An Oracle Concerning Damascus

17 An soracle concerning tDamascus.

Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city

and will become a heap of ruins.

2  The cities of uAroer are deserted;

they will be for flocks,

which will lie down, and vnone will make them afraid.

3  The fortress will disappear from wEphraim,

and the kingdom from wDamascus;

and the remnant of Syria will be

like xthe glory of the children of Israel,

declares the Lord of hosts.

4  And in that day xthe glory of Jacob will be brought low,

and ythe fat of his flesh will grow lean.

5  And it shall be zas when the reaper gathers standing grain

and his arm harvests the ears,

and as when one gleans the ears of grain

in athe Valley of Rephaim.

6  bGleanings will be left in it,

as when an olive tree is beaten—

two or three berries

in the top of the highest bough,

four or five

on the branches of a fruit tree,

declares the Lord God of Israel.

7 cIn that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel. 8 dHe will not look to the altars, the work of his hands, and he will not look on what his own fingers have made, either the eAsherim or the altars of incense.

9 fIn that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the wooded heights and the hilltops, which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.

10  For gyou have forgotten the God of your salvation

and have not remembered the hRock of your refuge;

therefore, though you plant pleasant plants

and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,

11  though you make them grow1 on the day that you plant them,

and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,

yet the harvest will flee away2

in a day of grief and incurable pain.

12  Ah, ithe thunder of many peoples;

they thunder like the thundering of the sea!

Ah, the roar of nations;

they roar like the roaring of mighty waters!

13  jThe nations roar like the roaring of many waters,

kbut he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,

chased llike chaff on the mountains before the wind

and mwhirling dust before the storm.

14  nAt evening time, behold, terror!

Before morning, they are no more!

This is the portion of those who loot us,

and the lot of those who plunder us.