¹⁶ You have increased the number of your merchants
    till they are more numerous than the stars in the sky,
but like locusts^(A) they strip the land
    and then fly away.
¹⁷ Your guards are like locusts,^(B)
    your officials like swarms of locusts
    that 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^[a] slumber;^(C)
    your nobles lie down to rest.^(D)
Your people are scattered^(E) on the mountains
    with no one to gather them.