Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven: the cankerworm spoileth, and flieth away.
Thou hast multiplied thy merchants - (Ezekiel 27:23-24, concerning Tyre, "Haran, and Canneh, and Eden, the merchants of Sheba, Asshur, and Chilmad, were thy merchants. These were thy merchants in all sorts of things"). Nineveh, by large canals, had easy access to Babylon; and was one of the great routes for the people of the west and northwest to that city: lying on the Tigris, it had access to the sea. The Phoenicians carried its wares everywhere. Hence, its merchandise is so much spoken of.
The canker-worm spoileth, and fleeth away - i:e., spoileth thy merchants. The "canker-worm," or licking locust х yeleq (H3218)], corresponds to the Medo-Babylonian invaders of Nineveh (Ludovicus de Dieu). Calvin explains, less probably, 'Thy merchants spoiled many regions; and but the same shall befall them as befalls locusts, they in a moment shall be scattered and flee away.' Maurer, somewhat similarly, 'The licking locust puts off (the envelope in which his wings had been folded), and fleeth away, so shall thy merchants be dispersed' (Nahum 2:9, "Take ye the spoil of silver, take the spoil of gold;" cf. Joel 1:4). I prefer the first view-namely, As the canker-worm spoileth, and fleeth away with the spoil, so the enemy spoils (i:e., shall spoil) thy merchants, and flees away. [PaashaT is properly to put off, so to strip or spoil]. However, Nahum 3:17 favours the view that by the canker-worm fleeing away are meant the Assyrians, not the enemy that was to spoil them: "Thy crowned as the locusts ... flee away, and their place is not known where they are." The Hebrew has ten different names for the locust, so destructive was it.