17 Your guards are like the locusts, and your officials like the swarms of locusts, which settle on the walls on a cold day, but when the sun appears, they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.
*Minor differences ignored. Grouped by changes, with first version listed as example.
Thy crowned are as the locust, and thy captains as the great locusts - What he had said summarily under metaphor, the prophet expands in a likeness. "The crowned" are probably the subordinate princes, of whom Sennacherib said, "Are not my princes altogether kings?" Isaiah 10:8. It has been observed that the headdress of the Assyrian Vizier has the ornament which "throughout the whole series of sculptures is the distinctive mark of royal or quasi-royal authority." : "All high officers of state, 'the crowned captains,' were adorned with diadems, closely resembling the lower band of the royal mitre, separated from the cap itself. Such was that of the vizier, which was broader in front than behind, was adorned with rosettes and compartments, and terminated in two ribbons with embroidered and fringed ends, which hung down his back." "Captain" is apparently the title of some military ounce of princely rank.
One such Jeremiah Jeremiah 51:27, in a prophecy in which he probably alludes to this, bids place over the armies of Ararat, Minni, and Ashchenaz, to marshall them against Babylon, against which he summons the cavalry like the rough locust. The "captains" are likened to the "great caterpillars," either as chief in devastation, or as including under them the armies antler their command, who moved at their will. These and their armies now subsided into stillness for a time under the chill of calamity, like the locust "whose nature it is, that, torpid in the cold, they fly in the heat." The stiffness of the locusts through the cold, when they lie motionless, heaps upon heaps, hidden out of sight, is a striking image of the helplessness of Nineveh's mightiest in the day of her calamity; then, by a different part of their history, he pictures their entire disappearance. : "The locusts, are commonly taken in the morning when they are agglomerated one on another, in the places where they passed the night. As soon as the sun warms them, they fly away." "When the sun ariseth, they flee away," literally, "it is chased away."
One and all; all as one. As at God's command the plague of locusts, which He had sent on Egypt, was removed; "there remained not one locust in all the coasts of Egypt" Exodus 10:19; so the mighty of Nineveh were driven north, with no trace where they had been, where they were. "The wind carried them away Isaiah 41:16; the wind passes over him and he is not, and his place knows him no more Psalm 103:16. The triumphing of the wicked is short, and the joy of the ungodly for a moment: though his excellency mount up to the heavens, and his head reach unto the clouds, yet he shall perish for ever; they which have seen him shall say, where is he? He shall fly away, as a dream, and shall not be formal; neither shall his place any were bebold him Job 20:5-9.
Where they are - So Zechariah asks, "Your fathers, where are they?" Zech. 1. History, experience, human knowledge can answer nothing. They can only say, where they are not. God alone can answer that much-containing word, "Where-they." They had disappeared from human sight, from their greatness, their visible being, their place on earth.
Thy crowned are as the locusts - Thou hast numerous princes and numerous commanders.
Which camp in the hedges in the cold day - The locusts are said to lie in shelter about the hedges of fertile spots when the weather is cold or during the night; but as soon as the sun shines out and is hot, they come out to their forage, or take to their wings.
Thy crowned men are as the locusts,.... Tributary kings, and hired officers, as some think, who might be distinguished by what they wore on their heads; or their own princes and nobles, who wore coronets or diadems; unless their religious persons are meant, their Nazarites and devotees, their priests; these were like locusts for their number, fear, and flight in time of danger, and for their spoil of the poor; and some locusts have been seen with little crowns on their heads, as those in Revelation 9:7 "which had on their heads as it were crowns like gold". In the year 1542 came locusts out of Turkish Satmatia into Austria, Silesia, Lusatia, and Misnia, which had on their heads little crowns (e). In the year 1572 a vehement wind brought large troops of locusts out of Turkey into Poland, which did great mischief, and were of a golden colour (f); and Aelianus (g) speaks of locusts in Arabia, marked with golden coloured figures; and mention is made in the Targum on Jeremiah 51:27, of the shining locust, shining like gold:
and thy captains as the great grasshoppers; or "locusts of locusts" (h); those of the largest size. The Vulgate Latin renders the word for captains "thy little ones", junior princes, or officers of less dignity and authority; these were, as the Targum paraphrases it, as the worms of locusts; but rather as the locusts themselves, many and harmful:
which camp in the hedges in the cold day; in the cold part of the day, the night; when they get into the hedges of fields, gardens, and vineyards, in great numbers, like an army, and therefore said to encamp like one:
but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are; whither they are fled, as the Targum; so these captains, or half pay officers, swarmed in great numbers about the city, and in the provinces, while it was a time of peace, and they were indulged in sloth, and enjoyed much ease and prosperity; but when war broke out, and the heat of it began to be felt, these disappeared, and went into their own countries, from whence they came, with the auxiliaries and hired troops; nor could they be found where they were, or be called upon to do their duty: this is true of locusts in a literal sense, who flee away when the sun rises; hence the Arabs, as Bochart says (i) elegantly express this by the word "ascaara"; signifying, that when the sun comes to the locust it goes away, According to Macrobius (k), both Apollo and Hercules are names for the sun; and both these are surnamed from their power in driving away locusts: Hercules was called Cornopion by the Oeteans, because he delivered them from the locusts (l): and Apollo was called Parnopius by the Grecians, because, when the country was hurt by locusts, he drove them out of it, at Pausanias (m) relates; who observes, that they were drove out they knew, but in what manner they say not; for his own part, he says, he knew them thrice destroyed at Mount Sipylus, but not in the same way; one time a violent wind drove them out; another time a prodigious heat killed them; and a third time they perished by sudden cold; and so, according to the text here, the cold sends them to the hedges, and the heat of the sun obliges them to abandon their station.
(e) Vid. Frantzii Hist. Animal. Sacr. par. 5. c. 4. p. 799. (f) Ibid. p. 798. (g) Hist. Animal. l. 10. c. 13. (h) "ut locustae locustarum", Vatablus, Pagninus, Montanus; "sicut locusta locustarum", Burkius. (i) Hierozoic. par. 2. c. 2. col. 458. (k) Saturnal l. 1. c. 17. p. 335. & c. 20. p. 362. (l) Strabo. Geograph. l. 13. p. 422. (m) Attica, sive l. 1. p. 44.
Thy crowned--Thy princes (Revelation 9:7). The king's nobles and officers wore the tiara, as well as the king; hence they are called here "thy crowned ones."
as the locusts--as many as the swarming locusts.
thy captains--Tiphsar, an Assyrian word; found also in Jeremiah 51:27, meaning satraps [MICHAELIS]; or rather, "military leaders" [MAURER]. The last syllable, sar means a "prince," and is found in Belshaz-zar, Nabopolas-sar, Nebuchadnez-zar.
as the great grasshoppers--literally, "as the locust of locusts," that is, the largest locust. MAURER translates, "as many as locusts upon locusts," that is, swarms of locusts. Hebrew idiom favors English Version.
in the hedges in the cold--Cold deprives the locust of the power of flight; so they alight in cold weather and at night, but when warmed by the sun soon "flee away." So shall the Assyrian multitudes suddenly disappear, not leaving a trace behind (compare PLINY, Natural History, 11.29).
Thy crowned - Thy confederate kings and princes. Captains - Commanders and officers are for number, like locusts and grasshoppers; but 'tis all for shew, not for help. In the cool day - While the season suits them. The sun - When trouble, war, and danger, like the parching sun, scald them. Is not known - Thou shalt never know where to find them.
*More commentary available at chapter level.