It is not clear from the Hebrew exactly what is meant by each of these words that are used to describe certain classes or people in Nineveh. But they all seem to refer to the officialdom of Nineveh.1 Nineveh’s insatiable desire for more riches, more conquests, more domination meant that they grew their government, their commerce, and their officialdom until they were like the stars and like swarms of locusts.2
16 You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust spreads its wings and flies away.