The Burden Concerning Damascus

1The burden concerning Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

2The cities of Aroer are forsaken: they shall be for flocks, which shall lie down, and none shall make them afraid.

3The fortress also shall cease from Ephraim, and the kingdom from Damascus, and the remnant of Syria: they shall be as the glory of the children of Israel, says the LORD of hosts.

4And in that day it shall come to pass, that the glory of Jacob shall fade, and the fatness of his flesh shall grow lean.

5And it shall be as when the reaper gathers the grain, and reaps the ears with his arm; and it shall be as he that gathers ears in the valley of Rephaim.

6Yet gleaning grapes shall be left in it, as the shaking of an olive tree, two or three berries in the top of the uppermost bough, four or five in its outmost fruitful branches, says the LORD God of Israel.

7At that day shall a man look to his Maker, and his eyes shall have respect for the Holy One of Israel.

8And he shall not look to the altars, the work of his hands, neither shall he respect that which his fingers have made, either the idol poles, or the incense altars.

9In that day shall his strong cities be as a forsaken bough, and an uppermost branch, which they left because of the children of Israel: and there shall be desolation.

10Because you have forgotten the God of your salvation, and have not been mindful of the rock of your strength, therefore shall you plant pleasant plants, and shall set it with imported seedlings:

11In the day shall you make your plant to grow, and in the morning shall you make your seed to flourish: but the harvest shall be a heap of ruins in the day of grief and of desperate sorrow.

12Woe to the multitude of many people, who make a noise like the noise of the seas; and to the rushing of nations, that make a rushing like the rushing of mighty waters!

13The nations shall rush like the rushing of many waters: but God shall rebuke them, and they shall flee far off, and shall be chased as the chaff of the mountains before the wind, and like a rolling thing before the whirlwind.

14And behold at evening time trouble; and before the morning he is no more. This is the portion of them that plunder us, and the lot of them that rob us.