Nahum 3:17
“Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.”
King James Version (KJV)
Read this verse in context with translation switching:
Read Full Chapter →Nineveh's officials and commanders are like locusts that settle in the cold but vanish without a trace when the sun rises.
What Does Nahum 3:17 Mean?
The locust image now falls on Nineveh's leaders. Her crowned officials and her captains are like swarms of locusts that settle on the walls in the cold of the day, clustered and seemingly secure. But when the sun rises and warms them, they take wing and are gone, and no one knows where they went. The leaders who should stand and protect the city instead scatter and disappear at the decisive moment, leaving it leaderless and exposed.
It is a haunting picture of the unreliability of those who hold power for their own comfort. In the cold they cling to their places; when the heat of crisis comes, they vanish without a trace. The very people the city depended on prove the first to flee. This exposes the emptiness of leadership without faithfulness, glory without substance. By contrast, the Lord is the shepherd who does not flee but lays down His life for the flock, and the leader who reflects Him stays through the cold and the heat alike. Nineveh's princes, for all their crowns, leave no trace behind.