boast against her. The swarm that multiplies is the swarm that strips a field bare and flies off — so can numbers and wealth save a city God has sentenced?
The insect behind the image
The ESV says "locust" here. Older versions say "cankerworm." One particular insect is meant, and its habit carries the whole picture.
Morrish Bible DictionaryThis is supposed to be the 'hedge-chafer,' a species of locust. It "spoils [or spreads itself out] and flees away." It eats a great deal of plant growth, and it pictures the enemies that would destroy Nineveh.
The verb is read two ways as well: the insect strips the field, or it spreads itself out and takes off. Commentators also differ on who the insect stands for. Some see the invading enemy that would eat Nineveh up. Others see Nineveh's own merchants, who gathered and then vanished.
Numbers that could not save
The prophet tells Nineveh to swarm like the insect. It will change nothing.
Arno Clemens GaebeleinBut all would be useless, for the Almighty had decreed her downfall... Let them be as many as the cankerworm... make yourself as many as the locusts, which come in immense swarms, and it will be all to no avail. Her great commerce, her merchant-princes, were a vast host, like the stars of heaven, but all would soon be devastated, as the cankerworm strips and then flies away.
Every class swept away
The verse names the merchants. One writer lists who else goes down with them.
William KellyMerchants, princes, provincial rulers, deputies, nobles, people — all would vanish, except those left only to sink beyond recovery.
The same writer sets that fall beside every other in history:
William KellyThe ruin is complete. For a city of such grandeur, history has no other example.
Why this city, and why this sin
Nineveh is not judged at random. Each nation that opposed God's people had its own character, and hers was pride.
J. N. DarbyEgypt is the world in its natural condition, from which the people have come out. Babylon is corruption in the activity of power, by which the people are enslaved. Nineveh is the haughty glory of the world, which recognises nothing but its own importance — the world, the open enemy of God's people, simply by its pride.
Trade as the quiet danger
Power and religion stir loud passions. Trade works on something quieter.
The Bible TreasuryCommerce may not be wrong in itself, though it opens a wide door to unrighteous ways, and needs more grace to resist than the open sins of the world... Ambition and hatred may be stirred up by power and religion, but the secret and sometimes unsuspected covetousness of the heart is fed by trade. Commerce as we see it now is the inborn covetousness of man's heart organised, with the science of buying in the cheapest market and selling in the dearest.
Another writer ties the same word to a New Testament warning, then turns it on the believer's own soul:
Scripture QuarterlyThe cankerworm may be taken to represent the influence of business. This conclusion is supported by the following Scriptures: "You have multiplied your merchants above the stars of heaven; the cankerworm strips and flees away" (Nahum 3:16). "Your gold and silver is cankered" (James 5:3). The canker in these references is clearly related to commerce. That a Christian often owes poverty of soul to the influence of business needs no proof. The evidence is all too frequent and obvious.
(The writer quotes older versions. The ESV reads "locust" in Nahum and "your gold and silver have corroded" in James. In the older wording both verses share the word "canker," and that is the link he draws.)
The wings on wealth
Wealth behaves like the insect: it takes wings. William Kelly applies that to anyone tempted to rest his hope on riches:
William KellySo the apostle warns first against being high-minded. He warns next against building hopes on the stability of what so quickly takes wings and flies away. And its owner is so often called away in the middle of his plans for self-advancement. "Uncertainty of riches" indeed: how true and expressive!
Summary
- Swarm — Nineveh's merchants were countless as the stars. The prophet grants the boast, then turns it against her.
- Strip — the insect in the verse strips fields bare. Commentators differ: some see the invader eating Nineveh, others her own traders.
- Flee — the swarm's one habit is leaving. Wealth has wings too, and its owner is often called away mid-plan.
- Nothing left — merchants, princes, nobles, people: every rank vanishes. The ruin matches the grandeur.
- Warning — Nineveh stands for the world's proud self-importance. Trade feeds that same covetousness in the believer, and leaves many a Christian poor in soul.