An Oracle Concerning Damascus
An aoracle concerning bDamascus.
Behold, Damascus will cease to be a city
and will become a heap of ruins.
2 The cities of aAroer are deserted;
they will be for flocks,
which will lie down, and bnone will make them afraid.
3 The fortress will disappear from aEphraim,
and the kingdom from aDamascus;
and the remnant of Syria will be
like bthe glory of the children of Israel,
declares the Lord of hosts.
4 And in that day athe glory of Jacob will be brought low,
and bthe fat of his flesh will grow lean.
5 And it shall be aas when the reaper gathers standing grain
and his arm harvests the ears,
and as when one gleans the ears of grain
in bthe Valley of Rephaim.
6 aGleanings 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 aIn that day man will look to his Maker, and his eyes will look on the Holy One of Israel. 8 aHe 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 bAsherim or the altars of incense.
9 aIn 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 ayou have forgotten the God of your salvation
and have not remembered the bRock of your refuge;
therefore, though you plant pleasant plants
and sow the vine‑branch of a stranger,
11 though you make them grow on the day that you plant them,
and make them blossom in the morning that you sow,
yet the harvest will flee away
in a day of grief and incurable pain.
12 Ah, athe 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 aThe nations roar like the roaring of many waters,
bbut he will rebuke them, and they will flee far away,
chased clike chaff on the mountains before the wind
and dwhirling dust before the storm.
14 aAt 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.