Nahum 3:15 - Matthew Poole's English Annotations on the Holy Bible

There; in the very fortresses. The fire; either literally, or figuratively, the wrath of the enemy hot as fire, or the pestilence, or all together. The sword of the Chaldeans, their wars, (after all that the Scythians have done against thee,) these shall utterly destroy thee. It shall eat thee up: this tells us the manner how the Ninevites shall be destroyed, they shall be eaten up. Like the canker-worm; either the enemy shall as easily eat thee up as the cankerworm eats the green herb, or thou shalt as soon be devoured as canker-worms are destroyed by storms, rain, fire, or change of weather. Make thyself many as the cankerworm; they are innumerable, be thou so if thou canst be, all will be to no purpose. Make thyself many as the locusts: the same irony repeated: when Ninevites have done all they can, they shall as fully and suddenly be destroyed as these vermin are.