1The message concerning Damascus. “See, Damascus ceases to be a city, and shall become a heap of ruins.

2“The cities of Aro‛ĕr are forsaken, they are for flocks which shall lie down, with no one to frighten.

3“And the stronghold shall cease from Ephrayim, and the reign from Damascus, and the remnant of Aram be as the esteem of the sons of Yisra’ĕl,” declares יהוה of hosts.

4“And in that day it shall be that the esteem of Ya‛aqoḇ wanes, and the fatness of his flesh grows lean.

5“And it shall be as when the harvester gathers the grain, and reaps the heads with his arm. And it shall be as he who gathers heads of grain in the Valley of Repha’im.

6“And gleaning grapes shall be left in it, like the shaking of an olive tree, two or three olives at the top of the uppermost branch, four or five in its most fruit-bearing branches,” declares יהוה Elohim of Yisra’ĕl.

7In that day man shall look to his Maker, and his eyes turn to the Set-apart One of Yisra’ĕl.

8And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands; and he shall not see that which his own fingers made, nor the Ashĕrim nor the sun-pillars.

9In that day his strong cities become like a forsaken forest and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Yisra’ĕl. And it shall become a ruin.

10Because you have forgotten the Elohim of your deliverance, and have not remembered the Rock of your stronghold, therefore you shall plant pleasant plants and set out foreign seedlings,

11by day make your plant to grow, and in the morning make your seed to flourish – but the harvest is a heap in the day of grief and incurable pain.

12Woe to the uproar of many people who make a noise like the roar of the seas, and to the rushing of nations that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters –

13nations rushing like the rushing of many waters. But He shall rebuke them and they shall flee far away, and be chased like the chaff of the mountains before the wind, like whirling dust before the whirlwind.

14At eventide, look! Alarm! Before morning, it is no more. This is the portion of those who plunder us, and the lot of those who rob us.