A word with dual possible meanings — either a swarm of locusts or a pit/cistern. Nahum uses it of a locust swarm; Jeremiah uses a related form for pits and cisterns. The dual meaning captures both the devouring swarm and the empty hollow — two images of desolation.
When Nahum describes the Assyrian army as locusts that strip a field and then vanish (Nahum 3:17), he uses gov to portray both the massive destruction and the sudden disappearance of worldly power. The locust, whose Hebrew name spans multiple words in Scripture (arbeh, chasil, gazam, yelek), embodies the judgment of God — stripping away everything. Joel's locust army ('the day of the LORD' judgment) and the locusts of Revelation 9 stand in the same tradition. Yet the same God who sends the locust promises, 'I will restore to you the years that the locust has eaten' (Joel 2:25) — the most stunning reversal in the prophetic library.