17
Prophecy about Damascus
1 The
1Aoracle concerning
BDamascus.
“Behold, Damascus is about to be
Cremoved from being a city
And will become a
Dfallen ruin.
2 “The cities
1of
AAroer are forsaken;
They will be for
Bflocks
2to lie down in,
And there will be
Cno one to frighten
them. 3 “The
1Afortified city will disappear from Ephraim,
And
2sovereignty from Damascus
And the remnant of Aram;
They will be like the
Bglory of the sons of Israel,”
Declares the Loʀᴅ of hosts.
4 Now in that day the
Aglory of Jacob will
1fade,
And
Bthe fatness of his flesh will become lean.
5 It will be
Aeven like the
1reaper gathering the standing grain,
As his arm harvests the ears,
Or it will be like one gleaning ears of grain
In the
Bvalley of Rephaim.
6 Yet
Agleanings will be left in it like the
1shaking of an olive tree,
Two or three olives on the topmost bough,
Four or five on the branches of a fruitful tree,
Declares the Loʀᴅ, the God of Israel.
7 In that day man will
Ahave regard for his Maker
And his eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel.
8 He will not have regard for the
Aaltars, the work of his hands,
Nor will he look to that which his
Bfingers have made,
Even the
1CAsherim and
2incense stands.
9 In that day
1their strong cities will be like
2forsaken places in the forest,
Or like
3branches which they abandoned before the sons of Israel;
And
4the land will be a desolation.
10 For
Ayou have forgotten the
BGod of your salvation
And have not remembered the
Crock of your refuge.
Therefore you plant delightful plants
And set them with vine slips of a strange god.
11 In the day that you plant it you carefully fence it in,
And in the
Amorning you bring your seed to blossom;
But the harvest will
Bbe a heap
In a day of sickliness and incurable pain.
12 Alas, the uproar of many peoples
AWho roar like the roaring of the seas,
And the rumbling of nations
Who rush on like the
Brumbling of mighty waters!
13 The
Anations rumble on like the rumbling of many waters,
But He will
Brebuke them and they will flee far away,
And be chased
Clike chaff in the mountains before the wind,
Or like whirling dust before a gale.
14 At evening time, behold, there is terror!
Before morning
Athey are no more.
1Such
will be the portion of those who plunder us
And the lot of those who pillage us.