¹⁴ The Lord Almighty has sworn by himself:^(A)
    I will surely fill you with troops, as with a swarm of locusts,^(B)
    and they will shout^(C) in triumph over you.

“I abhor^(B) the pride of Jacob^(C)
    and detest his fortresses;^(D)
I will deliver up^(E) the city
    and everything in it.^(F)”

²⁵ “I will repay you for the years the locusts^(A) have eaten^(B)—
    the great locust and the young locust,
    the other locusts and the locust swarm^[a]—
my great army^(C) that I sent among you.

¹⁵ Shout^(A) against her on every side!
    She surrenders, her towers fall,
    her walls^(B) are torn down.
Since this is the vengeance^(C) of the Lord,
    take vengeance on her;
    do to her^(D) as she has done to others.^(E)

¹⁵ There the fire^(A) will consume you;
    the sword^(B) will cut you down—
    they will devour you like a swarm of locusts.
Multiply like grasshoppers,
    multiply like locusts!^(C)
16 You have increased the number of your merchants
    till they are more numerous than the stars in the sky,
but like locusts^(D) they strip the land
    and then fly away.
¹⁷ Your guards are like locusts,^(E)
    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.

³ Before them fire^(A) devours,
    behind them a flame blazes.
Before them the land is like the garden of Eden,^(B)
    behind them, a desert waste^(C)—
    nothing escapes them.
⁴ They have the appearance of horses;^(D)
    they gallop along like cavalry.

⁵ Wake up, you drunkards, and weep!
    Wail, all you drinkers of wine;^(D)
wail because of the new wine,
    for it has been snatched^(E) from your lips.
⁶ A nation has invaded my land,
    a mighty army without number;^(F)
it has the teeth^(G) of a lion,
    the fangs of a lioness.
⁷ It has laid waste^(H) my vines
    and ruined my fig trees.^(I)
It has stripped off their bark
    and thrown it away,
    leaving their branches white.