Parallel Verses
NET Bible
Increase your merchants more than the stars of heaven! They are like the young locust which sheds its skin and flies away.
New American Standard Bible
The creeping locust
King James Version
Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away.
Holman Bible
more numerous than the stars of the sky.
The young locust strips
and flies away.
International Standard Version
You added to your inventory of businessmen they number more than the stars of heaven. The creeping locust sheds its skin and flies away.
A Conservative Version
Thou have multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven. The canker-worm ravages, and flees away.
American Standard Version
Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the canker-worm ravageth, and fleeth away.
Amplified
You have increased your traders more than the [visible] stars of heaven—
The creeping locust strips and destroys and then flies away.
Bible in Basic English
Let your traders be increased more than the stars of heaven:
Darby Translation
Thou hast multiplied thy merchants more than the stars of the heavens; the cankerworm spreadeth himself out and flieth away.
Julia Smith Translation
Thou didst multiply thy traffics above the stars of the heavens: the feeder spread out and it will fly away.
King James 2000
You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars of heaven: the locust plunders, and flies away.
Lexham Expanded Bible
You have increased your merchants more than the stars of heaven; [like] the locust they will shed [their skin] and fly away.
Modern King James verseion
You have multiplied your merchants above the stars of heaven; the locust larvae shall strip off and fly away.
Modern Spelling Tyndale-Coverdale
Thy merchants have been numbered with the stars of heaven: but now shall they spread abroad as the locusts, and flee their way.
New Heart English Bible
You have increased your merchants more than the stars of the skies. The grasshopper strips, and flees away.
The Emphasized Bible
Though thou have multiplied thy foot-soldiers beyond the stars of the heavens, the grass locust, hath stript itself and flown away!
Webster
Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the canker-worm spoileth, and flieth away.
World English Bible
You have increased your merchants more than the stars of the skies. The grasshopper strips, and flees away.
Youngs Literal Translation
Multiply thy merchants above the stars of the heavens, The cankerworm hath stripped off, and doth flee away.
Themes
Cankerworm » Sent as a judgment
Commerce » Carried on by » Ninevites
Interlinear
Rabah
References
Word Count of 20 Translations in Nahum 3:16
Verse Info
Context Readings
Nineveh's Defenders Will Flee
15 Multiply yourself like the young locust; multiply yourself like the flying locust! 16 Increase your merchants more than the stars of heaven! They are like the young locust which sheds its skin and flies away. 17 Your courtiers are like locusts, your officials are like a swarm of locusts! They encamp in the walls on a cold day, yet when the sun rises, they fly away; and no one knows where they are.
Phrases
Cross References
Genesis 15:5
The Lord took him outside and said, "Gaze into the sky and count the stars -- if you are able to count them!" Then he said to him, "So will your descendants be."
Genesis 22:17
I will indeed bless you, and I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be as countless as the stars in the sky or the grains of sand on the seashore. Your descendants will take possession of the strongholds of their enemies.
Nehemiah 9:23
You multiplied their descendants like the stars of the sky. You brought them to the land you had told their ancestors to enter in order to possess.
Jeremiah 33:22
I will make the children who follow one another in the line of my servant David very numerous. I will also make the Levites who minister before me very numerous. I will make them all as numerous as the stars in the sky and as the sands which are on the seashore.'"