15 The fire will devour you there;
the sword will cut you down.
It will devour you like the young locust.(A)
Multiply yourselves like the young locust;
multiply like the swarming locust!
16 You have made your merchants(B)
more numerous than the stars of the sky.
The young locust strips[a] 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.

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Footnotes

  1. 3:16 Or sheds its skin

15 There (A)fire will consume you,
The sword will cut you down;
It will (B)consume you as the creeping locust consumes a crop.
Multiply yourself like the creeping locust,
Multiply yourself like the migratory locust.
16 You have made your (C)traders more numerous than the stars of heaven—
The creeping locust sheds its skin and flies away.
17 Your (D)courtiers are like the migratory locust.
Your (E)officials are like a swarm of locusts
Settling in the stone shelters on a cold day.
The sun rises and they flee,
And the place where they are is not known.

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