16. You have increased the number of your merchantstill they are more numerous than the stars in the sky,but like locusts they strip the landand then fly away.
17. Your guards are like locusts,your officials like swarms of locuststhat settle in the walls on a cold day –but when the sun appears they fly away,and no one knows where.
18. King of Assyria, your shepherds slumber;your nobles lie down to rest.Your people are scattered on the mountainswith no one to gather them.