Strongholds, Preparations, and Imperial Networks Vanish

Forts drop like firstripe figs, and a gender insult is not a teaching about women

All thy strong holds shall be like fig trees with the firstripe figs: if they be shaken, they shall even fall into the mouth of the eater. Then the poem says, Behold, thy people in the midst of thee are women: the gates of thy land shall be set wide open, the fire shall devour thy bars. That comparison is an ancient shame-taunt that treats 'women' as a synonym for failed soldiers. It does not teach that women are cowardly, weak, or unfit to defend anyone.

Draw thee waters for the siege, fortify thy strong holds, go into clay, and tread the morter, make strong the brickkiln. The commands mock last-minute industry. There shall the fire devour thee; the sword shall cut thee off. Preparation cannot rescue a system already judged.

Merchants and officers multiply, then vanish like locusts in the sun

Make thyself many as the cankerworm, make thyself many as the locusts. Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven. Thy crowned are as the locusts, and thy captains as the great grasshoppers, which camp in the hedges in the cold day, but when the sun ariseth they flee away, and their place is not known where they are.

Scale looks like safety: trade, court, command. The poem says those networks can lift and disappear. Ordinary workers and civilians are not thereby made targets. The locust words are images of sudden absence, not a zoology lesson or a troop count.