15 The fire will devour you there;

the sword will cut you down.

It will devour you like the young locust.d

Multiply yourselves like the young locust;

multiply like the swarming locust!

16 You have made your merchantse

more numerous than the stars of the sky.

The young locust stripsG the land

and flies away.

17 Your court officials are like the swarming locust,

and your scribes like clouds of locusts,

which settle on the walls on a cold day;

when the sun rises, they take off,

and no one knows where they are.