{"id":78578,"date":"2020-08-09T13:07:09","date_gmt":"2020-08-09T10:07:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/?p=78578"},"modified":"2020-08-09T13:07:09","modified_gmt":"2020-08-09T10:07:09","slug":"assyria-the-locust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wp.929.org.il\/en\/assyria-the-locust\/","title":{"rendered":"Assyria the Locust"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Chapter 3 continues describing the aftermath of Nineveh’s fall, with Nahum additionally providing the moral justification for Assyria’s demise. Nahum concludes this section by comparing the Assyrians to locusts:<\/span><\/p>\n

Make yourself many\u2014like the locust! Make yourself many\u2014like the swarming locusts! You have multiplied your merchants more than the stars of heaven. The locust plunders and flies away. Your commanders are like swarming locusts, and your generals like great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges on a cold day; when the sun rises they flee away, and the place where they are is not known. (3:15\u201317)<\/span><\/p>\n

At first glance, this may be interpreted as encouragement. In the Bible, the locust swarm was a feared sight (Ex. 10, Joel 1\u20132, Amos 7:1\u20133). A large horde would descend on an area and devour its plant life and agriculture, leaving it a bare wasteland. Similarly, the Assyrian army would invade a city, and loot and despoil it so thoroughly that nothing would remain.<\/span><\/p>\n

However, as Nahum makes clear quickly, this comparison is not a positive one. Instead he continues to mock the Assyrians, who thought themselves so strong and so invincible. Locusts, despite their tremendous numbers, can stay stationary for a long period of time in cool weather. However, once the temperature rises, they quickly leave in search of more favorable conditions. Similarly, the Assyrian army, despite their numbers, quickly fled in the heat of the battle.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nahum\u2019s usage of locusts may also be an ironic reversal of an Assyrian symbol. In the British Museum, among the exhibits from Ashurbanipal\u2019s palace that were taken from Nineveh, is a relief that depicts a royal feast commemorating his defeat of Teumman, the king of Elam. Fitting with the Biblical description of peace (I Kings 5:5, Mic. 4:4), Ashurbanipal is seen reclining under vines and fig trees. While servants fan him, play instruments, or bring wine, the Assyrian tyrant is content to gaze upon Teumman\u2019s head, hung from a fir tree opposite his couch. In the upper left corner of the relief is a locust sitting on top of a palm tree, while to its right, a bird swoops to catch it. This detail may have special significance, as Ashurbanipal had described the Elamites as a \u201cdense swarm of grasshoppers.\u201d To the Assyrians, the locust may signify the last vestige of a once dreadful enemy, now virtually eliminated.<\/span><\/p>\n

If Nahum was aware of this symbolism, he could be cleverly alluding to the reversal of fortune that has befallen the Assyrians. Instead of the Elamites, the Assyrians are the locusts, and like the Elamites before them, the Assyrians are about to be defeated. Their locust-like behavior is not reflected through their tremendous numbers and their ferocity in battle, but their willingness to abandon their place of rest when threatened.<\/span><\/p>\n

(For more on this see Y. Beasley, <\/span>Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah: Lights in the Valley<\/span><\/em>, Maggid Press, Jerusalem, 2020).<\/span><\/p>\n

Image: Ashurbanipal and his queen Libbali-sharrat depicted dining (center-right). The severed head of Elamite King Teumman is hanging in a tree to the left. 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