16. You have increased your merchants more than the stars of heaven; like the locust they will shed their skin and fly away.
17. Your officials are like locusts; your commanders are like a swarm of locusts. They encamp on the walls on a cold day; when the sun rises, they fly away— no one knows where they have gone.
18. Your shepherds are sleeping, O king of Assyria! Your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains; no one can gather them.
19. There is no healing for your wound; your injury is fatal. All who hear the report of you will clap their hands for joy concerning you, For who has not suffered at the hands of your endless cruelty?