¹⁴Draw water for the siege; strengthen your forts; go into the clay; tread the mortar; take hold of the brick mold!

¹⁵There will the fire devour you; the sword will cut you off. It will devour you like the locust. Multiply yourselves like the locust; multiply like the grasshopper!

¹⁶You increased your merchants more than the stars of the heavens. The locust spreads its wings and flies away.

¹⁷Your princes are like grasshoppers, your scribes like clouds of locusts settling on the fences in a day of cold— when the sun rises, they fly away; no one knows where they are.

¹⁸Your shepherds are asleep, O king of Assyria; your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them.

¹⁹There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you. For upon whom has not come your unceasing evil?