An Oracle Concerning Damascus
1
An 1oracle concerning 2Damascus. Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city and will become a heap of ruins.
2
The cities of 3Aroer are deserted; they will be for flocks, which will lie down, and 4none will make them afraid.
3
The fortress will disappear from 5Ephraim, and the kingdom from 6Damascus; and the remnant of Syria will be like 7the glory of the children of Israel, declares the LORD of hosts.
4
And in that day 8the glory of Jacob will be brought low, and 9the fat of his flesh will grow lean.
5
And it shall be 10as when the reaper gathers standing grain and his arm harvests the ears, and as when one gleans the ears of grain in 11the Valley of Rephaim.
6
12Gleanings 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
13In that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel.
8
14He 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 15Asherim or the altars of incense.
9
16In 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 17you have forgotten the God of your salvation and have not remembered the 18Rock of your refuge; therefore, though you plant pleasant plants and sow the vine-branch of a stranger,
11
though you make them growa on the day that you plant them, and make them blossom in the morning that you sow, yet the harvest will flee awayb in a day of grief and incurable pain.
12
Ah, 19the 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
20The nations roar like the roaring of many waters, 21but he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away, chased 22like chaff on the mountains before the wind and 23whirling dust before the storm.
14
24At 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.
The English Standard Version is published with the permission of Good News Publishers.
(English Standard Version - The Holy Bible Online)