An Oracle concerning Damascus

1An oracle concerning Damascus.

See, Damascus will cease to be a city,

and will become a heap of ruins.

2Her towns will be deserted for ever;17.2 Cn Compare Gk: Heb the cities of Aroer are deserted

they will be places for flocks,

which will lie down, and no one will make them afraid.

3The fortress will disappear from Ephraim,

and the kingdom from Damascus;

and the remnant of Aram will be

like the glory of the children of Israel,

says the LORD of hosts.

4On that day

the glory of Jacob will be brought low,

and the fat of his flesh will grow lean.

5And it shall be as when reapers gather standing grain

and their arms harvest the ears,

and as when one gleans the ears of grain

in the Valley of Rephaim.

6Gleanings 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,

says the LORD God of Israel.

7On that day people will regard their Maker, and their eyes will look to the Holy One of Israel; 8they will not have regard for the altars, the work of their hands, and they will not look to what their own fingers have made, either the sacred poles17.8 Heb Asherim or the altars of incense.

9On that day their strong cities will be like the deserted places of the Hivites and the Amorites,17.9 Cn Compare Gk: Heb places of the wood and the highest bough which they deserted because of the children of Israel, and there will be desolation.

10For you have forgotten the God of your salvation,

and have not remembered the Rock of your refuge;

therefore, though you plant pleasant plants

and set out slips of an alien god,

11though 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

on a day of grief and incurable pain.

12Ah, the 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!

13The nations roar like the roaring of many waters,

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

chased like chaff on the mountains before the wind

and whirling dust before the storm.

14At evening time, lo, terror!

Before morning, they are no more.

This is the fate of those who despoil us,

and the lot of those who plunder us.