CHAPTER 17
The burden of Damascus. Lo! Damascus shall fail to be a city, and it shall be as an heap of stones in falling.
The forsaken cities of Aroer shall be to flocks; and they shall rest there, and none shall be that shall make afeared.
And help shall cease from Ephraim, and a realm from Damascus; and the remnants of Syria shall be as the glory of the sons of Israel, saith the Lord of hosts.
And it shall be, in that day, the glory of Jacob shall be made thin, and the fatness of his flesh shall fade.
And it shall be as gathering together that that is left in harvest, and his arm shall gather ears of corn, and it shall be as seeking ears of corn in the valley of Rephaim.
And there shall be left in it as a raisin, that is, a little bow, with a little fruit, and as the shaking down of the fruit of olive tree, as of two either of three olive trees in the highness of a branch, either of four or of five; in the tops thereof shall be the fruit thereof, saith the Lord God of Israel.
In that day a man shall be bowed to his maker, and his eyes shall behold to the Holy of Israel.
And he shall not be bowed to the altars, which his hands made, and which his fingers wrought; he shall not behold woods, and [the] temples of idols.
In that day the cities of strength thereof shall be forsaken as plows, and [the] corns that were forsaken of the face of the sons of Israel; and thou shalt be forsaken.
10 For thou hast forgotten God, thy saviour, and haddest not mind on thy strong helper; therefore thou shalt plant a faithful planting, and thou shalt sow an alien seed.
11 In the day of thy planting shall be a wild vine, and early thy seed shall flower; ripe corn is taken away in the day of heritage, and Israel shall make sorrow grievously.
12 Woe to the multitude of many peoples, as the multitude of the sea sounding, and the noise of companies as the sound of many waters.
13 Peoples shall sound as the sound of flowing waters, and God shall blame him; and he shall flee far, and he shall be ravished as the dust of hills [or mountains] from the face of the wind, and as a whirlwind before [the] tempest.
14 In the time of eventide, and lo! troubling; in the morrowtide, and he shall not abide. This is the part of them that destroyed us, and the part of them that ravished us.